There are always a number of things to love about Oscar nomination morning. A chance to cheer when great movies like “The Shape Of Water” receive a brace of nominations, a chance to curse the heavens with cathartic rage when a favorite is excluded (*shakes fist at sky* “The Florida Project”!!), a chance to celebrate boundaries being broken by filmmakers like Greta Gerwig, Jordan Peele and Dee Rees, and a chance to beam on behalf of great actors like Daniel Kaluuya, Sam Rockwell, Allison Janney and Laurie Metcalf when they receive overdue recognition.
But also, if you’re a great big nerd like us, it’s a chance to dig into some cold hard stats. Every year, we do an Oscar Nominations By The Numbers piece, giving us a chance to wade through all kinds of trivia and the like that we’ve been collecting since the nominations were announced. You can find everything we’ve discovered below: let us know if you have your own favorite fact about this year’s batch (or if you think we got something wrong, which happens very occasionally…) in the comments. And for more Oscar stuff, read the full list of nominees here, nominees’ reactions here, and our collection of the snubs and surprises here.
9 – Total number of Best Picture nominees. Since the Academy switched to a new system where anywhere between five and 10 films could be nominated for the 2012 Oscars, we’ve had nine films four times (in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2017), and eight films twice (in 2015 and 2016).
13 – Most nominations this year, for “The Shape Of Water.” Only two films in the last decade have matched or exceeded that: “La La Land,” which took 14 last year, and “The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button,” which picked up 13 in 2009. Indeed, Guillermo Del Toro’s film becomes only the tenth film to get 13 nods, joining “Gone With The Wind,” “From Here To Eternity,” “Shakespeare In Love,” “Forrest Gump,” “Chicago,” “Mary Poppins,” “Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf,” “The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring” and “The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button.”
2 – The smallest number of Oscar nominations for a Best Picture nominee. That’s for Steven Spielberg’s “The Post,” which only picked up a Best Actress nod for Meryl Streep alongside Best Picture.
5 – The most nominations for a movie without a Best Picture nomination, namely “Blade Runner 2049.” “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” “Baby Driver” and “I, Tonya” all picked up three without the big prize.
8 – The most nominations without an acting nod, for “Dunkirk” (the same number as “Arrival,” which held that title last year, picked up).
2 -The number of triple nominees this year, with Jordan Peele and Guillermo Del Toro both up for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for their films. Peele is only the third filmmaker to manage that feat with his debut feature, and is also the first African-American to do so. Last year, only “La La Land” composer Justin Hurwitz managed the triple.
9 – Number of double nominees this year. Christopher Nolan and Paul Thomas Anderson are nominated in Best Picture and Best Director, Martin McDonagh in Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay, Greta Gerwig in Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, Mary J. Blige is the first woman to be nominated for both Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Song in the same year, Jacqueline Durran is nominated for the costumes for both “Beauty & The Beast” and “Darkest Hour,” while Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer won nods for their Production Design and Set Decoration on the same two films. And in sound, Julian Slater and Ren Klyce got nods on both the mixing and editing side for “Baby Driver” and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” respectively). Last year, Damien Chazelle, Barry Jenkins, Kenneth Lonergan, Denzel Washington and Theodore Melfi all did the double (and the first three all won statues).
3 – Number of acting nominees also nominated last year: Meryl Streep, Octavia Spencer and Denzel Washington all managed two in a row.The latter two become the first African-American performers to land back-to-back nods.
2 – Number of movies with three acting nods: “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” for Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell, and “The Shape Of Water,” for Sally Hawkins, Richard Jenkins and Octavia Spencer. Only “Manchester By The Sea” did the triple last year.
3 – Number of movies with two acting nominations this year: “Lady Bird,” with Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf, “I, Tonya,” for Margot Robbie and Allison Janney, and “Phantom Thread,” with Daniel Day-Lewis and Lesley Manville.
20 – Most nominations for a single studio, which was Fox Searchlight, thanks to “The Shape Of Water” and ‘Three Billboards.’ If you combine Universal and their Focus arm together, they were close behind with 18, thanks to “Phantom Thread,” “Darkest Hour,” “Get Out” and “Victoria & Abdul.”
7 – Number of nominations for streaming giant Netflix, thanks to four for “Mudbound,” plus documentaries “Icarus” and “Strong Island,” plus documentary short “Heroin(e)”. That’s a big uptick from the two they managed last year, suggesting that any anti-Netflix bias is starting to dissipate, and sees them overtake Amazon for the first time: last year, “Manchester By The Sea” and “The Salesman” carried them to a record total of 7, but this year they won just a single nod, for the screenplay for“The Big Sick.”
4 – Number of first-time directing nominees — only Paul Thomas Anderson has a previous nomination, for “There Will Be Blood.” This year’s batch aren’t strangers to Oscar, though: Guillermo Del Toro was nominated for Screenplay and Foreign Language for “Pan’s Labyrinth” and Christopher Nolan has screenplay nods for “Memento” and “Inception,” plus a Best Picture nomination for the latter.
