Oscars 2024: 17 facts you need to know

The film industry has had another eventful year - Super Mario ruled the box office, Barbenheimer became a viral phenomenon, and Saltburn‍‍`s Barry Keoghan made some questionable choices in a bathtub.

Meanwhile, the 2024 Oscar nominations reflect just how quickly fortunes can change in Hollywood. This time last year, Margot Robbie had just starred in Babylon - a box office bomb which won zero Oscars. 

This year, however, she is heading to the Academy Awards as the face of Barbie, the biggest film of 2023 which grossed $1.4bn (£1.1bn) and is nominated in eight categories.

When the nominations were announced, dozens of famous faces gathered at the Academy Awards luncheon for the traditional class photo.

We‍‍`ve been through the nominations and found 17 interesting facts, quirks and possible milestones that could be reached at this year‍‍`s Oscars.

1. Emma Stone could join an exclusive club

The Poor Things star could become the eighth actress to win two Oscars by the age of 35, having previously won for La La Land in 2017.

She would follow in the footsteps of Meryl Streep, Jodie Foster, Elizabeth Taylor, Bette Davis, Luise Rainer, Olivia de Havilland and Hilary Swank. No male actor has ever achieved the same feat. 

Emma Stone picked up her first best actress award in 2017. Image: Reuters

Stone is also only the second woman to be nominated for both acting and producing for the same film, following Nomadland‍‍`s Frances McDormand in 2020.

But Stone‍‍`s best actress win is far from guaranteed - the category is seen as a dead heat between her and Killers of the Flower Moon star Lily Gladstone.

2. The Holdovers has achieved a Christmas miracle

The Holdovers is the first Christmas film to be nominated for best picture since the original Miracle on 34th Street, in 1948. (It‍‍`s A Wonderful Life was nominated a year earlier.)

The film tells the story of a grumpy teacher who must stay in his boarding school over Christmas to supervise the children who aren‍‍`t going home for the holidays. 

The Holdovers stars Paul Giamatti and best supporting actress favourite Da‍‍`Vine Joy Randolph. Image: Getty

Starring best actor nominee Paul Giamatti and best supporting actress favourite Da‍‍`Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers is set at Christmas, features Christmas trees and decorations, and has plenty of Christmas songs on its soundtrack.

So naturally the studio released it in the UK in the middle of January.

3. Barbie‍‍`s soundtrack might have a better chance of a trophy than its director

Despite missing out on best director and best actress, Barbie‍‍`s nominations have already made Oscars history.

Greta Gerwig, who directed and co-wrote the film, is the only director to have her first three movies nominated for best picture - Lady Bird, Little Women and Barbie.

However, it‍‍`s possible that Barbie will only win one of the eight prizes it is nominated for - best original song for What Was I Made For? by Billie Eilish.

That would mirror the path of 2018‍‍`s A Star is Born, the Bradley Cooper film which also got eight nominations, but only won in the song category, for Lady Gaga‍‍`s Shallow.

4. Cillian Murphy is set to break a decade-long trend

Oppenheimer is expected to sweep the Oscars, with likely wins in major categories including best picture.

If its Irish star Cillian Murphy wins too, it will be the first time since 2012 that the same film has won both best actor and best picture. The last was The Artist and its star Jean Dujardin.

Cillian Murphy would be the first ever Irish-born winner of best actor. Image: EPA

It‍‍`s a different story in best actress, which recently has been matching up with best picture more often.

Two of the last three best picture winners, Nomadland and Everything Everywhere All At Once, also won best actress for their stars, Frances McDormand and Michelle Yeoh respectively.

5. There are four Oscar-nominated couples this year

Best director nominee Justine Triet is also recognised in the original screenplay category alongside her husband Arthur Harari.

The pair are jointly nominated for writing Anatomy of a Fall, one of five nominations the film has.

Director Justine Triet co-wrote Anatomy of a Fall with her partner Arthur Harari. Image: Getty

At the Golden Globes, Triet explained the pair had written the film "stuck in our apartment" during the pandemic and "strangely", she joked, they didn‍‍`t kill each other as a result.

