‘Taxi Driver’ reunion at the Oscars: Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster all nominated

Finally, the end is in sight. The 96th Academy Awards are just around the corner on March 10 after six months of film festivals, critics’ honors and major awards.  So, it’s the perfect time of offer up some fun Oscar facts and tidbits of awards long past as well as the present.

It’s hard to escape all the news reports and late-night pundits discussing the fact that the nominees for President this year are elderly. Joe Biden is 82; Donald Trump is 77 but will be 78 by the time of the election. Let’s face it, Washington, D.C. has become “No District for Old Men.”

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But do you know which best director Oscar nominee is in his 80s?  Martin Scorsese. He’s 81 and still on the top of his game earning his 10th nomination for best director for “Killers of the Flower Moon.” But instead of being a punchline on late night TV, he’s warmly embraced and honored. He recently was honored at the Berlin Film Festival and received the David O. Selznick honor at the Producers Guild of America Awards. Though he’s considered one of the greatest and most influential directors of our time, Scorsese surprisingly has only won one Oscar for best director for 1996’ “The Departed.” Still, he’s earned the most nominations of any living director. And in the history of best director nominees, he’s only two nominations behind after the late William Wyler who won three Academy Awards for 1942’s “Mrs. Miniver,” 1946’s “The Best Years of Out Lives” and 1959’s “Ben-Hur.” Scorsese is also the oldest filmmaker to receive best director Oscar. John Huston previously held that record for 1985’s “Prizzi’s Honor.” He was 79.

Then there is animation legend Hayao Miyazaki who at 83 is back in the Oscar race with his lauded “The Boy and the Heron.”

Let’s not forgot veteran German filmmaker Wim Wenders, 78,  (“Wings of Desire”) who’s latest film, “Perfect Days” is up for best international feature film.

And five-time winner John Williams, 92, ss nominated for his 54th Oscar for his “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” score. Only Walt Disney has received more nominations with 59.

Two of this year’s supporting actor nominees are Robert De Niro for “Killers of the Flower Moon” and Jodie Foster for “Nyad.” Forty-seven years ago, the two were nominated for Oscars for Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver.” De Niro earned a best actor nod; Foster received a supporting actress nomination.

Did you know that Tom Conti, who portrays Albert Einstein in the Oscar front-runner “Oppenheimer,” was nominated for best actor 40 years ago for the comedy-drama “Reuben, Reuben.” He lost the honor to Robert Duvall for “Tender Mercies.”

And then there’s John Lithgow. He plays prosecutor Peter Leaward in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.” And just as Conti, he was an Oscar nominee in 1984, receiving his nod for supporting actor for his role as Sam Burns in “Terms of Endearment.” He lost out to his  ‘Terms of Endearment” co-star, the only and only Jack Nicholson.

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