Tom Cruise stars in Top Gun: Maverick, one of the highest-grossing films of 2022 and an Oscar nominee. While the past 12 months have been busy in Hollywood and Tom Cruise’s accountants may have enjoyed the best fiscal year of their lives, the news was not so good for Batgirl or Chris Rock’s jaw. Among the most colorful characters who greeted audiences returning to theaters were a killer robot named M3GAN, Channing Tatum’s disobedient dog, Colin Farrell’s donkey, and a cocaine-addicted bear. Meanwhile, the sheer unpredictability of this awards season has made this year’s Oscars race one of the most exciting and enjoyable to remember, with various winners sharing awards at previous ceremonies such as the Golden Globes and Bafta. Here are seven curious aspects, including rare coincidences and potential new records that could be broken among this year’s nominees.
The first adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” won the Best Picture Oscar in 1930, and the current nominees have extended the challenge for moviegoers who cannot hold it in. The average length of this year’s nominated films is 144 minutes, with the shortest being “Women Talking” at 1 hour, 44 minutes, and the longest being “Avatar: The Way of the Water” at 3 hours, 12 minutes. However, duration is not necessarily a sign of success. The classic “Casablanca” runs for one hour and 42 minutes, and “Marty,” which won in 1955, runs for exactly 90 minutes. “Gone with the Wind,” which swept the Oscars in 1940, is 3 hours and 53 minutes long.
Two of the Best Actress favorites play characters originally intended for men. Michelle Yeoh and Cate Blanchett star in “Everything, Everywhere, All At Once” and “Tár,” respectively. Yeoh’s role in the multiverse caper “Everything, Everywhere, At Once” was originally offered to actor Jackie Chan, while Blanchett’s role as discredited conductor Lydia Tár was initially conceived for a man. Before working together on Sarah Polley’s film “Women Talking,” Rooney Mara and Claire Foy played the same starring role in two iterations of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.”