It's Oscar time Sunday, and for those of us afflicted with the seasonal disorder known as OOT (Obsession with Oscar Trivia), here are some fun facts and figures about this year's nominees.
—If Lin-Manuel Miranda wins (for best original song, "Encanto"), he will have completed his EGOT sweep — winning Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards — and will become only the 17th person in history to achieve the feat.
—If Judi Dench wins (for best supporting actress, "Belfast"), she'll become the oldest acting winner in academy history. Dench is 87; the current oldest acting winner is Anthony Hopkins, who won best actor last year for "The Father" at the age of 83. (Bonus fact: Dench, who's been nominated eight times, earned all of her nominations after the age of 63.)
—If Troy Kotsur wins (for best supporting actor, "CODA"), he will only be the second actor who is deaf in academy history to receive the honor. Marlee Matlin — who plays his wife in "CODA" — was the first, in 1986 for "Children of a Lesser God."
—If Ariana DeBose wins best supporting actress for her role as Anita in "West Side Story," it will be only the third time in Oscar history that two people have won Oscars for playing the same role in different films. Rita Moreno won in 1961 for playing Anita in the original "West Side Story." Previous actors who've done it: Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro as Vito Corleone, in "The Godfather" and "The Godfather Part II," and Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker in "The Dark Knight" and "Joker."
—If Kenneth Branagh wins (he's nominated in multiple categories for "Belfast" — best picture, director and screenplay), he'll break a long and historic streak: He's been nominated eight times since 1990, in seven different categories — the most categories for any person — and never won.
—Also in the waiting-for-a-win category: If Diane Warren wins the original song category (for "Somehow You Do" from the movie "Four Good Days"), she'll break a streak that began in 1987 and encompasses 13 nominations with no wins. The only living people with more nominations without a win are sound engineer Greg P. Russell (16 nominations) and composer Thomas Newman (15 nominations); neither got a nod this year. The longest Oscar losing streak belonged to sound engineer Kevin O'Connell, who lost 20 times over 24 years before finally winning for his 21st nomination for "Hacksaw Ridge" in 2017.
—Regardless of whether he wins, Steven Spielberg this season became the first director to be nominated across six decades. His first nod came in 1978 ("Close Encounters of the Third Kind"), and he was subsequently nominated in the '80s ("Raiders of the Lost Ark," "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial"), the '90s ("Schindler's List," "Saving Private Ryan"), the '00s ("Munich"), the '10s ("Lincoln") and this year, for "West Side Story."
—With his ninth acting nomination, Denzel Washington likewise joined an exclusive club: actors who have been nominated in five consecutive decades. His nods came in the '80s ("Cry Freedom"), '90s ("Glory," "Malcolm X"), '00s ("The Hurricane," "Training Day"), '10s ("Flight," "Fences," "Roman J. Israel, Esq.") and this year for "The Tragedy of Macbeth." Other actors who've managed the feat: Michael Caine, Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, Laurence Olivier, and Washington's "Macbeth" co-star, Frances McDormand.
—Speaking of Washington, his is the 13th nomination for an actor playing a Shakespearean role (as in, one scripted by Shakespeare; "Shakespeare in Love" doesn't count) and would be only the second to win. Only Olivier (nominated four times for Shakespearean roles) did it previously; winning in 1948 for "Hamlet."
—The animated documentary "Flee," an international film about an Afghan refugee, made Oscar history by being the first film to be nominated simultaneously as a documentary, animated film and international film.
—If Will Smith ("King Richard") and/or Jessica Chastain ("The Eyes of Tammy Faye") win, they would become the third (or third and fourth) actors to win an acting award for a film in which they are a credited producer. The only two previous people to do it: Laurence Olivier ("Hamlet," though the academy back then didn't name producers on best picture winners) and Frances McDormand ("Nomadland").
—And, finally, if "Licorice Pizza" wins best picture (which it most definitely won't, but for trivia purposes let's run with it), it would be the first film with a food item in its title to win the top award. Only a few have even been nominated for best picture: "The Grapes of Wrath," "A Clockwork Orange," "The Cider House Rules," "Chocolat," and "Milk," the latter two of which would make nice titles for a double feature. Happy Oscars, everyone.
