Every year, statistics geeks and record-book keepers have a field day with the Oscar nominations announcement, as the list is scoured for unique anomalies, imposing numbers and ways in which history — however obscurely — may have been made. And this year brought its share of records that have been extended, runs that have been broken and any number of trivia bits and bobs. Let’s check out a few of them after the jump.
– Meryl Streep extends her long-standing record as the most-nominated actor in Oscar history: her Best Actress nod for “August: Osage County” is her 18th overall, six ahead of her nearest challenger.
– Still, she’s never catching up with composer John Williams, who scored his 49th nod today for “The Book Thief.” That’s a record among living individuals, and 10 away from Walt Disney’s all-time record.
– Woody Allen, meanwhile, extends his record for Best Original Screenplay nominations, scoring his 16th for “Blue Jasmine.”
– Like “Silver Linings Playbook” last year, “American Hustle” scored nods in all four acting categories — only the 15th film of Oscar history to do so.
– All four of those actors, meanwhile, have previously been nominated for David O. Russell films.
– From that quartet, Amy Adams scored her fifth nomination in nine years, and her first in the Best Actress category.
– This is the first year since 1994 that the Best Actress category features no first-time nominees. Adams is the lone non-winner in the group.
– “The Wolf of Wall Street” is the fifth of Martin Scorsese’s last six films to score nods for Best Picture and Director, and landed Scorsese his 12th career nomination.
– Roger Deakins landed his 11th nomination for “Prisoners” today — he is the most nominated living cinematographer never to have won.
– “The Great Beauty” is Italy’s 29th nominee for Best Foreign Language Film — second only to France — and its first since 2005.
– Cambodia’s “The Missing Picture” is only the second documentary to be nominated in the foreign-language category — and certainly the first to enacted by clay puppets.
– Spike Jonze has now been nominated in four different Oscar categories — his Best Picture, Original Screenplay and Original Song nomination for “Her” join his 1999 Best Director nod for “Being John Malkovich.”
– At just 27, Megan Ellison becomes only the fourth producer to land two Best Picture nominations in a single year, for “Her” and “American Hustle.” (The others include Francis Ford Coppola and Scott Rudin.)
– After John Singleton and Lee Daniels, Steve McQueen becomes only the third black filmmaker to receive a Best Director nod — and the first of non-US origin.
– Three actors of African parentage are nominated this year: Chiwetel Ejiofor (Nigerian), Lupita Nyong’o (Kenyan) and Barkhad Abdi (Somalian).
– “Despicable Me 2” is nominated for Best Animated Feature where its predecessor was not — a first in the category.
– Meanwhile, Pixar’s only two misses in the category — “Cars 2” and, today, “Monsters University” — have been sequels to nominated films.
– Thomas Newman and Alexandre Desplat score their 12th and sixth Best Original Score nods, respectively. Both men are awaiting their first win.
– With the nominee for “20 Feet From Stardom” still unconfirmed, three women — Signe Byrge Sorenson, Lydia Dean Pilcher and Jehane Noujaim — are nominated for Best Documentary Feature.
– Bruno Delbonnel’s cinematography nomination for “Inside Llewyn Davis” pits him against two DPs — Emmanuel Lubezki and Roger Deakins — who have previously shot films for the Coen Brothers.