Oscar Nominations by the Numbers: Fun Facts and Shocking Stats

For Oscar buffs -- read "Oscar geeks" -- like me, one of the great thrills of each year's Academy Awards nominations announcement is the opportunity to dig through the eight-plus decades of Oscar record books and investigate. 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.

Sony's American Hustle becomes only the 15th film to score at least one nomination in each of the four acting categories -- and the second David O. Russell film to do so in two 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), Reds (1981) and Silver Linings Playbook (2012).

American Hustle becomes only the second film since Reds (1981) to score nominations for best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay or best original screenplay and in each of the four acting categories. The other: Silver Linings Playbook (2012).

Warner Bros.' Gravity becomes only the sixth film released predominantly in 3D to receive a best picture nomination. The others: Avatar (2009), Up (2009), Toy Story 3 (2010), Hugo (2011) and Life of Pi (2012).

Paramount's Nebraska becomes the eighth predominantly or entirely black-and-white film since 1970 to score a best picture nomination, following The Last Picture Show (1971), Lenny (1974), The Elephant Man (1980), Raging Bull (1980), Schindler's List (1993, won), Good Night, and Good Luck (2005) and The Artist (2011, won).

Gravity becomes only the fifth film to score Oscar nominations in all seven technical Oscar categories: best cinematography, film editing, best original score, production design, best sound editing, best sound mixing and best visual effects. The others: Titanic (1997), Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2002), Avatar (2009), Hugo (2011) and Life of Pi (2012).

Twenty-seven-year-old Megan Ellison (American Hustle and Her) becomes only the fourth producer -- and the first female producer -- to score more than one best picture Oscar nomination in a single year since 1951. The others: Francis Ford Coppola and Fred Roos (1974's The Conversation and The Godfather, Part II) and Scott Rudin (2010's The Social Network and True Grit).

Three perennial nominees who never have won an Oscar will have a shot at breaking their losing streaks this year: 12 Years a Slave's 82-year-old costume designer Patricia Norris scored her sixth nom 35 years after her first; Saving Mr. Banks' composer Thomas Newman is 0-for-11 in years past, but maybe the 12th will be the charm; and Prisoners' cinematographer Roger Deakins is hoping that he will finally win on his 11th try.

Meryl Streep (August: Osage County), with her best actress nomination, extends her record for most nominations by an actor or actress with her 18th. She has scored 15 best actress nominations (winning twice) and three supporting actress nominations (winning once).

Judi Dench (Philomena), with her best actress nomination, has now scored seven acting nominations, all of which have come since she turned 63. No one else has scored anywhere near as many after the age of 60. (Also, six of her seven noms have come in films distributed by Harvey Weinstein.)

Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle), with her best supporting actress nomination, becomes the youngest three-time acting nominee. She is just 23; Teresa Wright was 24 years old when she received her third nomination in 1942.

Amy Adams (American Hustle), with her best actress nomination, has now scored five Oscar nominations in a span of just nine years. This is her first outside the best supporting actress category.

Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips), with his best supporting actor nomination, becomes the first Somali actor to ever receive an Oscar nomination.

June Squibb (Nebraska), with her best supporting actress nomination, becomes that category's third oldest nominee ever, at the age of 84 years and 71 days.

Woody Allen (Blue Jasmine), with his best original screenplay nomination, extends his record for most nominations by a screenwriter. (All 16 of his have come in the original screenplay category.)

Nebraska becomes the 11th predominantly or entirely black-and-white film to score a best cinematography nom since the elimination of the black-and-white cinematography category in 1967. The others: In Cold Blood (1967), The Last Picture Show (1971), Lenny (1974), Raging Bull (1980), Zelig (1983), Schindler's List (1993, won), The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), The White Ribbon (2009) and The Artist (2011).

Alexandre Desplat (Philomena) has now scored six noms for best original score, all within the last eight years.

John Williams (The Book Thief) scores his 44th nomination for best original score, passing the late Alfred Newman to become the category's sole record holder. (Newman still leads Williams for wins, though, nine to five.) Williams has 49 overall nominations, the second most for an individual in Oscar history, trailing only Walt Disney.

