From left: Jordan Peele with Winston Duke and Lupita Nyong’o; Nina Hartstone and John Warhurst; Ruth E. Carter (Photos courtesy of The Oscars)
Back to back Oscar nominations aren’t as uncommon as you might think. Whether you’re breaking in or an Academy favorite, there are quite a few contenders last year, both nominees and winners, that are back in the race again this year looking for another chance at gold. Here’s how it and why it happens and the names you might hear again on Oscar nomination morning.
The afterglow nomination. This usually refers to times when a first time Oscar nominee follows up their first nomination with a project that immediately keeps them in the purview of the Academy and earns them a consecutive nomination. This year will likely find Adam Driver earning back to back nominations and moving up from Supporting Actor to Lead Actor in the process. Sound designers and visual effects supervisors are plentiful, with sequels and trilogy-ending films taking up a lot of space in the conversation.
Sometimes it’s a person or group that almost seem like perennial nominees; that their work goes recognized year after year, film after film. Producers Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner of Plan B fall into that territory, so does composer Alexandre Desplat. These are winners that, once they win, are often able to parlay that into multiple future nominations.
Here are a bunch of nominees and winners from last year who might hear their name again on January 13, 2020.
BEST PICTURE
Bradley Cooper (Best Picture nominee for A Star Is Born) – Joker
Jordan Peele (Best Picture nominee for BlacKkKlansman) – Us
Sean McKittrick (Best Picture nominee for BlackKklansman) – Us
Jason Blum (Best Picture nominee for BlackKklansman) – Us
Dede Gardner (Best Picture nominee for Vice) – Ad Astra
Jeremy Kleiner (Best Picture nominee for Vice) – Ad Astra
ACTING
Adam Driver (Supporting Actor for BlacKkKlansman) – Marriage Story
Christian Bale (Best Actor for Vice) – Ford v Ferrari
Sam Rockwell (Supporting Actor for Vice) – Jojo Rabbit
Willem Dafoe (Best Actor for At Eternity’s Gate) – The Lighthouse
COSTUME DESIGN
Ruth E. Carter (Costume Design winner for Black Panther) – Dolemite Is My Name
Alexandra Byrne (Costume Design for Mary Queen of Scots) – The Aeronauts
PRODUCTION DESIGN
Hannah Bleacher (Production Design winner for Black Panther) – Dark Waters
Fiona Crombie (Production Design nominee for The Favourite) – The King
Alice Felton (Production Design nominee for The Favourite) – The King
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Robbie Ryan (Cinematography for The Favourite) – Marriage Story
Caleb Deschanel (Cinematography nominee for Never Look Away) – The Lion King
ORIGINAL SCORE
Terence Blanchard (Original Score nominee for BlacKkKlansman) – Harriet
Alexandre Desplat (Original Score nominee for Isle of Dogs) – Little Women
Nicholas Britell (Original Score for If Beale Street Could Talk) – The King
ORIGINAL SONG
Diane Warren (Original Song nominee for “I’ll Fight” from RBG) – “I’m Standing with You” from Breakthrough
SOUND EDITING and SOUND MIXING
John Warhurst (Sound Editing winner for Bohemian Rhapsody) – Cats
Ai-Ling Lee (Sound Editing and Sound Mixing nominee for First Man) – Jojo Rabbit, Lucy in the Sky
Skip Lievsay (Sound Editing and Sound Mixing nominee for Roma) – Harriet, Little Women, Uncut Gems
Paul Massey (Sound Mixing winner for Bohemian Rhapsody) – Ford v Ferrari
Craig Henighan (Sound Mixing nominee for Roma) – Terminator: Dark Fate
Tom Ozanich (Sound Mixing nominee for A Star Is Born) – Dolemite Is My Name, Joker
Dean A. Zupancic (Sound Mixing nominee for A Star Is Born) – Joker
Jason Ruder (Sound Mixing nominee for A Star Is Born) – Ad Astra, Joker
Steven Morrow (Sound Mixing nominee for A Star Is Born) – Ford v Ferrari
VISUAL EFFECTS
Dan DeLeeuw (Visual Effects nominee for Avengers: Infinity War) – Avengers: Endgame
Kelly Port (Visual Effects nominee for Avengers: Infinity War) – Avengers: Endgame
Russell Earl (Visual Effects nominee for Avengers: Infinity War) – Avengers: Endgame
Daniel Sudick (Visual Effects nominee for Avengers: Infinity War) – Avengers: Endgame
Roger Guyett (Visual Effects nominee for Ready Player One) – Star Wars: The Rise of the Skywalker
Dominic Tuohy (Visual Effects nominee for Solo: A Star Wars Story) – 1917, Star Wars: The Rise of the Skywalker
Neal Scanlan (Visual Effects nominee for Solo: A Star Wars Story) – Star Wars: The Rise of the Skywalker
Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.