IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Oscar fans, get your fill of fun facts, shocking stats

For Oscar buffs -- read "Oscar nerds" -- like myself, one of the great thrills of each year's Academy Awards nominations announcement is the opportunity that it creates to dig through the eight-plus decades of Oscar record books and investigate which stats, if any, have been tied or broken.There's no way to truly compare the classics of yesteryear with the finest films of today, but, in a weird wa

For Oscar buffs -- read "Oscar nerds" -- like myself, one of the great thrills of each year's Academy Awards nominations announcement is the opportunity that it creates to dig through the eight-plus decades of Oscar record books and investigate which stats, if any, have been tied or broken.

There's no way to truly compare the classics of yesteryear with the finest films of today, but, in a weird way, this allows us to do something like that -- and, while that's not particularly useful, it sure is a blast to do! So, without further ado, here are the fun factoids and shocking stats that I've come up with about the new crop of Oscar nominees.

2013 Oscar nominees

Slideshow  17 photos

2013 Oscar nominees

Can "Argo" make up for its best director snub by beating "Lincoln" for best picture? Will 85-year-old Emmanuelle Riva be the oldest best actress winner ever? The Academy Awards competition is going right down to the wire this year.

PHOTOS: Academy Award Nominees 2013 

-- The Weinstein Co.'s "Silver Linings Playbook" becomes only the 14th film to ever receive at least one Oscar nomination in each of the four acting categories, and the first to do so in 31 years. The others: "My Man Godfrey” (1936), “Mrs. Miniver” (1942), “For Whom the Bell Tolls” (1943), “Johnny Belinda” (1948), “Sunset Blvd.” (1950), “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1951), “From Here to Eternity” (1953), “Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (1966), “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967), “Guess Who's Coming to Dinner” (1967), “Network” (1976), “Coming Home” (1978) and “Reds” (1981).

-- Universal's “Les Miserables” becomes the first musical to receive a best picture Oscar nomination since “Chicago” (2002) a decade ago.

-- 20th Century Fox's “Life of Pi” becomes only the fifth film released predominately in 3-D to receive a best picture Oscar nomination. The others: “Avatar” (2009), “Up” (2009), “Toy Story 3” (2010) and “Hugo” (2011).

-- 20th Century Fox's “Life of Pi” becomes only the fourth film to score Oscar nominations in all seven technical Oscar categories: best cinematography, film editing, best original score, best sound editing, best sound mixing and best visual effects. The others: “Titanic” (1997), “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” (2002) and “Hugo” (2011) -- two of which were also set at sea!

-- Sony's “Zero Dark Thirty,” which was directed by Kathryn Bigelow, becomes the 11th best picture Oscar nominee directed or co-directed by a woman. The other 10: Randa Haines' “Children of a Lesser God” (1986), Penny Marshall's “Awakenings” (1990), Barbra Streisand's “The Prince of Tides” (1991), Jane Campion's “The Piano” (1993), Sofia Coppola's “Lost in Translation” (2003), Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris' “Little Miss Sunshine” (2006), Danny Boyle and Loveleen Tandan's “Slumdog Millionaire” (2008), Lone Scherfig's “An Education” (2009) and Bigelow's own “The Hurt Locker” (2009), which is the only one of the lot that ended up winning.

-- Quvenzhane Wallis (“Beasts of the Southern Wild”), who is nine years old, becomes the youngest best actress Oscar nominee in history, breaking the record previously held by Keisha Castle-Hughes (“Whale Rider”), who was 13 when she was nominated for “Whale Rider” (2003). The only two people younger than Wallis to ever receive an acting Oscar nomination were Jackie Cooper, who was also nine  -- but a few days younger than Wallis is -- when he became a best actor nominee for “Skippy” (1931), and Justin Henry, who was eight when he became a best supporting actor nominee for “Kramer vs. Kramer” (1979).

-- Emmanuelle Riva (“Amour”), who is 85 years old, becomes the oldest best actress Oscar nominee in history, breaking the record previously held by Jessica Tandy, who was 80 when she was nominated -- and won -- for “Driving Miss Daisy” (1989). The only person older than Riva to ever receive an acting Oscar nomination was Gloria Stuart, who was 87 when she became a best supporting actress nominee for “Titanic” (1997).

-- Greg P. Russell (“Skyfall”), a veteran sound mixer, received his 16th best sound mixing Oscar nomination. He has yet to win. (Only one person -- his former mixing partner Kevin O'Connell, has received more nominations without winning: 20.)

-- Alan Arkin (“Argo”), a best supporting actor nominee, becomes the male actor with the longest span of time between his first and last acting Oscar nomination -- his first nomination came 46 years ago for “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming” (1966), and he's obviously still in a position to extend his record! The male record was previously held by Henry Fonda, who had a 41-year span. The overall record is held by Katharine Hepburn, who had a 48-year span.

