The youngest Oscar winner in every Academy Award category
The Academy Awards present many historical and infamous moments in cinema history, arriving in the shape of never before seen landmarks, record-breaking achievements, or overall iconic incidents. The annual red carpet event is the biggest spectacle in Hollywood, looking to celebrate the best in all cinematic fields and honour those who work endlessly behind and in front of the camera.
The Oscars has witnessed many pivotal events over the years, such as the first woman to win ‘Best Director’ or the first foreign language film to claim victory in the ‘Best Picture’ category. These landmarks exemplify the Academy’s potential to create opportunities for change, breaking boundaries for film creators and stars in the process.
Another area that the Oscars forge history is by handing awards to the youngest nominees, highlighting a monumental triumph in a young creative’s career, given that winning one of the highest movie awards at a young age makes for a terrific display of skill and talent way beyond their years.
To gain such an accolade so young and make history for it is something a nominee accepts with the utmost gratitude and charm, having their name cemented in the Academy history and industry from that moment on. Here, we explore the youngest to ever do it.
The youngest Oscar winners:
Who is the youngest Oscar winner ever?
The youngest Oscar winner in history is actor Tatum O’Neal, who won ‘Best Supporting Actress’ for her role in Paper Moon in 1974 when she was just ten years old, a spectacular achievement. Starring opposite her father makes the moment even more special.
However, O’Neal attended the 46th Academy Awards without her father, who had been called elsewhere due to a busy schedule. The star was nominated against Linda Blair for her role in The Exorcist who was only four years older than O’Neal.
The star has held the title of the youngest Academy Award winner ever, alongside the youngest ‘Best Supporting Actress’, for 48 years.
The youngest winner of the ‘Best Actor’ Oscar
Adrien Brody is the youngest recipient of the ‘Best Actor’ award, which he won in 2003 at age 29 during the 75th Academy Awards.
Brody earned victory for his brilliant performance in Roman Polanski’s The Pianist, a biographical war drama depicting the Holocaust, in which the actor “had to sacrifice large parts of (his) personal life” in order to work on. This film also – albeit controversially – won ‘Best Director’ for Polanski and ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ for Ronald Harwood.
Brody’s victory meant that he defeated fellow nominee Jack Nicholson, who holds an Oscar record for being one of only two actors to be nominated for an Academy Award for acting in films made in every decade from the 1960s to the 2000s. Brody also defeated Daniel Day-Lewis, who was nominated for Gangs of New York, Adaption’s Nicholas Cage, and Michael Caine for The Quiet American.
The youngest winner of the ‘Best Actress’ Oscar
Marlee Matlin was 21 when she became the youngest winner of the ‘Best Actress’ award in 1987. Another impressive element of this historic victory is that the actor won during her film debut role as Sarah Norman in Children of a Lesser God, directed by Randa Haines. Matlin is also the first deaf actor to win an Academy Award, playing a deaf character in a film that focuses on conflicts in a school for those with hearing impediments.
At the 58th Academy Awards, the actor was nominated against 44-year-old Jane Fonda for The Morning After, Sigourney Weaver for the sequel Aliens, who was 11 years older, Crimes of the Heart’s Sissy Spacek, who was also 11 years older and 27-year-old Kathleen Turner for Peggy Sue Got Married.
The youngest winner of the ‘Best Director’ Oscar
When it comes to those working behind the camera, Damien Chazelle takes the spot as the youngest person to win ‘Best Director’. The filmmaker won the award in 2017 when he was 32, thanks to the musical romance movie La La Land, at the 89th Academy Awards. The film, starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, was also up for ‘Best Picture’, and for a brief moment, it did claim victory. However, it was soon revealed in a shocking and never-before-seen moment that there had been a mix-up, with Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight being the actual recipient.
Chazelle defeated Jenkins, who was six years older, for the ‘Best Director’ trophy. The filmmaker was also nominated against 55-year-old Kenneth Lonergan for Manchester By The Sea and Mel Gibson, who was 61, for Hacksaw Ridge.
