Oscar Nominees Include Oldest, Youngest Actresses

The Oscars made a little history with this morning's nominations: They include the oldest woman nominated for best actress—85-year-old Emmanuelle Riva—along with the youngest—9-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis, reports the Los Angeles Times. Quvenzhane was only 6 when she shot Beasts of the Southern Wild, about a girl growing up in the bayou, and it was her first time acting. Riva, who has been in the business since 1958, is up for her role in Amour.

It's the first nomination for both, but that's not the case for the three actresses they're up against. Naomi Watts (The Impossible), Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty), and Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook) have been nominated once before. That's especially notable for Lawrence, who is just 22. She got a nod in 2010 for Winter's Bone. The Huffington Post has more on the little dynamo that is Quvenzhane. A blogger at Slate, meanwhile, thinks Zero Dark Thirty director Kathryn Bigelow got robbed. (More Oscars stories.)