Stars with the most Oscar losses without a win, from Bradley Cooper to Diane Warren

The Oscars are just around the corner, and Diane Warren is looking to finally take home her first competitive statue after a whopping 16 nominations.

The acclaimed songwriter is among the most-nominated individuals in the history of the Academy Awards without a win, and she's nominated for Best Original Song once more for "The Journey" from The Six Triple Eight . 

Warren isn't the only winless multi-nominee hoping to break their streak this year. Eric Fellner — the English producer who's previously been nominated for Best Picture for Elizabeth , Atonement , Frost/Nixon , Les Misérables , The Theory of Everything , and Darkest Hour — is vying for Best Picture again in 2025 as a producer of The Substance .

Warren and Fellner are in good company. Some of Hollywood's most beloved stars, filmmakers, and craftspeople have received numerous nominations without ever clinching the prize. Here are some of the recognizable faces with the most Oscar nominations but no wins.

Greg P. Russell

Sound mixer Greg P. Russell holds the record for the most Oscar nominations without a win. He has been nominated 17 times for his work on films like  The Rock ,  Armageddon ,  Memoirs of a Geisha , and  Skyfall , as well as  Michael Bay 's first three  Transformers  movies and  Sam Raimi 's first two  Spider-Man  films. 

However, Russell's 17th nomination (for Bay's 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi ) was rescinded after the Academy found that he had violated campaigning rules by calling members of the Sound branch during the nominations period. (His 13 Hours colleagues Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush, and Mac Ruth maintained their nomination for the film's sound mixing.)

Other prominent craftspeople have received an impressive amount of noms without a win. Art director Roland Anderson was nominated 15 times for movies like Breakfast at Tiffany's and A Farewell to Arms . Cinematographer George J. Folsey, who shot films like Meet Me in St. Louis in the Golden Age of Hollywood, died in 1988 with 13 nominations and zero wins. 

Another sound mixer, Rick Kline, garnered 11 nominations for movies like Top Gun and The Mummy . Yet another sound mixer, Anna Behlmer, garnered 10 nominations for movies like Braveheart and War of the Worlds , with her most recent nom coming in 2010 for Star Trek . (She worked on six new movies in 2024 alone, though, so another nomination and win are entirely possible in the future.)

Related: Everything to know about the 2025 Oscars — including presenters, performers, pre-shows, and more

Diane Warren

Legendary songwriter Diane Warren is one of the Academy's most frequent nominees in recent years. She has a total of 16 nominations for Best Original Song and has received eight consecutive nominations between 2018 and 2025. Some of her best-known nominated tracks include Aerosmith 's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" from Armageddon and Lady Gaga 's "Til It Happens to You" from The Hunting Ground . Warren does have one Oscar, though it wasn't a competitive win — she was given the Honorary Academy Award at the 2022 Governor's Awards, which also honored Euzhan Palcy and Peter Weir .

Thomas Newman

Composer Thomas Newman has a staggering 15 nominations to his name. He received his first nomination in 1994 for his score for The Shawshank Redemption and has penned 13 more original scores that scored nominations, including the soundtracks for films like American Beauty , Finding Nemo , Skyfall , Bridge of Spies , and Passengers , with his most recent nom coming for 2019's 1917 . He also received one Best Original Song nod for "Down to Earth" from WALL-E , which he shared with the song's performer, Peter Gabriel .

Fellow composer Alex North also received 15 nominations across his career. He wrote 14 Oscar-nominated scores for films like A Streetcar Named Desire , Spartacus , and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , and also scored one Best Original Song nom for "Unchained Melody" from Unchained — a track that was further popularized by covers by the Righteous Brothers and Elvis Presley . North was awarded an Honorary Oscar in 1986.

Walter Scharf is the composer with the next-most nominations without a win. He garnered 10 nominations for films like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Funny Girl but ultimately never took home the gold.

Related: Oscar double feature: 10 classic movies to pair with 2025's Best Picture nominees

Bradley Cooper

Bradley Cooper has perhaps the most varied career (and Oscar stat sheet) of anyone on this list, as his 12 nominations are divided across so many different categories. As an actor, he's been nominated four times as a lead — for Silver Linings Playbook , American Sniper , A Star Is Born , and Maestro — and once as a supporting actor for American Hustle . He's also a five-time Best Picture nominee since he produced American Sniper , A Star Is Born , Joker , Nightmare Alley , and Maestro . And he has two screenplay noms, too — one for Adapted Screenplay for A Star Is Born and one for Original Screenplay for Maestro .

