Disney Firsts We’ll Be Celebrating at Tomorrow’s Oscars
Tomorrow is the biggest night in Hollywood with the 94th Annual Academy Awards being broadcast on ABC. It’s also an epic night of firsts for The Walt Disney Company. This year the House of Mouse and Co. earned an impressive 23 Academy Award nominations and there are a handful of noteworthy Disney firsts included in this list. Let’s take a closer look:
Spielberg’s Personal Bests
Though he may be one of Hollywood’s most legendary directors, Steven Spielberg has a number of firsts with his nominations as both producer and director of West Side Story. However, this is his first nomination as a director for helming a musical! Spielberg is also the first producer to compete for the 11th time in the Best Picture category. During his other 10 nominations, Spielberg only took home the Best Picture Oscar once. This was for Schindler’s List.
That’s Another Story
Let’s stay on the subject of West Side Story just a little bit longer. Did you know that this is NOT the first time a remake of a previous Best Picture Academy Award winner was nominated for Best Picture? That award actually went to 1952’s Mutiny on the Bounty which was a remake of the 1935 version. What is a first however, is that this is the first time that an actor has been nominated for playing the same role in the same story as a previous winner.
Ariana DeBose, who plays Anita in Spielberg’s version of West Side Story earned an Oscar nomination for the role just like Rita Moreno did back in 1962!
Music to Our Ears
A couple of addition Oscar firsts related to the record-breaking soundtrack for Disney’s Encanto. Germaine Franco who is the composer for the film is only the 6th woman in Oscar history to be nominated for Best Original Score. She is also the first Latina nominee to ever be nominated in this category.
In the Best Original song competition “Dos Oruguitas” is the first time a nominated song from a Disney movie is sung in a language other than English.
Some Lesser Firsts
Nightmare Alley, which you can currently check out on Hulu is the first time a film released in both color and black and white separately has been nominated for Best Picture.
Jessica Chastain, also receives her first nomination for playing a real person in The Eyes of Tammy Faye.
The Oscar nominations earned for Disney’s Cruella starring Emma tone also mark the first official Oscar nods for the beloved villain or heroine (depending how you look at it.)
Say You Want a Revolution
Last, but certainly not least, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson has earned his first Oscar nomination for his documentary Summer of Soul adding film directory to his already impressive list of talents along with musician, television personality and more!
Don’t miss the 94th Annual Academy Awards on ABC on Sunday, March 27th beginning at 8pm EST. You’ll definitely want to tune in to see how all of Disney’s incredible nominees did!
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