The 91st Academy Awards are special for a lot of nominees.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominations for 91st Oscar Awards on Tuesday. Alfonso Cuaron's Roma and director Yorgos Lanthimos' period drama The Favourite lead the pack with 10 nominations each including the Best Picture.
Actor-comedian and Oscar-nominated writer Kumail Nanjiani and actress–producer–director Tracee Ellis Ross announced the nominations from the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in Los Angeles.
Academy members from each of the 17 branches vote to determine the nominees in their respective categories – actors nominate actors, film editors nominate film editors, etc. In the Animated Feature Film and Foreign Language Film categories, nominees are selected by a vote of multi-branch screening committees. All voting members are eligible to select the Best Picture nominees.
Active members of the Academy are eligible to vote for the winners in all 24 categories beginning Tuesday, February 12, through Tuesday, February 19.
This year's nominees come with their own uniqueness and some even managed to create or brake records. Let's take a look at what fun facts now will be associated with Black Panther, Lady Gaga, and costume designer Sandy Powell.
1. Black Panther
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Black Panther is the first comic book-based film to earn a Best Picture nomination. Skippy, nominated for Outstanding Production at the 4th Academy Awards, was based on a comic strip.
2. A Star Is Born
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A Star Is Born is the fourth film version to receive Academy Award nominations, for a total of 26 nominations. The acting nominations for Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga are the third for both the lead characters (after Fredric March and Janet Gaynor in 1937, and James Mason and Judy Garland in 1954).
3. Roma
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With ten nominations, Roma has tied the record held by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) for the most nominations received by a foreign language film. It is the tenth foreign language film nominated for Best Picture. Roma is the fifth film to be nominated for both Foreign Language Film and Best Picture in the same year. Each of the previous four (Z, 1969; Life Is Beautiful, 1998; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 2000; Amour, 2012) won for Foreign Language Film but not Best Picture.
4. Alfonso Cuaron
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Director Alfonso Cuarón is the fourth person to receive four nominations in four different award categories for the same film. Warren Beatty did so twice, with Best Picture, Directing, Leading Actor and Writing nominations for Heaven Can Wait (1978) and Reds (1981). Ethan Coen and Joel Coen received nominations for Best Picture, Directing and Writing and shared a nomination for Film Editing under the pseudonym Roderick Jaynes for No Country for Old Men (2007). Alan Menken received four nominations in two Music categories for Beauty and the Beast (1991).
5. Cold War and Roma
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For the first time, two directors of films nominated in the Foreign Language Film category (Paweł Pawlikowski, Cold War and Alfonso Cuarón, Roma) have received Directing nominations.
6. Bradley Cooper
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Bradley Cooper is the fifteenth person to direct himself to an acting nomination and the ninth to do so on his feature film directing debut.
7. Regina King
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In the acting categories, eight individuals are first-time nominees (Yalitza Aparicio, Olivia Colman, Marina de Tavira, Adam Driver, Sam Elliott, Richard E. Grant, Regina King, Rami Malek). Five of the nominees are previous acting winners (Mahershala Ali, Christian Bale, Sam Rockwell, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz). Two were also nominated for acting last year (Willem Dafoe, Sam Rockwell).
8. Yalitza Aparicio
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Yalitza Aparicio is the second actress nominated for a debut performance in a spoken language other than English. The first was Catalina Sandino Moreno, nominated for her leading role in Maria Full of Grace (2004).
9. Lady Gaga
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Lady Gaga is the second person to receive acting and song nominations for the same film. Mary J. Blige was the first, with her nominations for Mudbound last year.
10. Black and White Cinematography
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The Cinematography nominations for Cold War and Roma mark the first time since 1966 that two black-and-white films have been nominated in the category in a single year. Since 1967, when the Academy eliminated a separate award category for black-and-white cinematography, there have been 15 black-and-white films nominated for Cinematography.
11. Sandy Powell
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Sandy Powell (Mary Poppins Returns, The Favourite) has the most nominations for Costume Design of any living person with 14. The overall record in the category belongs to Edith Head with 35 nomination