Paul Thomas Anderson

Paul Thomas Anderson is the filmmaker with the most Oscar losses without a win. He has 11 nominations, five of which came for his screenwriting —  Boogie Nights , Magnolia , There Will Be Blood , and Licorice Pizza were all nominated for Best Original Screenplay, while Inherent Vice earned a nom for Best Adapted Screenplay. He's also a three-time Best Director nominee for There Will Be Blood , Phantom Thread , and Licorice Pizza . Those three films also earned him nominations for Best Picture.

Stanley Kramer is the next most-nominated filmmaker without a win. He was double-nominated for Best Picture and Best Director for The Defiant Ones , Judgment at Nuremberg , and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? , and also received additional Best Picture noms for High Noon , The Caine Mutiny , and Ship of Fools , bringing his grand total to nine. Kramer was honored with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1962.

Other oft-nominated filmmakers without competitive Oscars include Robert Altman (with seven nominations), Clarence Brown (with six), and Alfred Hitchcock , Sidney Lumet, and King Vidor (who each received five). 

Technically, Federico Fellini had 12 nominations, and Ingmar Bergman had nine nominations across their careers without a personal win. However, both legendary filmmakers were responsible for multiple Oscar wins. Fellini directed four films that won Best Foreign Language Film, and Bergman helmed three —but those awards technically go to the country that submitted the film rather than individual filmmakers.

Glenn Close

Glenn Close is one of two actors tied for the record of most Oscar losses without a win, with eight nominations across her career. Close's first three nominations came for supporting performances in The World According to Garp , The Big Chill , and The Natural . She later received four nominations for Best Actress for Fatal Attraction , Dangerous Liaisons , Albert Nobbs , and The Wife . Her most recent nomination came in 2021 for her supporting turn as J.D. Vance's grandmother in Hillbilly Elegy . 

Related: Halle Berry hopes a Black woman wins Best Actress Oscar this year: 'I'm tired of occupying that space alone'

Kathleen Kennedy

Before leading Lucasfilm in the Disney era, Kathleen Kennedy was a top-tier producer who nabbed eight nominations for Best Picture. Five of those noms came for movies directed by frequent collaborator Steven Spielberg — E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial , The Color Purple , Munich , War Horse , and Lincoln — while the remaining three were for The Sixth Sense , Seabiscuit , and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button .

Peter O'Toole

Peter O'Toole is tied with Glenn Close as the actor with the most nominations without a win in Oscars history. He earned eight for Best Actor for Lawrence of Arabia ; Becket; The Lion in Winter; Goodbye, Mr. Chips; The Ruling Class; The Stunt Man; My Favorite Year; and Venus . However, he did receive an Honorary Academy Award in 2003.

Richard Burton

The acclaimed Richard Burton is the next most-nominated actor without any wins, nabbing seven nods across his career. His first nomination came in the Best Supporting Actor category in 1953 for My Cousin Rachel . He then received six Best Actor nominations for The Robe , Becket , The Spy Who Came in From the Cold , Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , Anne of the Thousand Days , and Equus . Though he never won an Oscar, Burton did end his career with a Grammy and two Tonys (one competitive for Camelot and one honorary Special Tony).

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Amy Adams

Amy Adams is one of three actresses tied for the second-most Oscar nominations without a win. She earned five nominations for Best Supporting Actress for Junebug , Doubt , The Fighter , The Master , and Vice , and also received one Best Actress nom for American Hustle .

Thelma Ritter

Character actress Thelma Ritter is tied with Adams with the second-most nominations for a winless actress. She received four consecutive nominations for Best Supporting Actress between 1951 and 1954 for All About Eve , The Mating Season , With a Song in My Heart , and Pickup on South Street . She received two more Best Supporting Actress nominations for 1959's Pillow Talk and 1962's Birdman of Alcatraz . Although she never won an Oscar, she did win the Tony for Best Actress in a Musical for 1968's New Girl in Town , which she shared in a tie with her costar Gwen Verdon.

Deborah Kerr

Deborah Kerr is the third actress with six Oscar nominations and zero wins. She received five nominations for Best Actress for her work in the 1950s: Edward, My Son ; From Here to Eternity; The King and I; Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison; and Separate Tables . Her sixth and final nomination came for 1961's The Sundowners . She received an Honorary Oscar in 1994.

Michelle Williams is next in line to join this group of actresses with five career nominations, while Saoirse Ronan is close behind with four.

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