Most Oscar nominations (female)

Costume designer Edith Head (USA) received 35 Academy Award nominations, winning eight times. Her first nomination was for the musical The Emperor Waltz (USA, 1948), directed by Billy Wilder; her last was for the disaster movie Airport '77 (USA, 1977).

Head's eight Academy Awards also give her the record for the most Oscar wins by a woman. Her first win came in 1950, for The Heiress (USA, 1949); she shared the award with Gile Steele. Her last was for The Sting (USA, 1973) in 1974.Memorably, she also provided the inspiration for the character Edna Mode in Pixar's The Incredibles (USA, 2004) and Incredibles 2 (USA, 2018).