Karla Sofía Gascón made history in 2025 as the first transgender actor to be nominated in any category.
Gascón was nominated for best actress for her performance in “Emilia Pérez,” making her the first trans actor to be nominated for an acting Academy Award.
Troy Kotsur’s best supporting actor win for “CODA” in 2022 made him the first deaf man and the second deaf actor overall to win an Oscar.
In 2022, Kotsur took home the best supporting actor award for his role in “CODA” as supportive, yet stubborn, father Frank Rossi.
In “CODA,” his wife was played by Marlee Matlin, who was the first deaf actor ever to win an Oscar. She won the best actress statue for “Children of a Lesser God.”
Marlee Matlin became both the first deaf person to win an Oscar and the youngest best actress winner when she won for 1986’s “Children of a Lesser God.”
She was 21 at the time of her win.
The youngest winner of best actor was 29-year-old Adrien Brody, who won for “The Pianist” in 2003.
Brody is perhaps one of the most famous victims of the “Oscars curse,” though his career has been on an upswing lately — he was nominated for his second Academy Award this year for his role in “The Brutalist.”
If fellow nominee Timothée Chalamet takes home the Oscar in 2025, the 29-year-old will take Brody’s crown, as he just turned 29 in December, and Brody was close to 30 when he won.
Speaking of Timothée Chalamet, he’s the first actor to be nominated for best actor twice before the age of 30 since James Dean.
Chalamet received his first Oscar nomination in 2018 for his role in “Call Me By Your Name” when he was 23. Seven years later, he was nominated once again for playing Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown” at age 29.
The last time an actor had two best actor nominations to his name before turning 30 was in 1957, when James Dean (posthumously) received two nominations in 1956 and 1957. He died in September 1955 at the age of 24.
In 2022, Ariana DeBose became the first openly queer person of color to win an acting Oscar. She won for “West Side Story.”
DeBose also became the first Afro-Latina woman to win.
In her acceptance speech, she called herself an “openly queer woman of color, an Afro-Latina who found her strength in life through art. And that’s what I believe we’re here to celebrate. Anybody who’s ever questioned your identity ever or find yourself living in the gray spaces? I promise you this: There is indeed a place for us.”
Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro were the only men to win Oscars for playing the same role — Vito Corleone, in “The Godfather” and “The Godfather Part II” — until Joaquin Phoenix took home the Oscar for “Joker.”
Brando portrayed Vito Corleone as an old man with adult children and grandkids, while De Niro played him as a young man who had just emigrated from Italy.
When Joaquin Phoenix won for “Joker,” it marked the second time this happened, as Heath Ledger posthumously won for his performance as the Joker in 2008’s “The Dark Knight.”
Ariana DeBose and Rita Moreno were the first women to win Oscars for playing the same role. They each won for playing Anita in “West Side Story.”
Moreno won for playing Anita in the 1961 film “West Side Story” at the 1962 Oscars. Sixty years later, DeBose took home the Oscar for the same role in Steven Spielberg’s 2021 remake.
Legendary composer John Williams has the most Oscar nominations of any living person, with 54 nods.
Williams has won five times, for his work on “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Jaws,” “Star Wars,” “E.T. the Extra Terrestrial,” and “Schindler’s List.”
He was nominated for the 54th time in 2024 for “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.”
He is also the only person to ever be nominated for an Oscar in seven different decades.
He’s been nominated at least once a decade since his first nomination for 1968’s “Valley of the Dolls.”
His 2023 nomination made the then-90-year-old the oldest nominee ever — he broke his own record one year later.
However, with 22 wins from 59 nominations, Walt Disney is the most decorated Oscar winner in history.
In one night, in 1954, Disney took home the Oscars for best documentary feature for “The Living Desert,” best documentary short subject for “The Alaskan Eskimo,” best short subject (cartoon) for “Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom,” and best short subject (two-reel) for “Bear Country.”
Bong Joon-ho is tied with Walt Disney for most Oscars in a single night. “Parasite” earned him four statues in 2020.
He wrote, directed, and produced “Parasite,” which won awards for best original screenplay, best director, best international feature film, and the most prestigious honor of the night, best picture.
“Parasite” also became the 12th film in history to win best picture without receiving a single acting nod.
The last time this happened was in 2009, with “Slumdog Millionaire.” Here are the other 10 movies this has happened to.
There are two best picture nominees this year that would join this list if they won: “Dune: Part Two” and “Nickel Boys.”
“Parasite” was also the first foreign language film to win best picture. This year, the French film “Emilia Pérez” or the Brazilian film “I’m Still Here” could become the second.
Meryl Streep is the most-nominated actress in Oscar history, with a staggering 21 nominations under her belt. She’s won three times.
Streep has won best actress twice, for “Sophie’s Choice” and “The Iron Lady.” She won best supporting actress for “Kramer vs. Kramer.”
