Entertainment

Records that could be broken at this year’s Oscars

Milestones might include the first deaf performer named supporting actor and the first woman to win best cinematography.
Milestones might include the first deaf performer named supporting actor and the first woman to win best cinematography. Milestones might include the first deaf performer named supporting actor and the first woman to win best cinematography.

The 2022 Oscars this Sunday in Hollywood could set new records for diversity and representation in the 93-year history of the awards.

Jane Campion has already broken new ground by becoming the only woman to be nominated twice for the Oscar for best director.

Her nomination this year, for the tense Western drama The Power Of The Dog, comes nearly three decades after her first appearance in this category, for The Piano in 1994.

She didn’t win in 1994, but success in 2022 would see Campion become the third female to win this Oscar – besides representing the first back-to-back wins in this category for women, coming a year after Chloe Zhao’s victory with Nomadland.

SHOWBIZ Oscars
SHOWBIZ Oscars (PA Graphics)

History could also be made in the award for best cinematography.

No woman has ever won this category, and this year Ari Wegner became only the second female ever to be nominated, for her work on The Power Of The Dog.

Wegner missed out earlier this month on becoming the first woman to win best cinematography at the Baftas, when she lost out to fellow Australian Greig Fraser, who shot the sci-fi epic Dune.

Now she has another chance to create history, although once again she is up against Fraser.

The Power Of The Dog has 12 nominations. No film has ever won more than 11 Oscars, but if The Power Of The Dog were to notch up this number, it would join a select group of three: Ben-Hur in 1960, Titanic in 1998 and The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King in 2004.

SHOWBIZ Oscars
SHOWBIZ Oscars (PA Graphics)

This year could also see the first Oscar for a male performer who is deaf, with Troy Kotsur nominated for best supporting actor for CODA.

A win for Kotsur would be only the second time a deaf performer has won an Academy Award for acting, coming 35 years after Marlee Matlin was named best actress for Children Of A Lesser God.

Diane Warren has been nominated 13 times for best original song, stretching back as far as 1988 for Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now from the film Mannequin, but has never won. Might 2022 be when she finally gets to pick up the award?

Warren has been nominated this year for the song Somehow You Do from the film Four Good Days, but faces strong competition from the likes of Beyonce (Be Alive from King Richard) and Billie Eilish (the title song from No Time To Die).

Other potential firsts include the best actress and best supporting actress going to different people playing the same character (Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley in The Lost Daughter); best film going to a movie made in Japan (Drive My Car); and the same film winning best documentary, best animated film and best international film (Flee).

If either The Power Of The Dog or Don’t Look Up carries off the award for best film, it would be the first win in this category for a Netflix production.

Alternatively, if West Side Story wins best film, it would be the first instance of the same source material triumphing in this category on two separate occasions – the original movie adaptation of West Side Story having won the award in 1962.

There is one record that definitely will not be broken at this year’s Oscars, however.

In the history of the Academy Awards, only one non-white performer has ever been named best actress.

This was Halle Berry, who picked up the award in 2002 for the film Monster’s Ball.

In 2022 all the nominees in this category are white, so the wait goes on for a historic second non-white winner of best actress.