Meanwhile, Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas are both nominated as producers on Oppenheimer as part of the film‍‍`s best picture nod.

Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan attended the Producers Guild Awards together in February. Image: Elyse Jankowski

Elsewhere, Barbie‍‍`s Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach are jointly nominated for the film‍‍`s screenplay, while Margot Robbie and Tom Ackerley are nominated as producers in best picture.

Noah Baumbach, Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie and Tom Ackerley all have nominations for Barbie. Image: Nina Westervelt/Variety via Getty

6. Bradley Cooper is the fifth most nominated living person never to have won an Oscar

The actor, who shot to fame after appearing in The Hangover, has been nominated 12 times, thanks to his work acting, directing and writing a variety of films. 

Could this be Bradley‍‍`s big year? Image: BBC

But he has never won any of the prizes he has been nominated for.

The only people to have scored more nominations without a win are sound engineer Greg P. Russell (16 nominations), composer Thomas Newman (15), songwriter Diane Warren (15) and special effect supervisor Daniel Sudick (13).

Cooper is unlikely to break his streak this year, as his film Maestro isn‍‍`t predicted to win in the categories he‍‍`s nominated - best actor, best picture and best original screenplay.

7. One nominee previously directed music videos for Jamiroquai

Auschwitz drama The Zone of Interest has five nominations at the Oscars - including one for its British director Jonathan Glazer.

Glazer has had a long and varied career. Three decades ago, he was directing adverts for Stella Artois and Guinness. 

He was also behind music videos for songs by Radiohead, Massive Attack, Blur, and, perhaps most notably, Jamiroquai.

Jay Kay from Jamiroquai and Jonathan Glazer go way back. Image: Getty/PA

The band‍‍`s video for Virtual Insanity memorably saw singer Jay Kay trying to avoid being hit by furniture in a room with moving floors.

We hope Glazer wears a giant Jay Kay-style hat to the Oscars in tribute.

8. Two nominees have set a record for gay actors

For the first time ever, two openly gay actors are nominated for playing openly gay characters.

They are Rustin‍‍`s Colman Domingo, who portrays civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, and Nyad‍‍`s Jodie Foster, who plays swimmer Diana Nyad‍‍`s friend and coach Bonnie Stoll.

Jodie Foster and Colman Domingo have already made history with their nominations. Image: BBC/Reuters

The only other time an openly gay actor has been nominated was Sir Ian McKellen, for Gods and Monsters in 1998, which was also for playing an openly gay character.

9. Martin Scorsese is the oldest ever nominee for best director

Marty was nominated for his 10th Oscar this year - setting a new record for a living director, overtaking Steven Spielberg.

Marty is among the night‍‍`s record breakers with his nominations this year. Image: Reuters

If you include dead directors, Ben Hur‍‍`s William Wyler holds the record, with 12.

At 81, Scorsese is also the oldest ever nominee in the category. The previous record holder was John Huston, who was nominated in 1985 for Prizzi‍‍`s Honor when he was 79. The oldest winner is Clint Eastwood, who was 74 when he won for Million Dollar Baby.

This year‍‍`s oldest nominee overall, however, is composer John Williams, recognised in the original score category for Indiana Jones and the Dial Of Destiny at the grand age of 92.

10. The average best picture-nominated film this year is 138 minutes long

Past Lives and The Zone of Interest are just 1hr 44m each, but Oppenheimer from director Christopher Nolan (pictured left) is three hours, and Scorsese‍‍`s Killers of the Flower Moon a ridiculous 206 minutes.

A film that long could probably do with an interval, right? 

Not according to Paramount and Apple TV+, who cracked down on several cinemas who attempted to insert a break in the middle of the film so audiences could go to the bathroom.