The country that’s taken home best international film the most is Italy, which has produced 14 winners from 33 nominations.
Most recently, Italy won for “The Great Beauty,” or “La grande bellezza” in 2014, directed by Paolo Sorrentino. He was nominated again in 2022 for “The Hand of God,” but lost to Japan’s entry, “Drive My Car.”
According to Guinness World Records, Martin Scorsese is the most nominated living director, after receiving his 10th nomination for “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
Overall, he’s been nominated 10 times for “Raging Bull,” “The Last Temptation of Christ,” “Goodfellas,” “Gangs of New York,” “The Aviator,” “The Departed,” “Hugo,” “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “The Irishman,” and “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
He’s only won once, for “The Departed.”
In 2022, Steven Spielberg became the first person nominated for the best director award in six different decades.
Spielberg’s “West Side Story” earned a best director nod. In total, the movie secured eight nominations, winning one. He was nominated again in 2023 for “The Fabelmans.”
His previous best director nominations were for “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1978), “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981), “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” (1982), “Schindler’s List” (1993), “Saving Private Ryan” (1998), “Munich” (2005), and “Lincoln” (2012). He won for “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan.”
Before “West Side Story,” he and Scorsese shared the record for a director nominated in five decades.
In 2021, Anthony Hopkins took the mantle of oldest winner in an acting category from Christopher Plummer — the then-83-year-old won best actor for “The Father.”
Hopkins’ win was one of the most shocking moments of the night — almost everyone had considered Chadwick Boseman in his final performance a shoo-in.
Hopkins took the record from Plummer, who was 82 when he won for “Beginners” in 2012.
Plummer is still the oldest nominee in an acting category, though. He was 88 when he was nominated for best actor in “All the Money in the World” in 2018.
He was also nominated in 2010 for “The Last Station.”
Plummer died in February 2021 at the age of 91.
But the oldest winner in any category is James Ivory, who was 89 when he took home the Oscar for best adapted screenplay in 2018.
Ivory won for the “Call Me By Your Name” screenplay, based on the novel of the same name by André Aciman.
The youngest person to ever be nominated for an Oscar was 8-year-old Justin Henry for “Kramer vs. Kramer” in 1979.
Henry is now 53 and acts sporadically.
The youngest winner was 10-year-old Tatum O’Neal, who won best supporting actress for “Paper Moon” in 1974.
O’Neal co-starred in “Paper Moon” with her father, Ryan O’Neal.
She continues to act today.
But the true youngest winner is Shirley Temple, who was 6 when she won the Academy Juvenile Award in 1935. This category no longer exists.
Other notable winners in this category included Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Bobby Driscoll, and Margaret O’Brien.
2022 was the first time two couples had been nominated for awards in the same year — their nominations covered the four acting categories.
Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem, who married in 2010, were both nominated: Cruz for best actress in “Parallel Mothers,” and Bardem for best actor for “Being the Ricardos.”
A second couple, Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons, both secured best supporting acting nominations for their roles in “The Power of the Dog.”
Cruz and Bardem lost to Jessica Chastain and Will Smith, while Dunst and Plemons lost to Ariana DeBose and Troy Kotsur.
Three movies are tied for the most wins. “Ben-Hur” (1959), “Titanic” (1997), and “The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King” (2003) all won 11 awards.
“Oppenheimer” was nominated 13 times in 2024, but “only” won seven.
Three movies are also tied for the most nominations with 14 Oscar nods: “All About Eve” (1950), “Titanic” (1997), and “La La Land” (2016).
As previously stated, “Titanic” went on to win 11 awards. “All About Eve” and “La La Land” each took home six statues.
This year’s biggest nominee is “Emilia Pérez,” which earned 13 nominations. However, it can only win 12, since it has two original songs competing against each other.
The longest winner of best picture in Oscars history is 1939’s “Gone With the Wind,” which clocks in at 3 hours, 58 minutes.
That’s even longer than the notoriously long “The Brualist,” “The Irishman” or “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
The most prestigious award of the night is best picture, but it doesn’t always go to the best movie. The worst-reviewed winner, according to Rotten Tomatoes, is 1929 winner “The Broadway Melody.” It has a 33%.
“‘The Broadway Melody’ is interesting as an example of an early Hollywood musical, but otherwise, it’s essentially bereft of appeal for modern audiences,” wrote Rotten Tomatoes.
Last year’s winner, “Oppenheimer,” has a 93% critics score, and a 91% audience score.
The first woman to win the best director award was Kathryn Bigelow in 2009 for “The Hurt Locker.”
Prior to Bigelow, just three women had been nominated for directing: Lina Wertmüller for 1975’s “Seven Beauties,” Jane Campion for 1993’s “The Piano,” and Sofia Coppola for 2003’s “Lost in Translation.”
