Is it a coincience that four of the Best Director nominees are first times, or are we seeing a significant changing of the guards in Hollywood It's hard to recall a year in which the directors were so young, in both biological age and helming experience.

Two of the five Best Actress nominess are first-timers in the Oscar race: French Marion Cotillard and Candaian Ellen Page. No French actress has ever won the acting Oscar for a Frenhc film: Simone Signoret won the 1959 Actress kudo for the English-speaking, “Room at the Top,” and Juliette Binoche the 1996 Supporting Actress for “The English Patient.”

This is the second acting nomination for George Clooney, who won the Supporting Actor Oscar in 2005 for “Syriana.” Daniel Day-Lewis had received his first Best Actor Oscar in 1989 for “My Left Foot.” His fourth nomination this year follows two others in the lead category: “In the Name of the Father,” in 1993, and “Gangs of New York,” in 2002.

Ruby Dee has been nominated for the Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in
Ridley Scott's crime-gangster biopic, “American Gangster,” in which she plays Denzel Washington's mother. This is the first time nomination for Ruby Dee, who's the only African American (or woman of color for that matter) nominee among the 20 thespians singled out in the four acting categories.