We’ve noted the dozens of nominees and Oscar winners among the cast and crew of Nine. But of course Nine’s Oscar pedigree extends back more than 45 years — through the legacy of Federico Fellini. Fellini was nominated 11 time for screenwriting and directing before finally being awarded an honorary Oscar in 1993, just seven months before his death.
8 1/2 was nominated for 5 Oscars in 1964 — Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Art Direction, and won for Best Costume Design and Best Foreign Language Film. Fellini’s nomination was only the third time in Academy history that a director of a foreign language film had been recognized. The first time was 2 years earlier when Fellini himself was nominated for La Dolce Vita [EDIT] the same year Sophia Loren won Best Actress for Two Women, which makes for a nice poetic bookend.
It might be said that Fellini helped establish the Academy precedent of nominating the director of challenging films that might be a tad too artistic for Best Picture — the disconnect most recently felt by Paul Greengrass and Julian Schnabel.
In 1982, 18 years after Fellini’s 8 1/2, the Broadway production of Nine was nominated for 10 Tony Awards and won 5 — Best Musical, Best Score, Best Costume Design, and Best Direction, by Tommy Tune. Nine earned three Best Actress nominations in a 3-way tie, [EDIT] with Karen Akers and Anita Morris nominated as Guido’s wife Luisa and his mistress Carla, and Liliane Montevecchi winning the Tony as his agent Liliane La Fleur — the roles reincarnated 27 years later by Marion Cottilard, Penelope Cruz and Judi Dench.
12 Responses for "Nine’s Oscar Ancestors"
Forgot to meantion that the 2003 revival of Nine was nominated for 6 Tony Awards and won 2:
Best Revival of a Musical
& Best Featured Actress in a Musical –
another 3-way tie, shared by Mary Stuart Masterson, Chita Rivera, and Jane Krakowski. [wrong, wrong, wrong.]I could be wrong, but I don’t think Loren was in La Dolce Vita….
ryan, those were just nominations – the winners were montevicchi and krakowski in their respective years.
According to IBDB all were nominated in Featured Actress Category.
But Montevicchi and Krakowski won.
ok, thanks for shredding my whole damn post, you guys.
Sloppy googling. I misread the nominations and winners on wiki, and totally misremembered the rest of it.
Sophia Loren was the first actress to win Best Actress in a foreign language film, for Two Women in 1962. How about that?
that’s a good rally, ryan!
Haha, Ryan, it was a good try tho. The poetic bookend still stands…it’ll be interesting to see what comes of this in the next year.
You guys kill me:)))
Fun-Like Fact: The year NINE won Best Musical, its strongest competition was the original production of DREAMGIRLS.
8½ is one of the best films ever. Here’s hoping Nine lives up to it.
“8 1/2 is one of the best films ever. Here’s hoping Nine lives up to it”
I agree with you there, yet I hope that when NINE does come out, people don’t think of it as 8 1/2 with songs. The musical NINE was simply INSPIRED by it..
Not to mention the many Oscar nominations and wins, along with the Palm d’Or for All That Jazz an earlier, musical descendent of the Fellini film.
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