This year, Coralie Fargeat is the lone woman nominated for best director. She directed “The Substance.”
In 2021, two women were recognized for directing, and winner Chloé Zhao became the first Asian woman — and second woman overall — to take home the award.
She won for “Nomadland.”
In 2021, Jane Campion won the Oscar for best director. She’s the only woman in Oscar history to have been nominated in the category twice.
Her first nomination was for “The Piano” in 1994.
Campion’s 2022 win marks the first year women have won the best director Oscar back-to-back after Chloé Zhao’s win in 2021 for “Nomadland.”
Also in 2021, Steven Yeun became the first Asian American to be nominated for best actor.
While Yeun lost the award to Anthony Hopkins, his nomination for “Minari” was still a record-breaking moment.
Only one movie to win best picture has been rated X: “Midnight Cowboy” (1969).
It was mainly rated X simply because it wasn’t suitable for kids — the “X” rating was almost brand new in 1969 and didn’t have the same connotations as it does today. However, MTV does point out the film has “a fair amount of nudity and some brief scenes of sexual activity.”
When it was later re-rated, it earned an R rating.
Only two sequels have won best picture: “The Godfather Part II” (1974) and “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2003).
In total, 10 sequels have been nominated for Best Picture — “Dune: Part Two,” “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Toy Story 3,” “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,” “The Godfather Part III,” and “The Bells of St. Mary’s,” plus the two winners.
You may be wondering, what about “The Silence of the Lambs”? The Anthony Hopkins/Jodie Foster joint could be considered a sequel to “Manhunter,” but it’s really more of a reboot.
When Cate Blanchett earned an Oscar for playing Katharine Hepburn in 2004’s “The Aviator,” she became the first person to win an Oscar for playing an Oscar winner.
She’s not the only actor to win an Oscar for portraying an icon, but she was the first to win an Oscar for portraying an Oscar winner.
Renée Zellweger became the second when she won for playing Judy Garland in “Judy” in 2020.
Chalamet could become the third this year, for playing Bob Dylan.
Hepburn herself holds the record for most Oscars for acting — she won four times.
Hepburn won in 1933, 1967, 1968, and 1981 for “Morning Glory,” “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” “The Lion in Winter,” and “On Golden Pond,” respectively.
Though, famously, she never attended an awards show to collect her statues in person, per The Hollywood Reporter.
The first Black actor to win an Oscar was Hattie McDaniel in 1939.
McDaniel won the best supporting actress award for “Gone with the Wind,” in which she played Mammy, a role that has since been mired in controversy, per the Jim Crow Museum.
Sidney Poitier became the first Black man to win when he was awarded best actor for “Lilies of the Field” (1963).
Poitier had previously been nominated for his role in 1958’s “The Defiant Ones.”
He died in January 2022 at 94.
With four nominations, Viola Davis is the most Oscar-nominated Black actress in history.
Davis, an EGOT winner, has been nominated four times: twice for best supporting actress for “Doubt” and “Fences” (which she won), and twice for best actress for “The Help” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”
“For me, it’s a reflection of the lack of opportunities and access to opportunities people of color have had in this business. If me, going back to the Oscars four times in 2021, makes me the most nominated Black actress in history, that’s a testament to the sheer lack of material there has been out there for artists of color,” said Davis in a February 2021 interview with Variety.
Octavia Spencer is right behind her with three nominations (“The Help,” “Hidden Figures,” and “The Shape of Water”). Whoopi Goldberg, with two, is the only other Black actress with more than one competitive Oscar (“Ghost” and “The Color Purple”).
Denzel Washington is the most nominated Black actor of all time. With “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” he secured his 10th nomination.
He has been nominated 10 times between 1988 and 2022, earning nods for best supporting actor (“Cry Freedom,” “Glory”), best actor (“Malcolm X,” “The Hurricane,” “Training Day,” “Flight,” “Fences,” “Roman J. Israel, Esq.” and “The Tragedy of Macbeth”), and best picture (“Fences”).
He has won twice: He won best supporting actor for “Glory” in 1990 and best actor for “Training Day” in 2002.
In 2025, songwriter Diane Warren earned her 16th nomination — she’s the most-nominated woman in Oscars history to have never taken home a competitive statue.
Warren was nominated in the best original song category for “The Journey” from the movie “Triple Six Eight” this year.
In 2024, she lost out on a statue following her 15th nomination.
She won an honorary Oscar in 2022, but she still hasn’t taken home a competitive statue.
Only two people have won Oscars posthumously: Heath Ledger for “The Dark Knight” and Peter Finch for “Network.”
Joaquin Phoenix thanked Ledger in his SAG Awards acceptance speech, calling Ledger his “favorite actor” in 2020.
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