The youngest winner of the ‘Best Original Screenplay’ Oscar
The youngest recipient of ‘Best Original Screenplay’ goes to a creative that has seen all stages of filmmaking, from acting to directing, solidifying his presence in movie history. Ben Affleck won the award in 1998 at age 25, earning praise for his movie Good Will Hunting, which he wrote with Matt Damon, who shared the prize with him at 27.
Good Will Hunting is a masterclass on sentimental and powerful writing in cinema, emphasising the values of wisdom, love, compassion and growth in a beautifully written film. Gus Van Sant’s attentive direction and the terrific performances of Damon and Robin Williams elevated these thematic concepts from the page, with Williams taking home the Academy Award for ‘Best Supporting Actor’ that year.
The other nominees for this award at the 70th Academy Awards included Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights, Mark Andrus and James L. Brooks’ As Good as it Gets, Woody Allen’s Deconstructing Mary and Simon Beaufoy’s The Full Monty.
The youngest winner of the ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ Oscar
Charlie Wachtel is the youngest writer to win the Academy Award for ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ for BlacKkKlansman, which he adapted from Ron Stallworth’s book. The writer was 32 when he received the award at the 91st Academy Awards in 2019, holding the shortest record for the youngest Oscar winner at just three years.
Wachtel’s script is about the first African-American detective in the city’s police department as he sets out to infiltrate and expose the local Ku Klux Klan chapter, with Spike Lee performing as the director who also earned an Oscar nomination for the film. The writer went up against the Coen brothers’ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty’s Can You Ever Forgive Me? Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk and Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper and Will Fetters’ A Star Is Born.
The youngest winner of the ‘Best Supporting Actor’ Oscar
The youngest ‘Best Supporting Actor’ winner was crowned seven years after Tatum O’Neal’s landmark win. Actor Timothy Hutton won ‘Best Supporting Actor’ in 1981 at the age of 20 for his performance as Conrad Jarrett in Ordinary People. Robert Redford directed this drama, cited as one of the top films of the year, winning ‘Best Director’ at the 53rd Academy Awards. The film also won ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’.
Hutton beat his co-star Judd Hirsch, 26 years his senior, The Great Santini’s Michael O’Keege, only six years older, a 38-year-old Joe Pesci for Raging Bull and Jason Robards for Melvin and Howard, who was 59.
The youngest winner of the ‘Best Supporting Actress’ Oscar
Tatum O’Neal takes the accolade as the youngest winner of the ‘Best Supporting Actress’ Academy Award, picking up the prize in 1974 for her role in Paper Moon.
O’Neal played Addie Loggins in Peter Bogdanovich’s road comedy-drama, starring alongside her father Ryan O’Neal, an orphan who her father’s character, a con man, takes under his wing. The film tackles the issues of poverty and the desperation it creates, causing an emotional performance from a young O’Neal that poses innocence and hope against a rugged and challenging contextual landscape, employing screenwriter Alvin Sargent’s work with the utmost sentiment.
The other nominees included Candy Clarke for American Graffiti, who was 27, O’Neal’s Paper Moon co-star Madeline Kahn, who was 32, and 64-year-old Sylvia Syndey for Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams.
The youngest winner of the ‘Best Makeup’ Oscar
The youngest winner of this award is Michèle Burke, who was only 23 when she received the Oscar for ‘Best Makeup’ in 1983 for Quest for Fire. This Jean-Jacques Annaud film narrates the early humans’ struggle to control the element of fire in an 80,000-year-old Old Stone Age Europe.
Burke worked on the movie’s impressive and historically driven makeup with Sarah Monzani, who was ten years her senior. The duo’s work physically transformed the cast, including Everett McGill, Ron Perlman, Nameer El-Kadi and Rae Dawn Chong, a triumphant effort rewarded at the 55th Academy Awards.
The youngest winner of the ‘Best Art Direction’ Oscar
Gordon Wiles is the youngest person to ever win the Oscar for ‘Best Art Direction’, having received the award for his work on Transatlantic when he was 25. This movie was directed by William K. Howard, showcasing a group of ship passengers who find their limits tested after financial circumstances put their lives at risk.
