Oscar Nominations 2022: Steven Spielberg Breaks New Academy Award Record

Steven Spielberg's 2021 remake of West Side Story, which notably flopped at the box office but gained considerable critical acclaim, has received seven Academy Award nominations for the 2022 Oscars. With those nominations, he became the only person in Oscar history to be nominated for Best Director in six different decades.

Oscar Nominations for West Side Story

Ariana DeBose was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, with the movie itself earning nominations for Best Production Design, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Sound, Best Picture, and Best Director.

Aside from being Spielberg's first musical genre film, West Side Story's Oscar nominations have shattered the director's own record.

Steven Spielberg’s Illustrious Career

Since his first Best Director nomination in 1978 for Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the 75-year-old has been recognized in at least one of the Academy's Best Director lineups for his work on Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T. (1982), Schindler's List (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Munich (2005), and Lincoln (2012), with Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan winning the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1994 and 1999, respectively.

Before his nomination for West Side Story, Spielberg had had 17 nominations in his career, including the two aforementioned wins and a Best Picture triumph as a producer of Schindler's List. At the 1987 Academy Awards, he received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award.

Spielberg's 2022 nomination breaks his tie with fellow Hollywood heavyweight Martin Scorsese, who has also been nominated for Best Director across five decades.

The 94th Academy Awards

The Oscars are back for another year, this time honoring the greatest films made in 2021. The Power of the Dog, King Richard, and West Side Story appear to be frontrunners in the best picture competition, with crowd favorite Don't Look Up having an outside shot.

Drive My Car, Nightmare Alley, Belfast, and Licorice Pizza are also nominated for multiple awards. For best director, Spielberg is up against Paul Thomas Anderson, Kenneth Branagh, Jane Campion, and Ryûsuke Hamaguchi.

The 94th Academy Awards will be televised live on ABC on Sunday, Mar. 27. Leslie Jordan, Tracee Ellis Ross, and a slew of other healthcare workers, school kids, and regular people revealed the nominees on Tuesday.