One Behind-The-Scenes Fact For Every Oscar-Nominated Film

The Oscars are this weekend, and there are 53 films total nominated for an Academy Award.

Here is each film, what it's nominated for, and one behind-the-scenes fact or detail about it!

1.BELFAST — Nominated for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor (Ciarán Hinds), Best Sound, Best Director, Best Original Song ("Down to Joy"), and Best Supporting Actress (Judi Dench)

The director, Kenneth Branagh, also directed the first Thor film. So, he took the opportunity to put a Thor reference into the film, with the main character reading a comic.

2.CODA — Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Picture, and Best Supporting Actor (Troy Kotsur)

All three deaf characters in CODA are played by deaf actors. Emilia Jones, who played their hearing child, could have just learned the signs for her lines, but instead she spent nine months learning ASL so she could communicate with her castmates and understand their improvisation.

3.DON'T LOOK UP — Nominated for Best Picture, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Original Screenplay

On the set, Jennifer Lawrence and her costars would refer to Meryl Streep as the "GOAT" — aka "greatest of all time." Meryl thought they were calling her a goat because she was old.

4.DRIVE MY CAR — Nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best International Feature Film, and Best Adapted Screenplay

Star T?ko Miura was cast not from an audition, but from sitting down with filmmaker Ry?suke Hamaguchi in a coffee shop and simply speaking about another film. While she wasn't right for the film they were discussing, Hamaguchi thought she'd be perfect for another of his films, Drive My Car. Except, while otherwise perfectly embodying the chauffeur character, Miura couldn't drive.

5.DUNE — Nominated for Best Picture, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Original Score, Best Production Design, Best Sound, Best Visual Effects, and Best Adapted Screenplay

Stellan Skarsg?rd, who played the Baron, only shot about 8–10 days for the film. Each of those days, he had to spend eight hours getting his makeup done.

6.KING RICHARD — Nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor (Will Smith), Best Supporting Actress (Aunjanue Ellis), Best Film Editing, Best Original Song ("Be Alive"), and Best Original Screenplay

To make the film as accurate as possible, Venus and Serena's sister Isha Price was on set every day. Isha, Venus, and Serena all signed on to executive produce just before shooting wrapped. But Richard Williams, who the film is really about, still hasn't seen it.

7.LICORICE PIZZA — Nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay

Alana Haim, who played Alana, actually once babysat Cooper Hoffman, who played Gary, before they were cast together in the film.

8.NIGHTMARE ALLEY — Nominated for Best Picture, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, and Best Production Design

Despite there being no boxing scenes in the film, early on, director Guillermo del Toro insisted that star Bradley Cooper take up boxing. Cooper says it "fundamentally altered the way I moved and approached every interaction," with del Toro saying that if he hadn't attended the trainings, "We’ll feel that you have a latte, a cellphone, and Wi-Fi nearby."

9.THE POWER OF THE DOG — Best Picture, Best Actor (Benedict Cumberbatch), Best Supporting Actor (Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee), Best Supporting Actress (Kirsten Dunst), Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Production Design, Best Sound, and Best Adapted Screenplay

To prepare for the role, star Benedict Cumberbatch read up on Lewis and Clark, met with a dream analyst to "better meld with his character," and actually worked on a cattle ranch in Montana. He also stayed in character while filming.

10.WEST SIDE STORY — Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (Ariana DeBose), Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Director, Best Production Design, and Best Sound

Director Steven Spielberg loved West Side Story as a kid and used to listen to the album on vinyl. During rehearsals, he even jumped up and sang ("off-key," he admitted) and danced with the cast.

11.BEING THE RICARDOS — Nominated for Best Actor (Javier Bardem), Best Supporting Actor (J.K. Simmons), and Best Actress (Nicole Kidman)

The film ends with Desi defending his wife Lucille — who had been accused of being a communist — with a monologue before their studio audience. This actually happened in real life — he invited the press, and the speech actually helped save Ball's reputation.

12.TICK, TICK...BOOM! — Nominated for Best Actor (Andrew Garfield) and Best Film Editing

Andrew Garfield did a year of piano and voice lessons to star in the film. His first musical performance for the film was "Why," which he insisted on singing live because it was "the emotional crux moment for Jon." Director Lin-Manuel Miranda cried when he sang.

13.THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH — Nominated for Best Actor (Denzel Washington), Best Cinematography, and Best Production Design

Frances McDormand, who played Lady Macbeth in the film, had actually first played the role at age 14 onstage. "It hooked me," she said, adding that she's "kind of been working on her ever since." She'd reprise the role multiple times in her career, including for this film, which she produced alongside husband Joel Coen and his brother, Ethan.

