Better than him only the unattainable (for now) Walt Disney. At 91, maestro John Williams is on his 53rd Oscar nomination and becomes the most nominated living person for an Academy Award, this time for music by The Fabelmans Of Steven Spielberg. The American conductor and composer won five statuettes between 1972 and 1994 and who knows if the legend of soundtracks won a sixth, thus becoming the oldest artist to win a “competitive” Oscar (therefore not career).
Walt Disney: 26 Oscars, 59 nominations and seven “dwarf” statuettes
We were saying that only the master of animation has done more than him who, between 1941 and 1962, had 22 consecutive nominations. Considered among the greatest filmmakers of all time, the director and entrepreneur has won 26 Oscars, including 3 honorary and an “Irving G. Thalberg” Memorial Award. But of all the awards the unforgettable one remains the Oscar delivered at the 1937 ceremony, when the baby star Shirley Temple presented Walt Disney with an honorary Oscar for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, a very special award that consisted of a bigger Oscar along with seven “dwarf” statuettes. If John Williams is the most nominated living artist under him, there is another composer, now deceased, Alfred Newman who with his 43 nominations is placed below his colleague but holds another record: nine victories including those for the soundtracks of The king and I And Camelot.
Three films tied on the podium: the record is 11 Oscars
There are three films that have made Oscar history, three titles that have collected all three 11 awards, the record. I’m the classic Ben-Hur the peplum with Charlton Heston from 1959, the cult Titanic (1997) and The Lord of the Rings (2003), while on the nomination front there is another trio who hold a record 14 nominations: Eve against Eve Of Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1950), always Titanic Of James Cameron and the musical La La Land (2016) by Damien Chazelle which, however, made the thud in the night of the stars. Given for winning (complete with the wrong envelope) in the end she took home “only” six statuettes, including best actress Emma Stone, and Best Director to Chazelle. Who remains – and this is a record that still stands – the youngest director to be awarded an Academy Award.
Meryl Streep, the thousand faces of the record-breaking actress. “My role model? The Italians”
Clare Ugolini
The queens of the Oscars: from Katharine Hepburn to Meryl Streep
In terms of interpretations, the queens are certainly two: Meryl Streep who holds the record for nominations (21), a shocking figure far from any other male or female colleague (after her there are Katharine Hepburn And Jack Nicholson, but with the very distant figure of 12 nominations) and precisely Katharine Hepburn who, although in her long career she has never gone to collect one, has won four. For Morning glory (1934), Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? (1968), The Lion in Winter (1969) and On the golden lake (1982). She only once she attended the Oscar ceremony and not to celebrate herself and her work, but to pay tribute to her historic producer Lawrence Weingarten with the Thalberg Award. Three statuettes of her conquered a rather large number of interpreters: Walter Brennan (western character), Ingrid Bergman, Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, Daniel Day-Lewis And Frances McDormand. A list that would be getting longer this year if Cate Blanchett (applicant for Tar) turn her seventh nomination into recognition for her controversial conductor in Todd Field’s film.
The youngest and the oldest, when talent is not a matter of age
The youngest actresses to win an Oscar were Tatum O’Neal (10 years) for Paper Moon in 1973 and Anna Paquin (11 years) for Piano lessons, twenty years later, both as best supporting actresses. On the male front, however, the disputed child of Kramer versus Kramer Justin Henry in 1980 he won the Oscar for best supporting actor and was only eight years old.
There is among the older ones Clint Eastwood who is the oldest director to win an Oscar, at 74 with Million dollar babywho knows if this year Steven Spielberg will he beat him? He is 76. The most agée actor to have held the statuette for best leading actor in his hands is Anthony Hopkins (who did not go to the ceremony) but won for The fatherwhile on the best supporting actor front there is Christopher Plummer which he won at age 82 for Beginners.
The most experienced actress (let’s put it this way) who has won an Oscar is Jessica Tandythe wonderful Miss Daisy who was led by Morgan Freeman in the 1990 film, was 80 years old when she won, 6 years older than Katharine Hepurn on the Golden lake. The proof that actresses of a certain age find it hard to give important roles is the fact that the third most “oldest” (we don’t want to imagine what she would say if she read her) is Frances McDormand, 63 years for Nomadland. James Ivory remains the oldest artist to win in any category thanks to the statuette won at 89 for screenplay by Call me by your name Of Luca Guadagnino at the age of 89 years. If John Williams does the feat there will be a new record to break. We wish it to the master of unforgettable soundtracks from Star Wars to Indiana Jonesfrom Harry Potter to Jurassic Park.
James Ivory: “Here’s How I Wrote ‘Call Me By Your Name'”
by Chiara Ugolini