How History Can Be Made at the 2018 Oscars

Tuesday, February 20, 2018 at 10 a.m.

Universal Pictures Get Out could be the first horror film to win Best Picture. The Exorcist was the first nominated in 1973. Although some consider The Silence of the Lambs to be a horror film, most would call it a thriller. 1/24

Courtesy of Fox Searchlight The Shape of Water could set the record of most wins with 12. It is nominated in 13 categories. The record of 11 is shared by Ben-Hur, Titanic, and The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. 2/24

Courtesy of Fox Searchlight The Shape of Water could also potentially set the record of biggest sweep by winning all 13 nominations, or it could win most Oscars without winning Best Picture. Return of the King (11) and Cabaret (8) currently hold those respective records. 3/24

Merrick Morton/Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri could become the fifth film in history to win Best Picture without a directing nomination (after Wings, Grand Hotel, Driving Miss Daisy, and Argo). It has already won SAG Ensemble, Golden Globe Drama, and BAFTA awards. 4/24

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Dunkirk, along with Darkest Hour, Phantom Thread, and The Post could become the eighth film to win Best Picture without a Best Screenplay nomination. (The others are Wings, Broadway Melody, Grand Hotel, Cavalcade, Hamlet, The Sound of Music, and Titanic. 5/24

Merrick Morton/Courtesy of A24 Lady Bird could become the second movie ever to be directed by a woman and win Best Picture. The Hurt Locker is the only film to achieve that feat so far. 6/24

Shutterstock Likewise, Greta Gerwig would be the second woman to ever win for directing, after Kathryn BIgelow for The Hurt Locker. 7/24

Shutterstock Jordan Peele (left) could become the first African-American to win Best Director for Get Out. 8/24

Shutterstock Meryl Streep, who continues to break her own acting nomination record now with 21, could tie Katharine Hepburn for most acting wins with four, if she wins for The Post. (Her other wins are for Kramer vs. Kramer, Sophie's Choice, and The Iron Lady.) 9/24

Shutterstock Same goes for Daniel Day-Lewis, who announced that Phantom Thread would be his final performance. A win would give him four. (His other wins are for My Left Foot, There Will Be Blood, and Lincoln.) 10/24

Sayombhu Mukdeeprom/Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics If Timothée Chalamet pulls off the upset for Best Actor in Call Me By Your Name, he will be the youngest to win that category at 22. Adrien Brody, who won for The Pianist, currently holds the record at age 29. 11/24

Giles Keyte/Courtesy of All The Money US, LLC Christopher Plummer, could break his own record as the oldest person to win an Oscar for acting in All the Money in the World. He was 82 when he won for Beginners in 2012; he is now 88. 12/24

Shutterstock James Ivory could become the oldest Oscar winner ever at 89. He is nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for Call Me By Your Name. All depending on what happens to the next person... 13/24

Shutterstock Agnès Varda (center), who happens to be eight days older than Ivory, is also nominated this year for Best Documentary Feature. If Faces Places wins, she will hold the record. As a bonus, she and her daughter Rosalie (right) could become the first mother-daughter pair to win an Oscar. 14/24

Shutterstock Dee Rees (left) became the first African-American woman to be nominated for Adapted Screenplay, which means she would also be the first to win for Mudbound. 15/24

Shutterstock Another first is Rachel Morrison, who became the first woman nominated for Best Cinematography. It's the last field eligible to nominate a woman. It only took 90 years. She could be the first woman to win for her work on Mudbound. 16/24

Shutterstock Octavia Spencer could join Denzel Washington and become only the second African-American actor to win multiple Oscars. She is nominated for The Shape of Water. Coincidentally, she and Washington were also the first ever African-American actors to be nominated in consecutive years (2017 and 2018). 17/24

Focus Features If Gary Oldman (pictured as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour), Frances McDormand (Three Billboards), Allison Janney (I, Tonya), and Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards) all win Oscars, it will be the first time ever all four acting categories swept the Critics Choice, Golden Globes, SAGs, BAFTAs, and Oscars in one year. 18/24

Kelsee Becker Mary J. Blige is the first person to be nominated for Acting and Original Song in the same year, so if she wins for Mudbound and her song "Mighty River," she would be the first. 19/24

Shutterstock If Benj Pasek (left) and Justin Paul win for their song "This is Me" from The Greatest Showman they would win Best Original Song in consecutive years. That has only happened twice. Pasek and Paul won last year for "City of Stars" in La La Land. 20/24

Stephen Vaughan/Courtesy Warner Bros. If Blade Runner: 2049 can find a way to go 5/5 in its nominations this year, it would tie The Bad and The Beautiful for most wins without a Best Picture nomination. 21/24

Courtesy of 20th Century Fox If Logan wins Best Adapted Screenplay, it would become the first superhero film to win any screenplay award. 22/24

Shutterstock Kobe Bryant, who is nominated for Best Short Film — Animated for Dear Basketball, would be the first NBA player to win an Oscar. 23/24

Kimberly Cecchini / Montclair Film Yance Ford was the first ever transgender director to receive a nomination, and therefore would be the first to win for directing for Strong Island in the Documentary Feature category. 24/24

How History Can Be Made at the 2018 Oscars

There are several different ways the 90th Academy Awards can go down in history on Sunday, March 4, some of which include shattering age-old records.

Flip through to learn some facts about the Oscars you can impress your friends and family with.

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