Wiles’ work involved constructing beautiful interior cruise locations to accentuate the dazzling 1930s Hollywood era. He received his award at the 5th Academy Awards in 1932, beating Richard Day’s Arrowsmith and Lazare Meerson’s À nous la liberté.
The youngest winner of the ‘Best Cinematography’ Oscar
Tabu: A Story of the South Seas earned its cinematographer Floyd Crosby the Oscar for ‘Best Cinematography’ in 1931 when he was 31. This win places Crosby as the youngest award recipient, having worked on F.W. Murnau’s romantic drama film about an islander pursuing a beautiful woman already spoken for.
Crosby’s work situates the islanders against their beautiful island landscapes and celebrates their culture and festivities. This cinematographic effort earned him the Oscar at the 4th Academy Awards, where he was nominated against Lee Garmes for his work on Morocco, Edward Cronjager’s work on Cimarron, Charles Lang’s The Right to Love and Barney McGill’s Svengil.
The youngest winner of the ‘Best Costume Design’ Oscar
The youngest winner of this award is Milena Canonero, who won when she was 26 for her work Barry Lyndon in 1976. Canonero designed the costumes alongside Ulla-Britt Söderlund, with the duo working under Stanley Kubrick’s creative direction for his film about an 18th-century Irish rogue and opportunist who marries a wealthy widow to climb the social ladder.
Canonero designed some beautiful, period-capturing garments bursting with vibrant colours and tonal affluence. This creativity earned her the historic win for the youngest winner of ‘Best Costume’ since winning at the 48th Oscars.
The youngest winner of the ‘Best Film Editing’ Oscar
David Brenner, at 27, is the youngest winner of ‘Best Film Editing’, winning the award during the 62nd Academy Awards in 1990. The editor, who recently worked on Avatar: The Way of Water, won the Oscar for his work on Oliver Stone’s Born on the Fourth of July, starring Tom Cruise, Kyra Sedgwick, Raymond J. Barry, Jerry Levine, Frank Whaley, and Willem Dafoe.
Brenner’s work on the anti-war drama about Cruise’s Ron Kovic emphasises the heartbreaking and powerful messaging of the subject matter, turning documents into insightful fiction. The editor won the award against Mark Warner for Driving Miss Daisy.
The youngest winner of the ‘Best Original Score’ Oscar
The historical and global pop icon Prince is the youngest recipient of ‘Best Original Score’, winning when he was 26 for his timeless and definitive hit song ‘Purple Rain’. The artist won the Oscar in 1985 at the 57th Academy Awards for his rock musical of the same name, beating The Muppets Take Manhattan and Songwriter.
Prince’s award-winning song is described as a power ballad that blends rock, R&B, gospel and orchestral music, accompanying his cinematic presentation of performances and artistry that Albert Magnoli directed.
The youngest winner of the ‘Best Original Score’ Oscar
Markéta Irglová was only 19 when she received the Academy Award for ‘Best Original Song’ for ‘Falling Slowly,’ the indie folk song she wrote and performed for the movie Once.
Irglová worked with fellow lyricist and musician Glenn Hansard on the music which accompanied John Carney’s romantic musical film that the two also starred in. The two received the award in 2008 at the 80th Oscars.
The youngest winner of the ‘Best Sound Effects’ Oscar
Norman Wanstall is the youngest winner of ‘Best Sound Editing’ as he was 29 when he won in 1964. The sound editor worked on Goldfinger, the third James Bond film directed by Guy Hamilton and starring Sean Connery, creating the film’s sound effects.
Wanstall won the award at the 37th Oscars, having been nominated against Robert Bratton’s The Lively Set. Goldfinger narrates 007’s investigation of a gold-smuggling ring run by businessman Auric Goldfinger, played by Gert Fröbe.
The youngest winner of the ‘Best Sound Mixing’ Oscar
The youngest person to win ‘Best Sound Mixing/Effects’ is John Poyner, who claimed victory in 1968 at 34. The editor received the Academy Award for his audio work on Robert Aldrich’s The Dirty Dozen, a war film starring Lee Marvin about a gang of criminals being recruited as soldiers.
Poyner was given the award at the 40th Academy Awards, winning against James Richard’s work on In the Heat of the Night.