It has been a long time since the Academy last nominated Nebraska's Bruce Dern (35 years), Her's Spike Jonze (14 years) and August: Osage County's Julia Roberts (13 years).

Thursday brought the first Oscar nominations for eight of this year's 20 acting nominees: Barkhad Abdi, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Sally Hawkins, Jared Leto, Matthew McConaughey, Steve McQueen, Lupita Nyong'o and June Squibb.

Seven of this year's 20 acting nominees are past winners: Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Sandra Bullock, Judi Dench, Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence and Julia Roberts.

American Hustle's Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence are the only three acting nominees this year who were also nominated last year -- last year Adams was nominated for best supporting actress, Lawrence was nominated for best actress and Cooper was nominated for best lead actor. This year they are all nominated in different categories.

David O. Russell has now received three best director Oscar nominations within a span of just four years: The Fighter (2010), Silver Linings Playbook (2012) and American Hustle. Only 11 other directors ever -- and only one since 1960 -- have matched that hot streak: Lewis Milestone, Frank Capra, Michael Curtiz, John Ford, William Wyler, Sam Wood, Clarence Brown, John Huston, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Billy Wilder and Clint Eastwood.

David O. Russell becomes only the seventh filmmaker to receive directing and writing nominations in consecutive years. The others: Billy Wilder, David Lean, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, John Huston, Richard Brooks and Woody Allen (who did it twice).

Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave), with his best director nomination, becomes just the third black filmmaker to ever receive a nomination in that category. The others: John Singleton (Boyz 'n the Hood) and Lee Daniels (Precious).

Martin Scorsese has now directed more best picture Oscar nominees than any other living director, eight. The Wolf of Wall Street's nom breaks a tie among him, Woody Allen and Steven Spielberg.

Prior to this year, the last time that every best actor nominee came from a best picture-nominated film was 1966.

Hayao Miyazaki (The Wind Rises), with his best animated feature nomination for The Wind Rises, the third of his career, becomes the most nominated person in the category's history.

With its best foreign-language film nomination for The Great Beauty, Italy reduces the margin by which France, which did not score a nom this year, leads it on the tally of most nominated films per country, from 36-27 to 36-28. (If The Great Beauty wins, then Italy will tie France for the most wins for any country, with 13.)

Catherine Martin (The Great Gatsby), with her best costume design and best production design nominations, becomes the second person to receive nominations in those two categories for the same film in the same year on more than one occasion. She previously did so for Moulin Rouge! (2001). The other person: Piero Gherardi, who did so in three different years (1961, 1963 and 1966).

Thomas Newman (Saving Mr. Banks), with his best original score nomination for Saving Mr. Banks, has now accumulated 12 noms in the category -- without having ever won -- and extends the Newman family's record of most nominations for a single family to 88. (His relatives include Alfred Newman, Lionel Newman, Emil Newman, Thomas Newman, David Newman and Randy Newman.)

Robert Lopez (Frozen), a best original song nominee for "Let It Go," will join the elite EGOT club -- a group of people who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony -- if his song wins. The group currently consists of only 11 members: Richard Rodgers, Helen Hayes, Rita Moreno, John Gielgud, Audrey Hepburn, Marvin Hamlisch, Jonathan Tunick, Mel Brooks, Mike Nichols, Whoopi Goldberg and Scott Rudin.

With its best foreign-language film nomination for The Missing Picture, Cambodia becomes the second country to score a nom in that category for a documentary. The other: Waltz with Bashir (2008).

Sandra Bullock has now starred in four films that were nominated for the best picture Oscar, all of which were released within the past nine years: Crash (2005), The Blind Side (2008), Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011) and Gravity.

Leonardo DiCaprio has now starred in seven films that were nominated for the best picture Oscar: Titanic (1997), Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004), The Departed (2006), Inception (2010), Django Unchained (2012) and The Wolf of Wall Street.

Tom Hanks has now starred in seven films that were nominated for the best picture Oscar: Forrest Gump (1994), Apollo 13 (1995), Saving Private Ryan (1998), The Green Mile (1999), Toy Story 3 (2010), Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011) and Captain Phillips.

George Clooney has now starred in six films that were nominated for the best picture Oscar: The Thin Red Line (1998), Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), Michael Clayton (2007), Up in the Air (2009), The Descendants (2011) and Gravity.

