Revisiting Clint Eastwood’s Oscar nominations (and wins) in honor of ‘Juror #2’

“Juror #2” marks the latest film from director Clint Eastwood, who has been nominated for and has won multiple Academy Awards in his long career. The legal drama, which is garnering Oscar buzz, opens in limited release on November 1 and stars Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, and J.K. Simmons. In honor of “Juror #2,” let’s take a look back at Eastwood’s many Oscar nominations.

The 94-year-old filmmaker started his career as an actor in the 1950s, appearing in such projects as the long-running TV series “Rawhide” and the “Man with No Name” trilogy by Sergio Leone. Eastwood’s feature directorial debut arrived in 1971 with the psychological thriller “Play Misty for Me,” and then he continued directing numerous films in the 1970s and 1980s, like the beloved westerns “The Outlaw Josey Whales” and “Pale Rider.” At the start of the 1990s, his only major awards recognition at a televised ceremony was winning Best Director for “Bird” at the 1989 Golden Globes. Unfortunately, despite that victory, he did not go on to receive an Oscar nomination for that movie.

But then his landmark 1992 western “Unforgiven” changed everything. After directing films for more than 20 years, Eastwood finally received numerous trophies for his work, winning Best Director for “Unforgiven” at Golden Globes, DGA, and the Oscars. His competition in the category at the Academy Awards were Neil Jordan for “The Crying Game,” James Ivory for “Howards End,” Robert Altman for “The Player,” and Martin Brest for “Scent of a Woman,” and ultimately nobody could overtake him. He also earned trophies for Best Picture at the Golden Globes and the Oscars, and was nominated for Best Actor at the latter, losing to Al Pacino for “Scent of a Woman.” In addition, BAFTA nominated him for the first time in both Best Director and Best Film, although he lost there to Altman in Director and “Howards End” in Picture.

After receiving the Irving G. Thalberg Honorary Academy Award in the mid 1990s, Eastwood made popular fare like “The Bridges of Madison County” and “Space Cowboys. His next film that became a major awards player was 2003’s crime drama “Mystic River,” which went on to win the Oscars for Sean Penn in Best Actor and Tim Robbins in Best Supporting Actor. Eastwood received Best Director nominations at Golden Globes, Critics Choice, DGA, and the Academy Awards. However, that was the year of “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” so he lost everywhere that season to Peter Jackson and the acclaimed trilogy conclusion, which dominated at the Oscars with a clean sweep of 11 victories.

Eastwood came roaring back the following year with the celebrated boxing drama “Million Dollar Baby,” which ended up taking awards season by storm. For a long while Martin Scorsese appeared to be the favorite to win the Best Director Academy Award for his epic period film “The Aviator” after never having taken the gold trophy in his long career, but Eastwood’s movie broke out in December of 2004 with massive acclaim from critics and audiences, beginning an awards surge for “Million Dollar Baby.” Eastwood once again won Best Director at Golden Globes and DGA, and at the Oscars the film won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress for Hilary Swank, and Best Supporting Actor for Morgan Freeman. In Best Director at the Academy Awards, Eastwood was up against Scorsese along with Taylor Hackford for “Ray,” Alexander Payne for “Sideways,” and Mike Leigh for “Vera Drake,” but Eastwood couldn’t be stopped. He was also nominated for Best Actor for the first time since “Unforgiven,” losing that trophy to Jamie Foxx for “Ray.”

Eastwood’s next Oscar-nominated film became the World War II drama “Letters from Iwo Jima,” a companion piece to his other 2006 war movie, “Flags of Our Fathers,” which had come out a few months earlier. “Letters from Iwo Jimo” became the awards player of the two, earning nominations in Best Director for Eastwood at Golden Globes and both Director and Picture at Critics Choice. “Letters from Iwo Jima” received four Academy Award nominations in total — Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, and Sound Editing, winning in the latter category. Sadly, Eastwood didn’t stand a chance of winning a third Director Oscar that year since 2006 was the year of “The Departed,” and the overdue Scorsese and his popular crime drama ended up taking the top two prizes at the Academy Awards.

Since 2007, Eastwood has been recognized with some major nominations here and there. At the Golden Globes, he received a Director nomination for “Invictus,” plus Original Score for “Changeling,” Best Original Song for “Gran Torino” and double music noms for “Grace is Gone.” His only Oscar nomination since 2007 has been Best Picture for the 2014 box office smash “American Sniper,” starring Bradley Cooper. He also received a DGA nomination for the film and appeared likely to get into the Director category at the Academy Awards, but despite the movie making it into Picture along with Best Actor for Cooper, Eastwood was overlooked in the directing category.

Since “American Sniper,” Eastwood has made such acclaimed Oscar-nominated dramas as 2016’s “Sully” and 2019’s “Richard Jewell.” Is it possible that he will receive more awards nominations or wins for his latest film “Juror #2”? Only time will tell.

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