25 notable 2020 Oscar nominees who've been nominated before

Martin Scorsese’s ninth Best Director nomination pushed him ahead of Billy Wilder on the multi-nominee list and just three behind William Wyler’s all-time record of 12. Scorsese probably should have surpassed Wyler by now, but the Academy inexplicably failed to nominate him for “Taxi Driver” and couldn’t get with the greatness of classics like “The King of Comed,"  “After Hours," “The Color of Money” and “Casino."

John Williams’ 52nd Academy Award nod (for “Star Wars: Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker”) makes him the second-most nominated artist in the history of the Oscars next to Walt freakin’ Disney. His career predates his best known creative collaboration (with director Steven Spielberg) by almost a decade (his first nomination was for 1968’s “Valley of the Dolls”), and given that this film will mark the end of his 42-year run on the “Star Wars” franchise, he could be a sentimental favorite to win his first Oscar in this category since 1994 (for “Schindler’s List”). 

Twenty-five-year-old Saoirse Ronan just earned her fourth Academy Award nomination, which puts her on pace to overtake the 12-nod totals of legends Jack Nicholson and Katharine Hepburn. She’s got a  long way to go before she’s within striking distance of Meryl Streep’s 21 (and counting), but when the Oscars fall in love with a performer, as they’ve clearly done with Ronan, they tend to keep bringing them back. As long as the youngster doesn’t decide to revive the “Police Academy” franchise, she’s got a blindingly bright awards future ahead of her.

When it comes to the Best Original Score category, composer Alexandre Desplat is definitely the new hotness. He’s been nominated eleven times since 2007 and has won twice over the last five years (for “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and “The Shape of Water”). He’s back this year for “Little Women,” and if you’re in an Oscar pool, he just might be your best bet.

The South African movie star won the Best Actress Oscar on her first nomination (as serial killer Aileen Wuornos in “Monster”), and she just picked up her third Academy Awards nod with her makeup-enhanced portrayal of Megyn Kelly in “Bombshell” (though she should’ve been recognized for her gloriously goofy performance in “Long Shot”). She was also in the running for her leading turn in “North Country” and will probably be back this way many more times before her brilliant career is over.

Superstar songwriter Diane Warren has been nominated 11 times for Best Original Song but has somehow never taken home the trophy. How long has Warren been at it? She received her first nod in 1988 for “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” from “Mannequin." She’s in the running this year for “I’m Standing with You” from the faith-based film “Breakthrough," which seems unlikely to do as its title suggests. 

Randy Newman’s score for “Marriage Story” and his ditty from “Toy Story 4” (“I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away”) earned the singer-songwriter his 21st and 22nd nominations from the Academy. He’s won only twice (in the Song category for “Monster’s Inc.” and “Toy Story 3”), but his subtly moving music for Noah Baumbach’s divorce drama might just put him over the top for the first time in Best Original Score.

If you asked most people which film earned Zellweger her first (and thus far only) Academy Award, they’d probably guess her star-making performance as Tom Cruise’s secretary-turned-wife in “Jerry Maguire” or her razzle-dazzle turn as murderess Roxie Hart in “Chicago." Nope. The Texas-born actress won for her supporting portrayal of the resourceful Ruby Thewes in Anthony Minghella’s uneven Civil War epic, “Cold Mountain." It’s been 16 years since her last nomination, but Zellweger is expected to win her second Oscar for capturing the tragic spirit of a showbiz legend in “Judy."

Kathy Bates’s fourth Oscar nomination is her first since 2003 (Best Supporting Actress for “About Schmidt”). Her sole win was in 1991 when she terrorized James Caan and audiences alike as psychotic literary super-fan Annie Wilkes in “Misery." She’s far more sympathetic as the mother of a wrongly accused security guard in Clint Eastwood’s “Richard Jewell” and, who knows, maybe she can score the upset win over Laura Dern.

You might be surprised to see Phillips’ name on this list, but the filmmaker best known for raunchy hit comedies like “Road Trip," “Old School” and “The Hangover” trilogy previously snagged a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for his contributions to “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan." He was also the director of Sacha Baron Cohen’s wild satire before being replaced early in principal photography by Larry Charles.

Sam Mendes scored the ultimate beginner’s luck by winning the Best Director Oscar for his first feature, “American Beauty." He’s made some strong films since then (e.g. “Road to Perdition," “Revolutionary Road” and “Away We Go”), and a couple of James Bond movies (“Skyfall” and “Spectre”), but none of these pictures managed to catch fire during awards season. Twenty years after “American Beauty," he’s very much in the running to win his second Best Director trophy, for the technically dazzling “1917."

Tarantino is thrice-nominated this year for “Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood” (Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay), raising his nomination total to eight overall. He’s won Original Screenplay twice (for “Pulp Fiction” and “Django Unchained”), but given his unenthusiastic speech after winning Best Screenplay at the 2020 Golden Globes, you get the sense that only a Best Director or Picture win will satiate the iconic auteur.

The one-time teen heartthrob is nominated for the seventh time in his celebrated career, which stretches back to his portrayal of a mentally disabled young man in 1994’s “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape." Like many great actors, DiCaprio had to wait for his first win after the Academy passed him over for “The Aviator," “Blood Diamond” and “The Wolf of Wall Street” before finally giving him the top male performing prize for “The Revenant." He’s got a shot at win No. 2 this year for his hilariously endearing portrayal of washed-up TV star Rick Dalton.