2 – Number of first-time directors nominated (an important distinction to above). Greta Gerwig and Jordan Peele are both nominated for their debut features: the last first-timer to pick up an Oscar nod in this category was Benh Zeitlin in 2013, and the last time there were two debuting directors was in 2000, when Spike Jonze and Sam Mendes were nominated (Mendes was the last first-time filmmaker to win, which might bode well for this year’s pair).
8 – Number of first-time acting nominees this year — Margot Robbie, Timothée Chalamet, Daniel Kaluuya, Mary J. Blige, Leslie Manville, Allison Janney, Laurie Metcalf and Sam Rockwell. That’s one more than last year, when there were seven Oscar freshmen.
6 – Number of previous winners nominated this year: Frances McDormand, Meryl Streep, Denzel Washington, Daniel Day-Lewis, Octavia Spencer and Christopher Plummer. Last year, five previous winners were up for statues.
3 – Most number of acting nominations without a win. Shared by Saoirse Ronan, picking up her third nod at the grand old age of 23 after previous nods for “Atonement” and “Brooklyn,” Willem Dafoe, previously nominated for “Platoon” and “Shadow Of The Vampire,” and Woody Harrelson, for “The People Vs. Larry Flynt” and “The Messenger.” Gary Oldman and Richard Jenkins both picked up second nominations this year.
2 – The number of current EGOT holders to win nominations this year: “Lady Bird” producer Scott Rudin and Robert Lopez, composer of “Remember Me” from “Coco” (he completed his EGOT thanks to the success of “Frozen”).
1 – Nominees this year who are just one award away from the EGOT. That’s Frances McDormand, who already has an Oscar, but needs a Grammy to complete the set.
21 – Total number of nominations received by Meryl Streep after her recognition for “The Post” today. That’s the most of any performer in Oscar history. Denzel Washington picked up his ninth acting nomination today for “Roman J. Israel Esq,” breaking his own record as the most nominated African-American performer (he also won a tenth last year for producing “Fences,” while Daniel Day-Lewis won his sixth nomination this morning, and Frances McDormand her fifth.
88 – Christopher Plummer’s age, making him the oldest ever acting nominee, beating Gloria Stuart for “Titanic” by a few months. He was 82 when he won for “Beginners,” making him the oldest victor in the category. Richard Jenkins is the closest behind, at 70.
9 – Number of days Christopher Plummer took to reshoot Kevin Spacey’s role in “All The Money In The World” at the age of 88. It was barely a month before the film was released.
89 – Agnes Varda’s age, making her the oldest ever Oscar nominee after she picked up a Best Documentary for co-directing “Faces, Places.” Amazingly, James Ivory would have taken that record this year after his “Call Me By Your Name” nomination if he was just eight days older: Varda will turn 90 on May 30th, Ivory on June 7th.
22 – Age of the youngest acting nominee, Timothée Chalamet, a year younger than his closest competition, Saoirse Ronan (Margot Robbie and Daniel Kaluuya are next closest at 27 and 28). He’s the third youngest nominee in the Best Actor category ever, and the youngest in 78 years (Mickey Rooney in “Babes In Arms” in 1939 was 19 when nominated). If he wins, he’ll beat Adrien Brody by seven years to be the youngest winner ever. It’s also the second time in two years the youngest male nominee is younger than the youngest female.
2 – Number of male acting nominees under 30 (Chalamet and Kaluuya)
2 – Number of female acting nominees under 30 (Ronan and Robbie)
0 – Total number of acting nominees in their 30s.
8 – Number of acting nominees who hail from outside the U.S. Sally Hawkins, Daniel Day-Lewis, Daniel Kaluuya, Gary Oldman and Lesley Manville are all British (Day-Lewis has dual citizenship with Ireland), Saoirse Ronan is Irish, Margot Robbie is Australian and Christopher Plummer is Canadian.
4 – Number of minority actors nominated this year — Daniel Kaluuya, Denzel Washington, Octavia Spencer and Mary J. Blige. That’s down from seven minority nominees last year.
0 – Number of acting nominees from ethnicities other than ‘white,’ ‘African-American’ or ‘British-African.’ Still some work to do…
1 – Number of actors in Oscar history nominated for a film directed by a woman of color: Mary J. Blige becomes the first, for Dee Rees’ “Mudbound.”
4 – Black filmmakers nominated for Best Director before Jordan Peele became the fifth today (John Singleton, Lee Daniels, Steve McQueen and Barry Jenkins preceded him).
4 – Female nominees for best director before Greta Gerwig became the fifth today (and the first in eight years). Lina Wertmuller, Jane Campion, Sofia Coppola and Kathryn Bigelow came before her.
1 – Number of trans directors who are now Oscar nominated, thanks to Yance Ford — he became the first openly transgender man to win a nod thanks to his film “Strong Island” today.
