John Williams is 91 years old, Martin Scorsese is 81. Both are among the 2024 Oscar nominees, making them the oldest living nominees in Academy Awards history. Williams in the Best Music category for “Indiana Jones and the Wheel of Fortune.” Scorsese for Best Director for his film “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
John Williams and the Oscars
The American film composer John Williams has long been considered a living legend. The first Oscar was awarded in 1972 for his score for the musical film adaptation “Anatevka”. However, his breakthrough came in 1975 when he won the Oscar for Best Original Score for Jaws and began working with director Steven Spielberg.
The collaboration between Williams and Spielberg continued and became a Hollywood myth in itself. Their work together spanned many films, including ET: The Extra-Terrestrial, Indiana Jones and Schindler’s List. These works earned Williams numerous nominations and awards. Of course, Williams also made himself one of the greatest in his genre with a certain Star Wars saga.
With a total of 54 nominations and five Academy Awards wins, he is something of a regular at the Gold Statues ceremony and is the second most Oscar nominee of all time after Walt Disney. Before Scorsese, he is by some distance the oldest living person ever to be nominated for an Oscar.
Williams originally planned to retire after working on Indiana Jones and the Wheel of Fortune. But it wasn’t until December that the 91-year-old said: “If a film came along that I was very interested in and whose schedule I could keep, I wouldn’t want to rule anything out. Everything is possible. Everything is ahead of us. Only our borders hold us back. Or, to put it more simply: I am always open.”
Martin Scorsese and the Oscars
Director Martin Scorsese also has a long Oscar history, although it took a while before he was able to take home the gold statue for Best Director. Scorsese’s first nomination for the award in the category came in 1981 for “Raging Bull.”
However, it wasn’t until 2007 that the 81-year-old finally won the coveted Hollywood award – for “The Departed” (2006). The film also received the award for “Best Film”. Further nominations followed for “Hugo Cabret” (2011), “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013) and “The Irishman” (2019), but the 2007 award remained his only Oscar to date.
Scorsese has ten nominations, making him the second-most nominated director in Academy Awards history, behind the late William Wyler, who was nominated twelve times. At 81, he is also the oldest candidate for the directing award.
The 2024 Oscars ceremony will take place on October 1st. March.