11. Lily Gladstone is the first ever Native American to be nominated for best actress

The 37-year-old isn‍‍`t the first indigenous performer to be nominated for best actress - Whale Rider‍‍`s Keisha Castle-Hughes and Roma‍‍`s Yalitza Aparicio preceded her. 

But the Killers of the Flower Moon star is the first from the US. The actress comes from a Blackfeet Indian Reservation in northern Montana.

Lily Gladstone could become the first Native American to win best actress. Credit: EPA

She has already won prizes at the SAG Awards and Golden Globes, and in both acceptance speeches she briefly spoke Blackfeet, her native Algonquian language.

12. There are 10 first-time nominees in this year‍‍`s acting categories

Emily Blunt (pictured), Danielle Brooks, Sterling K Brown, and Colman Domingo all received their first Academy Award nominations this year.

Danielle Brooks was also nominated at the Golden Globes for her role as Sofia in the Colour Purple. Image: Getty

America Ferrera (pictured), Lily Gladstone, and Cillian Murphy are also up for an Oscar for the first time.

America Ferrera is nominated for best supporting actress for her performance in Barbie. Image: Reuters

The other first-time acting nominees are Sandra Hüller (pictured), Jeffrey Wright and Da‍‍`Vine Joy Randolph.

Sandra Hüller is up for best leading actress for her performance in Anatomy of a Fall. Image: EPA

13. American Fiction has already broken a record

Sterling K Brown (left) and Jeffrey Wright star in the biting satire American Fiction. Image: Getty

The nominations for Jeffrey Wright and Sterling K Brown mark the first time two black actors have been nominated in the lead and supporting categories for the same film.

American Fiction tells the story of a frustrated black author who jokingly writes a book which plays up to racial stereotypes and tropes, only to find publishers falling over themselves to release it.

14. May December‍‍`s single nomination for best original screenplay keeps an Academy trend alive

May December stars Natalie Portman, Charles Melton and Julianne Moore. Image: Reuters

A whopping 20 of the last 22 Oscar ceremonies have all seen at least one film nominated for screenplay, but nothing else. 

This year, May December is nominated for its script, written by Samy Burch (pictured) - but the film missed every other category.

The Julianne Moore movie joins previous nominees Knives Out, Borat, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Molly‍‍`s Game and Straight Outta Compton in pinning all its Oscar hopes solely on its screenplay.

15. Robert Downey Jr is almost certainly going to win an Oscar thanks to Christopher Nolan

Which makes a change from 2008 and Downey Jr‍‍`s previous best supporting actor nomination for Tropic Thunder.

That year, he lost to Heath Ledger‍‍`s Joker in The Dark Knight, directed by Christopher Nolan.

Robert Downey Jr played Lewis Strauss who headed up the US Atomic Energy Commission in the 1950s. Image: Reuters

This year, Downey Jr is almost certainly going to win, thanks to his performance in Oppenheimer, a film coincidentally also directed by Christopher Nolan.

16. One composer died before his Oscar nomination was announced

Canadian musician Robbie Robertson, also known as a member of rock group The Band, composed the soundtrack to Killers of the Flower Moon.

Robbie Robertson died last August aged 80 Image: Getty

Robertson and director Martin Scorsese collaborated on several films over decades, but the composer sadly died last August, before Killers had even been released.

The musician also worked on the music for films including Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, The Color of Money, Casino, Gangs of New York, The Wolf of Wall Street and The Irishman.

He is posthumously nominated for best original score - and Scorsese dedicated Killers of the Flower Moon to Robertson‍‍`s memory.

17. There would be no Oppenheimer without Twilight

Christopher Nolan decided to make about J Robert Oppenheimer after working on Tenet with Twilight star Robert Pattinson.

Robert Pattinson has switched between blockbusters and art films since Twilight made him a star. Image: Getty

The actor gave Nolan a collection of Oppenheimer‍‍`s speeches as a gift when they finished filming, and when Nolan read them, he was inspired to make the film.

Edward Cullen, we owe you.

The 96th Academy Awards will be handed out at a ceremony in Los Angeles on 10 March. (BBC)