Oscar nominees who made history this year

Ariana DeBose

The much-awaited nominations for Oscars 2022 were announced recently. Many celebrities, including Will Smith, Denzel Washington, and Ariana DeBose, among others, made history for their outstanding performances.

Renowned Hollywood actor Denzel Washington remains the Oscars' most-nominated Black actor. He earned his tenth nomination for "The Tragedy of Macbeth", breaking his own record.

Denzel Washington

However, the "Training Day" the actor hasn't won any Academy Award in 20 years. Denzel Washington has only received two Oscars for his movies "Glory," at the 1990 awards, and the second for "Training Day," in 2002.

Jane Campion's "The Power of the Dog" leads this year's Oscar board with 12 nominations. The noted director scored a 'Best Director' nomination this year. Jane Campion is the first woman ever to be nominated twice in the category. Her first nomination was for the 1993 film "The Piano." That same year, she won an Oscar for best screenplay for the same movie.

Will Smith received his third and fourth Oscar nominations for 'Best Actor' and shared the 'Best Picture' nomination with Tim White and Trevor White for the film "King Richard".  The noted actor is on the race for an Oscar for the first time in 15 years.

Will Smith is the ninth person and second Black man (Washington was nominated in both categories for 'Fences') to be nominated for both acting in and producing the same film in the same year. Earlier on, he got a 'Best Actor' nomination for the Muhammad Ali biopic "Ali" in 2002 and for "The Pursuit of Happyness" in 2007.

Javier Bardem

Star couple Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem jointly created history with their Oscar nominations. The duo are the sixth married couple to be nominated in acting categories in the same year at the Oscars.

Bardem got nominated for best actor for his role as Desi Arnaz in "Being the Ricardos," while Cruz bagged the Best Actress nomination for her role as Janis in "Parallel Mothers."

Filmmaker Kenneth Branagh holds the record as the first person ever to be nominated for seven different individual Oscar categories in total throughout his career, after securing nominations for 'Best Picture' and 'Best Original Screenplay' for "Belfast."

Will Smith

The Academy Awards created history by recognising nine first-time nominees in acting categories this year.  The nominees include DeBose (West Side Story), Kristen Stewart (Spencer), Kirsten Dunst (The Power of the Dog), Aunjanue Ellis (King Richard), Ciarán Hinds (Belfast), Troy Kotsur (CODA), Jesse Plemons (The Power of the Dog) and Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog).

The Oscars has been praised for creating a diverse set of nominees this year. The Academy Awards is slated to air on March 27 at Hollywood's Dolby Theatre. For the first time in three years, the Oscars will have a host in 2022.

Photos: Collected