Youngest best actress?
January 10, 2013
The nominations for this year's Oscars on Thursday featured both the youngest and oldest ever nominees in the category of best actress.
At nine years old, Quvenzhane Wallis (pictured above) is at the lower end of that age spectrum, having been just five years old when she auditioned for the part.
In the low budget fantasy movie "Beasts of the Southern Wild" Wallis plays Hushpuppy, a six-year-old living in an isolated southern Louisiana bayou community. As well as coping with her own domestic problems, Hushpuppy must adapt and survive in a world that is being dramatically altered by climate change.
As well as the youngest actress, this year's Academy nominations also feature the oldest ever female nominee, Emmanuelle Riva, who is currently 85 years old.
Tale of love and ageing
In the film "Amour," directed by Munich-born Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke, Riva plays Anna, a retired music teacher suffering from the effects of a stroke.
The film, a tale of love and ageing in French, secured five nominations in all, including best foreign language film.
Leading contenders for best actor included Daniel Day-Lewis in the historical political drama "Lincoln" and Hugh Jackman for "Les Miserables."
In best supporting actor, there was a nod to Austrian-German actor Christoph Waltz for his part as an undercover bounty-hunter in Quentin Tarantino's Western-style slavery saga "Django Unchained."
Overall, the movie with the most nominations was "Lincoln," which had 12 in total, including best director for Steven Spielberg.
The 3D adventure "Life of Pi," based on the novel by Yann Martel, had the second-highest number of nominations, 11 in all.
rc/dr (Reuters, dpa, AFP)