CULTURE

Oscar Nominations 2019: All the Milestones and Firsts

Courtesy of Roma, Black Panther, and A Star Is Born, among others.

Jan. 22, 2019

Alfonso Cuarón/Courtesy Netflix

The nominees for the 2019 Academy Awards were announced on Tuesday morning, with Roma and The Favourite leading the pack with 10 nominations each. Beyond the many expected (but no less exciting) nods, as well as the requisite round of snubs and surprises, this year’s group of Oscar nominations also includes several firsts and a few momentous milestones for the 91-year-old awards show.

Though already history-making on their own, many of these nominations, tied to films like Roma, Black Panther, and BlacKkKlansman, also culminated in making the 2019 Oscars perhaps the most diverse in recent memory—despite the continued lack of any female nominees in the directing category. Five of the eight Best Picture nominees depict the stories of people of color; two of the five Best Director nominees are non-white; and GLAAD has officially recognized this year’s nominees as being the most inclusive of the LGBTQ community.

Here, the biggest firsts and milestones among this year’s nominees.

Roma: The black-and-white Spanish-language drama garnered Netflix its first nominations in the directing, lead actress, original screenplay, production design, sound editing, sound mixing, foreign language film, and overall Best Picture categories. Roma is also the fifth film to earn the latter two nods in the same year; past nominees in both fields include Z (1969), Life Is Beautiful (1998), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), and Amour (2012), all of which won the Best Foreign Language Film award but were passed over for Best Picture, meaning Roma could set yet another record if it does take home the Best Picture Oscar. Additionally, since the Best Picture award goes to a film’s producers, Roma producer Gabriela Rodriguez is now the first Hispanic woman to receive a Best Picture nom.

Roma‘s director, Alfonso Cuarón, also earned a spot in the history books, as the first person to be honored for both directing and cinematography on the same film. And Yalitza Aparicio’s Best Actress entry makes her the first Indigenous woman nominated in the category, as well as just the second Mexican actress, after Salma Hayek, to receive the honor.

Black Panther: Despite having already proven its widespread success several times over—it’s now the third highest-grossing film of all time in the U.S.—Black Panther further cemented its impressive status by becoming the first superhero movie ever nominated for Best Picture. With “All the Stars,” off the film’s soundtrack, earning a Best Original Song nod, collaborators Kendrick Lamar and SZA have each earned their first Oscar nomination; a win would put Lamar halfway to an EGOT. Additionally, Black Panther‘s Best Production Design nomination makes Hannah Beachler the first black production designer to be recognized for the award.

Cold War: While some of its fellow nominees tallied their Oscar nominations into the double digits, Cold War‘s three nods are just as impressive. With inclusion on the Best Foreign Language Film, Best Director, and Best Cinematography shortlists, Pawel Pawlikowski’s black-and-white film becomes the most-nominated in Poland’s history.

BlacKkKlansman: Spike Lee’s latest masterpiece earned recognition in the supporting actor, director, original score, adapted screenplay, film editing, and Best Picture categories, making Lee the first black filmmaker to be nominated twice in a screenplay category (he was previously nominated for his original screenplay for 1989’s Do the Right Thing). These nods also mark the chronically snubbed Lee’s first nominations in the Best Picture and Best Director categories in his prolific 30-year career; though he’s the sixth black filmmaker to receive a Best Director nod, if he wins, he’d be the first to do so.

A Star Is Born: With Best Actress and Best Original Song—for the eternal bop that is “Shallow”—nominations, Lady Gaga becomes the second woman in history to receive both song and acting nods for the same film, after Mary J. Blige did so with Mudbound in 2018. Gaga’s Best Actress nom also makes her the third woman, after Janet Gaynor and Judy Garland, to be nominated in the titular role of A Star Is Born; Barbra Streisand’s performance in the 1976 iteration of the classic story was ignored by the Academy.