2024 Academy Award Nominees: Surprises, Snubs and Fun Facts

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Tuesday announced the nominees for Hollywood's highest movie awards --- the Oscars. As usual, there were surprises. And there were snubs, meaning filmmakers or films that were rejected as candidates. Here are some of the facts about this year's nominees.

Fostering the Oscars

Actor Jodie Foster was nominated for her performance in a supporting role in the film Nyad. It is her fifth nomination. The first came 47 years ago when she was just 14 years old.

FILE - An Oscar statue appears outside the Dolby Theatre for the 87th Academy Awards in Los Angeles on February 21, 2015. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP, File)

This year she returns as a nominee after an unusually long absence from the Oscars. Her last nomination was for Nell in 1995.

Foster has won two Academy Awards as a lead actor. Her first came in 1989 for the movie The Accused. She won again in 1992 for the film The Silence of the Lambs. Her costar in Nyad, Annette Bening, is also nominated for an Oscar in the best performance by a lead actress category. Like Foster, Bening has been nominated four other times. But she has yet to win any Academy Awards.

Foster has more nominations than the rest of the actors in her category combined. Emily Blunt, Danielle Brooks, America Ferrera and Da'Vine Joy Randolph are all first-time nominees.

Foster's gap between nominations is not a record, though. Last year, actor Judd Hirsch got his first nomination in 42 years for his performance in The Fabelmans.

John Williams dials in on Disney with ‘destiny'

Music writer, or composer, John Williams, is back in the running for an Oscar. The 91-year-old became on Tuesday the oldest nominee in history for his original score for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Williams broke the age record of 90 set last year by nominee John Williams.

The composer has been nominated for 54 Academy Awards. He is the most Oscar-nominated living person. He needs six more to overtake Walt Disney's record of 59 nominations.

Williams has won five Oscars. His last was in 1994 for the score of Schindler's List, which also won the award for best picture.

Women's films honored, women snubbed

A record three films directed by women were nominated for best picture: Barbie from Greta Gerwig, Anatomy of a Fall from Justine Triet, and Past Lives from Celine Song.

But only one of them – Triet – received a best director nomination.

Gerwig's snub, along with Barbie star Margot Robbie's in the best actress category, were widely protested after the nominations were announced Tuesday. But each is still in the larger group of nominees. Robbie is a producer who will get an Oscar if Barbie wins best picture. And Gerwig is nominated for best adapted screenplay.

The spirit of Spielberg and scores for Scorsese

Director Steven Spielberg was a 2024 Oscar presence even on a year off. Spielberg did not direct a movie last year that met time limits for Academy Award consideration. However, he is nominated as a producer of the movie Maestro.

If it wins best picture, Spielberg will take home his fourth Oscar.

Martin Scorsese, meanwhile, broke Spielberg's record on director nominations. Scorsese is nominated this year for the movie The Killers of the Flower Moon.

I'm Caty Weaver.

Caty Weaver adapted this story for Learning English based on a report by the Associated Press.

Words in This Story

category – n. one of the divisions or groupings used in a system of classification

gap – n. a space or separation : a break in continuity

original score – n. music that is written and tailored for use throughout a film