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French director Agnès Varda, 89, becomes oldest ever Oscar nominee
Agnès Varda has become the oldest Academy Award nominee in Hollywood history.
The 89-year-old French director today earned a place on the Oscars Documentary Feature line-up for her film Visages Villages ("Faces Places").
The film, a collaboration with pseudonymous French artist JR, takes the form of a series of interviews with ordinary people living in rural France.
Speaking to Indiewire last year, Varda said that she may retire from film-making. “I’m not sure I’ll make another film,” she told the website.
"It’s like boxing – they do an additional match they shouldn’t do," she continued. "I’m not sure I should do another one. But I also do exhibitions, installations. I’m not going to bed.”
The Belgium-born director, a pioneer of the Fifties "New Wave" movement, is not the only octogenarian on this year's Oscars list.
James Ivory, the 89-year-old co-founder of the Merchant Ivory film company, earned a nomination for his screenplay for the romantic drama Call Me By Your Name.
Christopher Plummer, 88, has had a Supporting Actor nomination for his performance as oil tycoon Jean Paul Getty III in All the Money in the World, having replaced 58-year-old Kevin Spacey in the role following a last-minute reshoot, after the younger actor became the subject of sexual misconduct allegations.
Until this year, the oldest Oscar nominee had been American actress Gloria Stuart, who at 87 earned a Supporting Actress nomination for her role in the 1997 blockbuster Titanic.