By Andrew Dalton, Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --A descending look at the numbers behind Tuesday's nominations for the 95th Academy Awards.
90: Age of John Williams, nominated for best original score for "The Fabelmans."
The composer's latest nomination makes him the oldest person ever to be nominated for a competitive Oscar. Director Agnès Varda and screenwriter James Ivory were each 89 years old when they were nominated in 2017. Williams' nomination is his 53rd — 48 for score and five for original song — putting him second all time to Walt Disney. He has won five, though none since 1994.
42: Years between Oscar nominations for Judd Hirsch.
That breaks a record of 41 years that was long held by Henry Fonda. Hirsch got his first supporting actor nod for "Ordinary People" in 1981, and after a long career mostly in television he gets his second, in the same category, for "The Fabelmans" at age 87.
16: First time-nominees in the acting categories.
The 20 people in the four Oscar acting categories range from relative newbies like Paul Mescal and Stephanie Hsu to screen stalwarts like Jamie Lee Curtis and Brendan Gleeson. Those four and 12 others received their first career nominations. All five men in the best actor category are first-timers, after all five were repeat nominees last year.
14: Career nominations for Diane Warren.
The songwriter remains a nomination machine with her best original song nod for "Applause" from "Tell it Like a Woman." It's the sixth straight year she's been nominated. She got her first nod in 1987. Her competitive Oscar count, however, remains zero, and she's not among the favorites this year with Rihanna and Lady Gaga in the mix. She was, at least, given an honorary Oscar in November.
13: All-time nominations for Poland for best international feature.
With "EO," the European country continues an especially strong showing in the international feature category. Poland was in danger of becoming the Diane Warren of nations until "Ida" won in 2014. "EO" is also part of a big year for donkeys in film. Major nominees "The Banshees of Inisherin" and "Triangle of Sadness" also feature the creatures in prominent ways.
9: Career best director nominations for Steven Spielberg.
His nod for "The Fabelmans" puts him in rarefied company, but is not a record — that goes to William Wyler with 12. Spielberg has won the prize twice. He has been nominated 12 times as a producer of a best picture candidate, winning once, and this year gets his first nomination as a screenwriter, for co-writing "The Fabelmans" with Tony Kushner.
8: Non-English-language films ever to be nominated for both international feature and best picture.
Germany's "All Quiet on The Western Front" became the latest to pull off the nomination double. All seven of its predecessors have won the international feature Oscar but only one, "Parasite," in 2020, also won best picture.
7: Non-white actors receiving nominations.
It was an especially strong year for actors of Asian descent, with a record four getting nominations: Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Hsu for "Everything Everywhere All at Once," and Hong Chau for "The Whale."
6: Ways Alfonso Cuarón has been nominated for Oscars.
Few knew the Oscar perennial behind "Roma" and "Gravity" was even Academy Award-eligible this year, but he got his first nomination in the short film category for "Le Pupille," after previous nominations as a producer, director, editor, writer and cinematographer.
5: Writers credited for "Top Gun: Maverick."
With a story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks and a screenplay by Ehren Kruger and Eric Warren, it'll be a crowded stage at the Dolby Theatre on March 12 if the surprise nominee in the best adapted screenplay category pulls off a surprise win.
4: Duos in history nominated for best director.
The "Daniels," Kwan and Scheinert, become the fourth pair to get the honor with their nomination for "Everything Everywhere All at Once." Two of the three previous teams have won. Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise were nominated and won for co-directing the original "West Side Story" in 1962. Joel and Ethan Coen were nominated, and won, for co-directing "No Country for Old Men" in 2008, and got another nom for "True Grit" three years later. And actor Warren Beatty and screenwriter Buck Henry were jointly nominated for best director in 1979 for "Heaven Can Wait."
3: Best picture nominees that earned more than $100 million at the North American box office.
Blockbusters are back in the running for Oscar's top honor, with "Top Gun: Maverick,""Avatar: The Way of Water," and "Elvis" getting nominations — reversing a trend of increasingly smaller and straight-to-streaming films dominating the category.
2: Career nominations for Ryan Coogler.
The "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" director joins a rare group that has been nominated both as a producer for best picture — as he was for "Judas and the Black Messiah" in 2020 — and as a writer of a best original song — as he was for Rihanna's "Lift Me Up" this year. Others to pull off this double include Quincy Jones, Spike Jonez, Barbara Streisand, and Fran Walsh, who became the only person to win in both categories, for "The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King," in 2004.
1: Lifetime Oscar nomination for blockbuster producer Jerry Bruckheimer.
The 79-year-old behind "Flashdance," "Con Air" and "The Pirates of the Caribbean" has his first shot at a statuette with the best picture nomination of "Top Gun: Maverick."
0: Women nominated for best director.
After a couple of years of trend-bucking with back-to-back wins for women in the category, the Academy is back to its historic norm of nominating only men for best director.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More