‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ is hoping to set these Oscar nominations records
Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” is looking to set a slew of records come the morning of Oscar nominations. The Apple Original Films crime epic about the true story of the Osage murders in 1920s Oklahoma is all but certain to be a surefire Academy Awards contender, and can even make history in major categories like Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing. Read on as we document several Oscar nominations records that “Killers of the Flower Moon” is hoping to set, should it garner bids in those respective categories.
Starting with the biggest category of the night, Best Picture, it is interesting to note that the two biggest stars of “Killers of the Flower Moon,” Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, already share a joint record of being credited in the most films that have been nominated for the top category – both at 10. With a Best Picture notice for “Killers of the Flower Moon,” it would put both DiCaprio and De Niro at 11 credited movies. Per Gold Derby odds, the film is currently in second place to win behind “Oppenheimer.”
For those keeping track, DiCaprio’s top nominated features at the Oscars are “Titanic” (1997), “Gangs of New York” (2002), “The Aviator” (2004), “The Departed” (2006), “Inception” (2010), “Django Unchained” (2012), “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013), “The Revenant” (2015), “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” (2019) and “Don’t Look Up” (2021).
And De Niro’s entries go back almost half a century with “The Godfather Part II” (1974), “Taxi Driver” (1976), “The Deer Hunter” (1978), “Raging Bull” (1980), “The Mission” (1986), “Goodfellas” (1990), “Awakenings” (1990), “Silver Linings Playbook” (2012), “Joker” (2019) and “The Irishman” (2019). (De Niro also appeared in 2013’s Best Picture-nominated “American Hustle,” but was uncredited).
Their leading co-star Lily Gladstone in the Best Actress category would have the historic distinction of being the first actress of Native American descent as a nominee. The category has had three previous Indigenous performers nominated in its 96-year run: Merle Oberon for “The Dark Angel” (1935), Keisha Castle-Hughes for “Whale Rider” (2003) and Yalitza Aparicio for “Roma” (2018). If victorious, Gladstone would be the first Indigenous winner of the category. While technically in second for a nomination behind Emma Stone (“Poor Things”), they both now share 38/10 odds to win.
For Scorsese, he would be going for a double record for Best Director. As it stands, he shares the honor with Steven Spielberg for having the second-most mentions in the category at nine with his recognition for “Raging Bull,” “The Last Temptation of Christ” (1988), “Goodfellas,” “Gangs of New York,” “The Aviator,” “The Departed” (his only win), “Hugo” (2011), “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “The Irishman.” A nomination for the epic Western would solely put him in second with the most nominations at 10 behind William Wyler at 12, and would also make him the oldest nominee in the category at 81 years old as he is currently in third when he got his nodmfor “The Irishman” at 77, behind Charles Crichton for “A Fish Called Wanda” (1988) at 78 and John Huston for “Prizzi’s Honor” (1985) at 79. Like the film, Scorsese is also currently second with 9/2 odds behind Christopher Nolan for “Oppenheimer.”
His longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker is also in the same boat as far as age recognition as she will be 84 years old when Oscar nominations are announced, potentially surpassing long-standing Spielberg cutter Michael Kahn when he was 82 for his nomination for “Lincoln” (2012). In addition, Schoonmaker shares a number of achievements with Kahn as they are tied with most noms in Best Editing at eight, and share the record of three wins each with editors Daniel Mandell and Ralph Dawson, but Kahn narrowly beats her as the oldest winner in the category when he triumphed for “Saving Private Ryan” (1998) at the age of 68, a year older when she won her third Oscar for “The Departed” eight years later at 67 (her first two wins were for “Raging Bull” and “The Aviator”). The rest of her nominations all came from Scorsese films – “Goodfellas,” “Gangs of New York,” “Hugo,” and “The Irishman” – with the exception of her first for the Michael Wadleigh documentary “Woodstock” (1970). Kahn will not be eligible this year for consideration, so Schoonmaker has the opportunity to break the record for the most nominations and wins for Best Editing, and become the oldest winner.
Finally, there is established screenwriter Eric Roth, who has shared every Oscar nomination he had in Best Adapted Screenplay except for his first win for “Forrest Gump” (1994). His other mentions are for the flicks “The Insider” (1999) with Michael Mann, “Munich” (2005) with Tony Kushner, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (2008), where he shared story credit with Robin Swicord, “A Star Is Born” (2018) with Bradley Cooper and Will Fetters, and “Dune” (2021) with Jon Spaihts and Denis Villeneuve. This makes him tied with Huston with the second-most nominations in the category; one more and he ties Billy Wilder at seven for all-time. “Killers of the Flower Moon” is based on the 2017 David Grann nonfiction book of the same name, and Roth will contend along with Scorsese, the seventh script the director has penned in his career. This is the one major category as of now that the movie is leading above “Oppenheimer” in first place, though they both share 39/10 odds.
All of these aforementioned statistics are likely to break as “Killers of the Flower Moon” is highly predicted to receive a nomination in all of those categories. Furthermore, the film is doing very well with its precursor awards at the Golden Globe and Critics Choice Awards, getting seven and 12 nominations, along with its wins and noms at the regional critics’ circles. It will be exciting to see what will happen as the Oscar nominations approach and “Killers of the Flower Moon” continues to generate awards buzz.
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