Randy Newman’s cousin earned his 15th Best Original Score nomination this year (for “1917”), and there’s a sense that it’s finally time to honor the gifted composer of themes for such classics as “Real Genius," “The Player," “The Shawshank Redemption," “Finding Nemo” and “WALL-E." There’s a good chance someone in the Newman family is getting off the schneid on Oscar night, and we’re pulling for the one who hasn’t won in any category.

Driver earned his first Oscar nomination last year for his scintillating portrayal of a Jewish cop who infiltrates the KKK with the help of his African-American partner in Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman." He’s back this year for his anguished lead performance in Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story”. It seems likely he’ll be a runner-up again this year (no one’s beating Joaquin Phoenix), but let’s hope the Academy doesn’t make the youngster wait a couple of decades before acknowledging his remarkable talent.

Joaquin Phoenix’s fourth nomination is almost certainly going to be the charm, as his searing performance in “Joker” has been racking up awards season wins since December. His first nomination came in 2001 (Best Supporting Actor for “Gladiator”), and he was very much in the Best Actor running for his stunning work in James Mangold’s “Walk the Line” and Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master." He should’ve been nominated last year for Lynne Ramsay’s unforgettable “You Were Never Really Here," but that film proved too rough of a ride for most Academy voters.

Tom Hanks’s sixth Oscar nomination marks his first time competing for Best Supporting Actor. (He’s always been in the lead category.) It looks like the trophy belongs to Brad Pitt this year, but do not underestimate Hanks’ hugely affecting turn as the impossibly decent and gentle Fred Rogers in Marielle Heller’s charming biopic, "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood."

Amazingly, Pacino’s ninth nomination is his first since he won a long overdue Best Actor Oscar for “Scent of a Woman” in 1993. He’d previously been passed over for his indelible work in the “The Godfather," “The Godfather Part II” and “Dog Day Afternoon” and won what should’ve been Denzel Washington’s trophy that year (for “Malcolm X”). He’s sensational in Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” as fiery Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa; it’s a return-to-form performance that suggests the old lion still has plenty of roar left in him.

Pesci’s first live-action performance in nearly a decade, as mob big-timer Russell Bufalino in Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman," was entrancing for its calm, calculating menace; it’s a stunning 180 from his iconic portrayal of loose-cannon Tommy DeVito in “Goodfellas” (for which he won Best Supporting Actor in 1991). He was also nominated for Scorsese’s “Raging Bull” in 1981. Basically, if Pesci wants to get recognized by his peers, he needs to answer Scorsese’s calls more often.

The golden boy of modern American cinema received nomination No. 7 for winning our hearts as knockabout stuntman Cliff Booth in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood” (who might’ve killed his wife, but, y’know, things happen). He won his first Oscar in 2014 as a producer on “12 Years a Slave” but previously came up short in the performance categories for “Moneyball," “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “12 Monkeys." His production company's "The Big Short" also was nominated for Best Picture.) This should be his year.

The Australian superstar wowed Academy members as tragically ambitious figure skater Tonya Harding in 2017’s “I, Tonya” and just chalked up her second nomination as a Fox News employee who eventually steps forward as a victim of sexual harassment in “Bombshell." Though the character is thinly drawn, Robbie portrays a beguiling mixture of naiveté and ambition.

“Little Women” was the opposite of a sophomore slump for filmmaker Greta Gerwig. Her follow-up to 2017’s “Lady Bird” is an inventive retelling of one of the most filmed novels in motion picture history, earning her a well-deserved second Best Screenplay nomination (this time for Adapted) and a widely lamented snub in the Best Director category. It seems unlikely that she’ll win this year but two films in, there’s no denying that Gerwig is a top-tier talent whose career is just heating up.

There isn’t a more consistently brilliant performer working today than Laura Dern, so why isn’t she on her fifth or sixth nomination instead of her third. She made the Best Actress cut in 1992 as a sexually liberated young woman in Martha Coolidge’s excellent “Rambling Rose” and earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination in 2015 for her flashback-bound portrayal of Reese Witherspoon’s mother in “Wild." She’s back again this year as a persuasive divorce lawyer in Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story, and at long last she’s favored to win.

Noah Baumbach has been an indie darling since his debut feature, 1995’s “Kicking and Screaming," but his acerbically funny films have generally played better with critics than general audiences or Academy voters. He earned his first Oscar nomination in 2006 for his caustic divorce drama “The Squid and the Whale” and is finally back in prestige favor this year with another divorce drama, “Marriage Story." There’s not a more acute observer of fractured marriages than Baumbach, and this brilliant script is as good as anything he’s ever written.

This is Reg’s first return trip to the Oscars since he dominated the Best Original Song category in 1995 with three tracks from “The Lion King” (winning for the saccharine “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”), and it is his first time being nominated alongside his longtime lyricist, Bernie Taupin, which is fitting since the tune in question, “I’m Gonna Love Me Again," is from the jukebox musical-biopic of John’s life: “Rocketman." Ironically, Beyoncé’s song from the CGI-remake of “The Lion King” did not make the cut for this oft-unpredictable category.