Martin Scorsese Nominated for Record 10th Director Oscar, Passing Steven Spielberg

Martin Scorsese has now earned more Oscar nominations for best director than anyone alive.

The Academy nominated the 81-year-old icon for his film Killers of the Flower Moon on Tuesday.

Scorsese now has 10 best director nominations, surpassing Steven Spielberg, who has nine. Scorsese has won the category just once — for 2006’s The Departed. On that front, Spielberg still has one up on Scorsese, having won the category twice (for 1994’s Schindler’s List and 1999’s Saving Private Ryan).

There is one deceased director who has more than 10 Oscar nominations for this category. Care to make a guess?

William Wyler, who was nominated 12 times, and won three times, for films such as 1959’s Ben-Hur.

To win the category this year, Scorsese will have to beat out Justine Triet (Anatomy of a Fall), Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer), Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things), and Jonathan Glazer (Zone of Interest). Surprisingly absent from the nomination list: Greta Gerwig for Barbie.

Beyond Scorsese, Spielberg and Wyler, Billy Wilder was nominated in the category eight times, Woody Allen was nominated seven times, and David Lean was nominated seven times. Other well-known directors with multiple nominations in this category include Frank Capra (six), John Ford (five), Alfred Hitchcock (five), Francis Ford Coppola (four), Clint Eastwood (four), and Stanley Kubrick (four).

Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon was also nominated for best picture, with Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro also receiving nominations for their performances.

See here for a complete list of Oscar nominations.