Finding the Common Ground: Fun Facts About the 82nd Academy Award Nominees

By: Adam Quigley Posted: February 2, 2010 Filed under: Official Info

In a surprise twist, this year's Academy Award nominations are less terrible than usual. In lieu of an article explaining why that is though (read: I don't care enough to write one), here are some random observations and bits of trivia that have no useful bearing on anything that matters.

Best Picture:

4 of the nominees deal largely with issues of race (SHOCKING!)
3 of the nominees are period pieces (SHOCKING!)
2 of the nominees are set during wartime (SHOCKING!)
2 of the nominees are sci-fi/action flicks (SHOCK- Oh, wow. Huh.)

Only 2 other sci-fi films have ever been nominated (E.T. and Star Wars).

Up is only the 2nd animated film to ever be nominated for Best Picture. (The first: Beauty and the Beast)

Best Director:

Kathryn Bigelow is only the 4th woman to ever be nominated. (The previous: Lina Wertmuller for Seven Beauties, Jane Campion for The Piano, and Sofia Coppolla for Lost in Translation)

Best Actress:

In the same year, Sandra Bullock has received both an Oscar nomination for Best Actress (The Blind Side) and a Razzie nomination for Worst Actress (All About Steve).

Meryl Streep's nomination for Julie & Julia brings her total to 16. 13 times for Best Actress, 3 times for Best Supporting Actress. She's won only twice.

Multiple Nominations:

9 for Avatar and The Hurt Locker
8 for Inglourious Basterds
6 for Precious and Up in the Air
5 for Up
4 for District 9, Nine and Star Trek

Best Picture: (Encore)

Only 22 of the 81 films that have been awarded Best Picture have not coincided with winning Best Director. Statistically, having 10 Best Picture nominees and 5 Best Director nominees is like the Academy quietly telling you, "Here are the 5 that definitely won't win."

So without further ado, here are the 5 that definitely won't win:

The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
A Serious Man
Up

But then, you didn't need statistics to figure that out.