Paramount's The Wolf of Wall Street becomes the movie with the most uses of the word "f---" to receive an Oscar nomination -- no other film, let alone Oscar-nominated film, has ever featured more than its 522.

In the 86 years in which the best picture category has existed, only 11 films have won that prize without scoring at least one acting nomination: Wings (1927/1928), All Quiet on the Western Front (1929/1930), Grand Hotel (1931/1932), An American in Paris (1951), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), Around the World in Eighty Days (1956), Gigi (1958), The Last Emperor (1987), Braveheart (1995), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) and Slumdog Millionaire (2008). That is bad news for the best picture prospects of only one of the nine best picture nominees: Her.

In the 86 years in which the best cinematography category has existed, only 31 films have won best picture without also being nominated for best cinematography -- one of which was Argo last year. That is bad news for all of the best picture nominees except Gravity and Nebraska.

In the 79 years in which the best film editing category has existed, only nine films have won best picture without being nominated for best film editing -- none since Ordinary People (1980) 33 years ago. That is bad news for the best picture prospects of Her, Nebraska, Philomena and The Wolf of Wall Street.

Categories for story and/or screenplay have existed for all 86 years of Oscar history. In the past 58 years, only two films have won best picture without also being nominated for one of them -- The Sound of Music (1965) and Titanic (1997) 14 years ago. That is bad news for the best picture prospects of only one of the nine best picture nominees: Gravity.

Of the 10 films nominated for the PGA Award -- which was a fairly accurate predictor of the best picture Oscar under the Academy's old voting system -- eight were also nominated for the best picture Oscar. The PGA nominated two films that the Academy did not (Blue Jasmine and Saving Mr. Banks), and the Academy nominated one film that the PGA did not (Philomena).

Of the 10 films nominated for the Broadcast Film Critics Association's Critics' Choice Award for best picture -- another fairly accurate predictor of the best picture Oscar under the Academy's previous voting system -- eight were also nominated for the best picture Oscar. The BFCA nominated two films that the Academy did not (Inside Llewyn Davis and Saving Mr. Banks) and the Academy nominated one film that the BFCA did not (Philomena).

The SAG Awards' ensemble nominations, which have an iffy track record of predicting best picture Oscar nominations, corresponded with only three this year. The two that differed? SAG nominated August: Osage County and Lee Daniels' The Butler, which the Academy did not.

The SAG Awards' acting nominations -- which corresponded with 19 of 20, 17 of 20 and 14 of 20 of the Academy's nominees over the past three years, respectively -- corresponded with 14 of 20 this year. The only discrepancies: SAG nominated Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips), Forest Whitaker (Lee Daniels' The Butler), Emma Thompson (Saving Mr. Banks), Daniel Bruhl (Rush), James Gandolfini (Enough Said) and Oprah Winfrey (Lee Daniels' The Butler), whom the Academy replaced with Christian Bale (American Hustle), Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street), Amy Adams (American Hustle), Bradley Cooper (American Hustle), Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street) and Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine).

The Golden Globe Awards' acting nominees (10 lead actors and lead actresses and five supporting actors and supporting actresses) -- which corresponded with 15 of 20, 15 of 20 and 16 of 20 of the Academy's nominees over the past three years, respectively -- corresponded with 19 of 20 this time. The only Oscar nominee who was not also a Globe nominee: Hill.

Hill becomes just the 18th of 260 actors or actresses since 2001 to score an Oscar nomination without having received either a SAG or Globe nom en route to the big show.

Hanks, Thompson and Bruhl become just the 20th, 21st and 22nd of 260 actors or actresses since 2001 to score both SAG and Globe nominations but not an Oscar nom.

Of the nine best picture nominees, zero were released during the spring or summer, eight were released during the fall (Gravity on Oct. 3, Captain Phillips on Oct. 10, 12 Years a Slave on Oct. 17, Dallas Buyers Club on Nov. 1, Nebraska on Nov. 15, Philomena on Nov. 22, American Hustle on Dec. 12 and Her on Dec. 18) and one was released during the winter (The Wolf of Wall Street on Dec. 25).

Twitter: @ScottFeinberg