14.THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE — Nominated for Best Actress (Jessica Chastain) and Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Chastain had to spend four to seven hours in makeup every day to portray Tammy, with prosthetics and wigs used to represent Tammy at different points in her life. The real-life Tammy Faye mostly bought drugstore products, so the makeup artists did the same — even reusing lashes as Tammy had done. They even found the exact mascara she used on eBay — they couldn't use it as it had expired, but it helped them find a similar version.

15.THE LOST DAUGHTER — Nominated for Best Actress (Olivia Colman), Best Supporting Actress (Jessie Buckley), and Best Adapted Screenplay

In order to get the rights to the book the film was based on, Maggie Gyllenhaal wrote to the author, who is anonymous. Gyllenhaal told her why she wanted to adapt the story, and mentioned she was interested in directing. The author wrote back, telling her she could have the rights, but only if Gyllenhaal did decide to direct. Gyllenhaal called this a "vote of confidence" that she really needed at the time to become a first-time director.

16.PARALLEL MOTHERS — Nominated for Best Actress (Penélope Cruz) and Best Original Score

Director Pedro Almodóvar, a longtime collaborator of star Cruz, says they rehearsed the film start to finish three times like it was a play. He said that it was difficult for Cruz to connect with the character, despite the fact that he'd written the part for her, because Cruz's style of motherhood is so different from her character's.

17.SPENCER — Nominated for Best Actress (Kristen Stewart)

The scene where Diana eats the pearls from her necklace didn't actually happen — and they, of course, did not use real pearls in the scene. The "pearls" were actually just chocolate.

18.ENCANTO — Nominated for Best Animated Feature Film, Best Original Score, and Best Song ("Dos Oruguitas")

For Stephanie Beatriz's audition to play Mirabel, she sang a song also written by Lin-Manuel Miranda — Moana's "You're Welcome."

19.FLEE — Nominated for Best Animated Feature Film, Best Feature Documentary, and Best International Feature Film

Flee made Oscars history when it became the first film nominated for best documentary, animated film, and international film. But that's not the film's only first — in the film, Amin Nawabi (a pseudonym) tells the true story of his life for the first time, with only identifying details changed to protect his identity.

20.LUCA — Nominated for Best Animated Feature Film

Because Luca was made during the pandemic, the actors recorded their lines from their own homes — mostly from inside their closets.

21.THE MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES — Nominated for Best Animated Feature Film

Director Mike Rianda based the family in the film on his own family — even the dog, Monchi, who was based on Rianda's sister's pug, Monchichi.

22.RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON — Nominated for Best Animated Feature Film

Writer Qui Nguyen brought in martial arts films and stage weapons to help the animators with the fight scenes. Nguyen is a martial artist himself, and said it was really important to him to make the scenes realistic.

23.CRUELLA — Nominated for Best Costume Design and Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Jenny Beavan served as the costume designer for the fashion-based film. She studied vintage Vogue issues and the works of designers like John Galliano, Vivienne Westwood, Christian Dior, and Alexander McQueen. While she's worked with Emma Thompson before, Thompson found the elaborate costumes difficult to deal with — she even needed help to use the bathroom when she was in costume.

24.CYRANO — Nominated for Best Costume Design

Writer Erica Schmidt originally conceived of the movie as a stage play — and it wasn't supposed to be a musical. However, she reached out to Matt Berninger, leader of the band The National, for some music. He reached out to his band's composers, Bryce and Aaron Dessner, and Erica fell in love with what they created, turning the story into a musical.

25.ASCENSION — Nominated for Best Feature Documentary

While the film is about China, filmmaker Jessica Kingdon has emphasized multiple times that she hopes Westerners will see their own society reflected in the film. “I’m hoping for Western audiences to watch it,” she said, after initially thinking the audience would be more niche. “And instead of looking at it and saying, ‘Oh, China’s so strange and so different,’ to think about how it could reflect back on their own lives.”

26.ATTICA — Nominated for Best Feature Documentary

Co-director Traci A. Curry says they made the film — which is about the Attica prison riot — during the height of the George Floyd protests, while she was witnessing protestors and police clash outside her window. "I think we all saw the way that people in prisons were treated at the peak of the pandemic," she said. "We all saw the former president attack protesters outside of the White House and then use that attack as a political opportunity. Those parallels were so resonant for me, and it crystallized for me that this is a story about what happens when people challenge the state’s abuse of its power."

