This Legendary Director Has Been Nominated For Oscars In Six Different Decades
The nominations for the 2022 Oscars have finally arrived, and some incredible movies have been recognized by the academy for the work that's gone into making them. The best motion picture of the year category is crammed with the likes of "Belfast," "Coda," "Don't Look Up," "Drive My Car," "Dune," "King Richard," "Licorice Pizza," "Nightmare Alley," "The Power of the Dog," and "West Side Story" (via Variety). So there's heavy competition between some of the biggest names in the industry here, featuring work from the likes of Denis Villeneuve, Guillermo del Toro, Kenneth Branagh, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Steven Spielberg.
Jane Campion's Western, "The Power of the Dog," leads the charge with 12 nominations altogether, closely followed by Villeneuve's sci-fi epic "Dune," which holds 10 nominations. Kenneth Brannagh's emotional drama "Belfast" scored seven nominations, with Will Smith's "King Richard" snapping at its heels with six. Meanwhile, "Don't Look Up," "Nightmare Alley," and "Drive My Car" all grabbed four nominations.
There's not long to wait until the winners are announced since the 94th Academy Awards ceremony takes place on March 27, 2022, although there are sure to be some surprising wins on the night. But one of the directors up for an award is a legendary Hollywood icon who has been nominated for Oscars in six different decades.
Steven Spielberg has been nominated every decade since the '70s
Critically acclaimed director Steven Spielberg has been nominated for his work in each of the last six decades (via IMDb), and it isn't surprising since the man is practically the living embodiment of "cinema." Spielberg was nominated for his first best director Oscar back in 1978 for his science fiction adventure "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." Since then, the nominations and awards kept on coming. He was recognized for both "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" during the 1980s, while "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan" earned him plenty of recognition in the 1990s.
The director was also nominated for the Eric Bana-starring thriller "Munich" in 2006 before he bagged another nomination for the historical drama "Lincoln" in 2013. That brings us to 2022, where Spielberg has been nominated for his big-screen adaptation of "West Side Story," which stars Ansel Elgort and Rachel Zegler as star-crossed lovers Tony and María. It's the first time the director has tried his hand at the musical genre, and it's clearly been a hit with the Academy.
The film arrived in theaters in December 2021, and it was met with critical acclaim much like most of Spielberg's work over the years. "West Side Story" currently has a 92% critic rating against a 94% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, so the best motion picture of the year nomination isn't all that surprising.