Oscar nominations delivers a first for Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg may not have received a best director nomination for JAWS at the 1976 Academy Awards, but since then he has racked up an impressive nine best director nominations - including this year's The Fabelmans nod.
That film has also given the film director a first, his very first screenwriting nomination at the age of 76 - which he shares with Tony Kushner.
Of the nomination, the director and writer said: ““I just recently turned 76, where they say, ‘What’s left to accomplish?’ I suddenly get nominated for the first time in my career by the Academy as a co-author of Best screenplay — it made me feel like all those English and creative writing classes paid off!”
Not that he hasn't been on screenplay or story duties before, most notably on A.I. (2001) - screenplay alongside , The Goonies (1985) - story , Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) - story and screenplay, Poltergeist (1982) – story, The Sugarland Express (1974) – story and Ace Eli and Rodger of the Skies (1973) – story.
Spielberg's very first Best Director nomination came with Close Encounters, again with the very first Indiana Jones film, Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T - the extra-terrestrial (1982)...and then a huge wait until Schindler’s List (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Munich (2005), Lincoln (2012) and West Side Story (2021) - finally getting Oscar nominated for a Shark movie.
And now The Fabelmans makes nine Best Director nods, not a bad record for this Academy Award vicinity. That makes him the second joint most nominated director in Oscar history, a position he shares with good friend Martin Scorsese.
In total The Fabelmans has been nominated for seven Academy Awards, which includes Spielberg for Best Director, Best Picture, Michelle Williams for Best Actress, Judd Hirsch for Best Supporting Actor, Spielberg and Tony Kushner for Best Original Screenplay, Rick Carter and Karen O’Hara for Best Production Design and John Williams for Best Original Score.
They were gonna need a bigger vote to get any acting nominations
In comparison JAWS was nominated for four Oscars and swam home with three, for Sound, Editing and Original Score. It was also nominated for Best Picture, yet none of its main cast of Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw or Richard Dreyfuss – or Spielberg as director – gained any nominations.