HOLLYWOOD: Here is a selection of interesting and offbeat facts about the 86th Academy Awards, taking place Sunday in Hollywood:
- At 23, Jennifer Lawrence, in the running for the best supporting actress Oscar for American Hustle, is the youngest actress to score three nominations (after Winter’s Bone in 2011 and Silver Linings Playbook last year, for which she won best actress). The previous youngest was Teresa Wright, who was 24 when she won her third nod in 1942.
- Last year, Silver Linings Playbook by director David O. Russell was the first film since Warren Beatty’s Reds in 1981 to be nominated for best picture, best director, best screenplay and the four acting categories. Russell achieved the same feat this year with American Hustle.
- Nominated for best picture for both American Hustle and Her, Megan Ellison is the fourth producer, and the first female one, to win two nominations in the same year in this category, after Francis Ford Coppola, Fred Roos and Scott Rudin.
- Nominated for best original score for The Book Thief, John Williams brings his total number of nominations to 49. Only Walt Disney has had more (59). Woody Allen, nominated for best original screenplay for Blue Jasmine, is the second most nominated living artist, with 24 so far.
- Meryl Streep, up for best actress for August: Osage County, has extended her own record as the most Oscar nominated actor or actress ever, with 18 nods.
- The composer Thomas Newman, who earned his 12th nomination for the making of Mary Poppins movie Saving Mr Banks, is not the only Newman to shine at the Oscars. His musical family (including Alfred, Lionel, Emil, Thomas, David and Randy) has won 88 nominations in all.
- The Missing Picture, Cambodia’s candidate for foreign language Oscar, is only the second documentary nominated in this category. The first was Israel’s Waltz with Bashir (2008).