27.SUMMER OF SOUL (...OR, WHEN THE REVOLUTION COULD NOT BE TELEVISED) — Nominated for Best Feature Documentary

First-time director Questlove started with 40 hours of footage of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival that was the subject of the documentary. In order to decide what to keep, he says he played it on every TV and computer monitor in his house for four months. He'd also watch it on his phone any time he had a spare moment, and even had it running when he slept.

28.WRITING WITH FIRE — Nominated for Best Feature Documentary

While the film is full of danger and fraught situations, as well as inspiring ones, filmmakers Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh said the most impactful scene to them was when Suneeta had friendly banter with her father in her own home.

29.AUDIBLE — Nominated for Best Short Subject Documentary

Director Matt Ogens tried to get funding for the film for 12 years — but kept being told there wasn't an audience. He kept checking in with students at the school where he wanted to film the documentary, the Maryland School for the Deaf, saying, "It was always personal, but the more doors that were shut, it became a mission. I thought ‘Look how resilient these students are. I’m not going to give up on them.’” He was inspired to focus on the school because his aunt, an ASL interpreter, had worked there. Also, his childhood best friend had been deaf.

30.LEAD ME HOME — Nominated for Best Short Subject Documentary

The documentary follows unhoused people in major cities over the span of three years. Because many viewers wanted to know how the people followed in the film are doing now, the film's Instagram now posts updates about them. Many of the people from the film are now housed, and some are even working to end homelessness themselves.

31.THE QUEEN OF BASKETBALL — Nominated for Best Short Subject Documentary

The film is about Lusia Harris, the first and only woman ever officially drafted by an NBA team (the New Orleans Jazz — she did not end up joining the team). Basketball superstar Shaq asked to be an executive producer on the film after seeing it, saying it made him cry.

32.THREE SONGS FOR BENAZIR — Nominated for Best Short Subject Documentary

Director Gulistan Mirzaei is believed to be the first Afghan nominated for an Oscar in any category. He chose to document a love story because, "Stories about this country are usually about war, violence, guns, the military, or it’s about foreigners trying to help Afghanistan. And those films are usually made by people who are not from Afghanistan."

33.WHEN WE WERE BULLIES — Nominated for Best Short Subject Documentary

The film examines an act of bullying director Jay Rosenblatt was involved in 50 years ago. In the film, he tracks down classmates who were also involved, but does not interview the bullying victim, as he felt that might just bully him further and that the story was really more about the bystander effect and what makes people bully. In fact, he has not heard from the victim at all, and even suggested the victim — named Richard — doesn't know about the Oscar-nominated film at all.

34.THE HAND OF GOD — Nominated for Best International Feature Film

Writer, director, and producer Paolo Sorrentino called the film, which was based on his childhood in Naples in the '80s, a "coming-of-age story split into two parts. The first is a story of joy and happiness. The second is a long goodbye to youth.” To reflect this, cinematographer Daria D’Antonio used a colorful palette in the first half, and had those colors fade and become more saturated by the end.

35.LUNANA: A YAK IN THE CLASSROOM — Nominated for Best International Feature Film

The film is only remote country Bhutan's second-ever Oscar entry. The first was The Cup, way back in 1999. According to Lunana director Pawo Choyning Dorji, the director of The Cup, Khyentse Norbu, is "the person who first introduced [him] to filmmaking.”

36.THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD — Nominated for Best International Feature Film, Best Original Screenplay

The film was actually originally meant to be a rom-com. Director Joachim Trier joked that all Scandinavian films are influenced by famous Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, known for his existential films. He said that what they ended up with was more of a "coming of age movie for grownups.”

37.COMING 2 AMERICA — Nominated for Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Lead makeup artist Vera Steimberg grew up watching the first movie, which made her extremely excited to work on this one. Carla Farmer, one of the lead hairstylists on the film (who did the hair for the women in the film), was excited to create hairstyles inspired by the Afro-punk movement to make the styles more modern than the ones in the first film.

38.HOUSE OF GUCCI — Nominated for Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Makeup artist G?ran Lundstr?m came up with the prosthetics to turn Jared Leto into Paolo Gucci in just three weeks. He did such a good job that when Al Pacino arrived on set in Italy, he didn't recognize Leto — he thought he was just being followed around by a random old Italian man.

39.NO TIME TO DIE — Nominated for Best Original Song ("No Time to Die"), Best Sound, and Best Visual Effects

Billie Eilish and Finneas actually had always wanted to write a Bond song. "It was one of our, like, biggest goals, and like, dreams," Billie told Variety. Finneas said he saw it as something they could maybe achieve in 10 years, and said he had no idea it would happen that quickly.

40.FOUR GOOD DAYS — Nominated for Best Original Song ("Somehow You Do")

This is songwriter Diane Warren's 13th Oscar nomination — she has not yet won. Warren based the song on the film and the hope found within it, but also said the song was colored by the pandemic.

41.AFFAIRS OF THE ART — Nominated for Best Animated Short Film

The film was entirely hand-drawn, mostly by director Joanna Quinn. From inception to the final edit, the 16-minute film took "six years of actual production and many years of refining the script to the completed storyboard and animatic" to make.

42.BESTIA — Nominated for Best Animated Short Film

Director-animator Hugo Covarrubias and producer Tevo Díaz are huge fans of director Guillermo del Toro. They met him at a recent Oscars luncheon, and according to Diaz, del Toro told them that their short was his favorite of the Oscar-nominated animated shorts.

43.BOXBALLET — Nominated for Best Animated Short Film

Director Anton Dyakov was inspired by his days as an art teacher for children. He noted boys would always draw boxers and girls would draw ballerinas, and he joked then that if you made a movie about both boxers and ballerinas, both boys and girls would like it. While admitting that the idea was a bit antiquated now and that "today's kids have different heroes," Dyakov said the characters he'd come up with then "kind of stuck to me and they started living their own lives. And then this movie happened.”

44.ROBIN ROBIN — Nominated for Best Animated Short Film

Creators and directors Dan Ojari and Mikey Please pitched the stop-motion film to Aardman (known for Wallace and Gromit as well as Chicken Run) at the Annecy Film Festival in 2018. The two ran into Sara Cox — who became their executive producer — in the canteen and did an impromptu pitch where they sang to her right there in the canteen.

45.THE WINDSHIELD WIPER — Nominated for Best Animated Short Film

Writer, director, and designer Alberto Mielgo — who also did early production design work on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse — got the idea for this film from simply sitting in a cafe in Madrid and overhearing conversations. It was a work of passion that started with no real starting budget or timeline, and took six years to make.

46.ALA KACHUU - TAKE AND RUN — Nominated for Best Live Action Short Film

The director, Maria Brendle, based the film on the real experiences of women who were kidnapped in order to be married off. She spent years interviewing women who had been through the experience.

47.THE DRESS — Nominated for Best Live Action Short Film

The film was made mostly by students and graduates of the Warsaw Film School. The writer and director, Tadeusz ?ysiak, is still a student there, and is in his 20s.

48.THE LONG GOODBYE — Nominated for Best Live Action Short Film

The film was largely improvised. Instead of using a script, scenes (basically just how to get from A to B in the scene) were laid out in an an Excel document. It was shot in only a day and a half.

49.ON MY MIND — Nominated for Best Live Action Short Film

The idea for the film came from writer-director Martin Strange-Hansen's own experience with his daughter, who died in 2001. His daughter was in the hospital, and he knew they were having a serious conversation with her doctor the next day, and that he needed to get a good night's sleep. So he went to a bar and got a double whiskey so he could sleep, just like the character in the film.

50.PLEASE HOLD — Nominated for Best Live Action Short Film

First-time writer-director KD Dávila came up with the idea when she heard about a Latino man mistakenly arrested who got released after the judge realized he simply had the same name as the man they were looking for. However, the man had already spent weeks in jail and lost his car and job.

51.FREE GUY — Nominated for Best Visual Effects

Taika Waititi, whose character Antwan was supposed to reflect the toxic "bro culture of gaming," improvised most of his lines in the film. Close to 80% of these improvisations didn't make it in.

52.SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS — Nominated for Best Visual Effects

There are multiple nods to classic kung-fu movies and masters in the film, especially during the bus scene. At one point, Shang-Chi uses his jacket as a weapon, which is a nod to Jackie Chan using the same move in Rumble in the Bronx. Shang-Chi also poses like Bruce Lee in The Big Boss at one point.

53.And finally, SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME — Nominated for Best Visual Effects

Willem Dafoe only agreed to return to the role of the Green Goblin in the film if he did action scenes and his own stunts. Dafoe is 66. His performance in the film, which was full of action, was pretty universally loved.