Oscars 2013: Best Actress category breaks two records

The 2013 Oscar nominations threw up not one but TWO new age-related records in the Best Actress category.

[Related story: Full list of 2013 Oscar nominations]

Record breakers... Quvenzhané Wallis and Emmanuelle Riva (Credits: Wenn and PA)

First up, Quvenzhané Wallis becomes the YOUNGEST Best Actress nominee ever. The ‘Beasts Of The Southern Wild’ star is just 9 years and 135 days old, more than four years younger than previous record holder Keisha Castle-Hughes, who was the ripe old age of thirteen when she got a nod for ‘The Whale Rider’ in 2003.

The youngest nominee in any competitive category that we could find was Justin Henry – eight-years-old when the Academy honoured him for ‘Kramer vs. Kramer’ in 1979.

At the other end of the scale, 84-year-old French veteran Emmanuelle Riva becomes the OLDEST ‘Best Actress’ nominee for Michael Haneke’s stately drama ‘Amour’, breaking the record previously held by Jessica Tandy of ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ fame.

She’ll hope to emulate Tandy by winning the prize itself at the awards show, held on 24 February at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

The oldest actress to ever get a nomination was Gloria Stuart, who picked up a Best Supporting Actress nod for her superb work in ‘Titanic’ in 1997.

Jennifer Lawrence (‘Silver Linings Playbook’), Jessica Chastain (‘Zero Dark Thirty’) and Naomi Watts (‘The Impossible’) also got Best Actress nominations. Lawrence is undoubtedly the favourite – she is 4/9 to win with bookies Paddy Power.