-- An unprecedented three Australians are among this year's acting Oscar nominees: Hugh Jackman (“Les Miserables”), Naomi Watts (“The Impossible”) and Jacki Weaver (“Silver Linings Playbook”).

-- For the first time in history all five nominees from one of the acting categories -- in this case, best supporting actor (“Argo”'s Alan Arkin, “Skyfall”'s Javier Bardem, “Silver Linings Playbook”'s Robert De Niro, “The Master”'s Philip Seymour Hoffman, “Lincoln”'s Tommy Lee Jones, “Django Unchained”'s Christoph Waltz) -- are previous Oscar winners.

-- Kathleen Kennedy and Steven Spielberg, two of the producers of “Lincoln,” extend their record number of best picture Oscar nominations -- most of which came for films on which they collaborated -- from seven to eight. (Spielberg won 19 years ago for “Schindler's List"; “Kennedy” has yet to win.)

-- Several of this year's nominees were also Oscar-nominated last year: best picture nominee George Clooney (“Argo”) was nominated last year in the best actor category for “The Descendants”; best actress nominee Jessica Chastain (“Zero Dark Thirty”) was nominated last year in the best supporting actress category for "The Help"; best original score nominee John Williams (“Lincoln”) was nominated last year in the same category for “The Adventures of Tintin” and “War Horse”; best production design nominee Rick Carter (“Lincoln”) was nominated last year in the same category (then called best art direction) for “War Horse”; and best sound mixing nominee Greg P. Russell (“Skyfall”) was nominated last year in the same category for "Transformers: Dark of the Moon."

-- Daniel Day-Lewis (“Lincoln”) becomes the second person to receive a best actor Oscar nomination for portraying Pres. Abraham Lincoln -- the other was Raymond Massey, who was nominated 72 years ago for “Abe Lincoln in Illinois” (1940) -- and the fifth person to receive a best actor Oscar nomination for portraying any U.S. president. The others, in addition to him and Massey: James Whitmore in “Give 'em Hell, Harry!” (1975), Anthony Hopkins in "Nixon" (1995) and Frank Langella in “Frost/Nixon” (2008).

-- Quvenzhane Wallis (“Beasts of the Southern Wild”) becomes the 74th actor or actress to receive an acting Oscar nomination for his or her big screen debut, and only the 17th to receive a nomination in the best actress category for a rookie performance. The others: Greer Garson for “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” (1939), Martha Scott for “Our Town” (1940), Shirley Booth for “Come Back, Little Sheba” (1952), Julie Harris for “The Member of the Wedding” (1952), Maggie McNamara for “The Moon Is Blue” (1953), Julie Andrews for “Mary Poppins” (1964), Elizabeth Hartman for “A Patch of Blue” (1965), Barbra Streisand for “Funny Girl” (1968), Jane Alexander for “The Great White Hope” (1970), Diana Ross for “Lady Sings the Blues” (1972), Julie Walters for “Educating Rita” (1983), Marlee Matlin for “Children of a Lesser God” (1986), Emily Watson for “Breaking the Waves” (1996), Keisha Castle-Hughes for “Whale Rider” (2003), Catalina Sandino Moreno for “Maria Full of Grace” (2004) and Gabourey Sidibe for “Precious” (2009).

-- “The Gatekeepers,” an Israeli Hebrew-language documentary, becomes one of the few films not predominately in the English-language to receive a best documentary feature Oscar nomination. The others include: “The Sorrow and the Pity” (1969), “Chariots of the Gods” (1970), “The Last Days” (1998) and several early docs about the Olympics.

-- Amy Adams (“The Master”) becomes only the eighth person to have received at least four best supporting actress Oscar nominations. Adams, whose noms have all come within seven years, joins Ethel Barrymore, Lee Grant, Agnes Moorehead, Geraldine Page, Maggie Smith and Maureen Stapleton, who never received another nom in the category after their fourth, and Thelma Ritter, who bagged two more. None of Adams' noms have resulted in a win yet, but she should be heartened by the fact that all but two of the other members of the 4+ Club -- Moorehead and Ritter -- wound up winning at least one Oscar.

-- It has been a long time since the Academy last nominated "Lincoln's" Sally Field (28 years ago for "Places in the Heart"), “Silver Linings Playbook”'s Robert De Niro (21 years ago for “Cape Fear”), Helen Hunt (15 years ago for “As Good As It Gets”), Flight's Denzel Washington (11 years ago for "Training Day") and “The Impossible's" Naomi Watts (nine years ago for “21 Grams”).

-- Thursday brought the first Oscar nominations for Bradley Cooper (“Silver Linings Playbook”), Michael Haneke (“Amour”), Hugh Jackman (“Les Miserables”), Emmanuelle Riva (“Amour”), Quvenzhane Wallis (“Beasts of the Southern Wild”) and Benh Zeitlin (“Beasts of the Southern Wild”).

Related content: