Whether they froze hearts in terror with visions of dead people, warmed them up by chasing beauty pageant glory or impressed with the determination with which they fought to get their $200, the great performances of child actors have been recognized at the Academy Awards for decades.

Here is a list of the youngest nominees in the ceremony’s 94-year history.

Haley Joel Osment, 'The Sixth Sense' (1999)

Nominated for: Best Supporting Actor

Age: 11 years, 311 days

Just shy of his 12th birthday, Haley Joel Osment scored an Oscar nomination for his performance as the haunted Cole Sear opposite Bruce Willis and fellow nominee Toni Collette in M. Night Shyamalan’s 1999 horror hit The Sixth Sense. He found himself up against Tom Cruise (Magnolia), Michael Clarke Duncan (The Green Mile), Jude Law (The Talented Mr. Ripley), and the great Michael Caine, who, in the end, won his second Oscar (for The Cider House Rules).

Anna Paquin, 'The Piano' (1993)

Nominated for: Best Supporting Actress

Age: 11 years, 200 days

One of two people on this list who actually went on to win the Oscar, Anna Paquin joined co-star Holly Hunter (who won that year in the Best Actress category) in the winner’s circle for her role as the flinty Flora McGrath in Jane Campion’s acclaimed 1993 drama The Piano. Paquin held off stiff competition from Rose Perez (Fearless), Winona Ryder (The Age of Innocence), Emma Thompson (In the Name of the Father) and, in a fun twist, Hunter herself, who had also received a supporting nomination for The Firm. Campion, by the way, is back in the Oscar mix in a big way this year with The Power of the Dog’s field-leading 12 nominations.

Patty McCormack, 'The Bad Seed' (1956)

Nominated for: Best Supporting Actress

Age: 11 years, 181 days

After receiving critical acclaim for her work on Broadway as young sociopath Rhonda Penmark in Maxwell Anderson’s psychological drama The Bad Seed, Patty McCormack found equal adulation – and an Oscar nomination – when she translated the role to the screen in Mervyn LeRoy’s 1956 film adaptation. McCormack lost the Oscar to Written on the Wind’s Dorothy Malone, in a field that also included Mercedes McCambridge (Giant), Mildred Dunnock (Baby Doll) and her own The Bad Seed co-star, Eileen Heckart.

Abigail Breslin, 'Little Miss Sunshine' (2006)

Nominated for: Best Supporting Actress

Age: 10 years, 284 days

Abigail Breslin first warmed Sundance hearts as the adorable dream-chaser Olive Hoover in Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’ Little Miss Sunshine. And then, a full year later, she landed an Oscar nomination and became the toast of the town. The Oscar ultimately went to Jennifer Hudson for Dreamgirls, while the other nominees included Notes on a Scandal’s Cate Blanchett and the Babel duo of Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi.

Quinn Cummings, 'The Goodbye Girl' (1977)

Nominated for: Best Supporting Actress

Age: 10 years, 192 days

Quinn Cummings eventually left the profession behind to become an author and a humorist, but early on, she left her mark as a child actor in Herbert Ross’ The Goodbye Girl, from an original screenplay by acclaimed playwright Neil Simon. As Lucy McFadden, daughter of a former actress left in a lurch by her former lover, the 10-year-old Cummings found herself up against Melinda Dillon (Close Encounters of the Third Kind), Tuesday Weld (Looking for Mr. Goodbar), Leslie Browne (The Turning Point) and the eventual winner that year, Vanessa Redgrave (Julia).

Quvenzhané Wallis, 'Beasts of the Southern Wild' (2012)

Nominated for: Best Actress

Age: 9 years, 135 days

The first nominee in a leading category on the list, Quvenzhané Wallis took awards season by storm in 2013 for her head-turning work in Benh Zeitlin’s indie darling Beasts of the Southern Wild. Though she ultimately lost the Oscar to Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook), Wallis became – and remains to this day – the youngest actress to ever be nominated for an Academy Award. The other Lead Actress nominees that year were Emmanuelle Riva (Amour), who was, incidentally, the oldest actress to ever be nominated in the Best Actress category, Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) and Naomi Watts (The Impossible).

Mary Badham, 'To Kill a Mockingbird' (1962)

Nominated for: Best Supporting Actress

Age: 10 years, 141 days

The role of Scout Finch in Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird lives on in literary legend to this day, and that’s perhaps owed in some way to Mary Badham’s Oscar-nominated depiction of the character in Robert Mulligan’s 1962 film adaptation. At the time, Badham was the youngest actress ever nominated, a record she would hold onto for over a decade. The Oscar ultimately went to Patty Duke for The Miracle Worker, while the rest of the competition featured Thelma Ritter (Birdman of Alcatraz), Angela Lansbury (The Manchurian Candidate) and Shirley Knight (Sweet Bird of Youth).

Tatum O'Neal, 'Paper Moon' (1973)

Nominated for: Best Supporting Actress

Age: 10 years, 106 days

The second individual on this list to actually win the Oscar is Tatum O’Neal, who took Badham’s youngest actor to be nominated for an Oscar crown for the performance she delivered as the feisty orphan Addie Loggins opposite her father Ryan O’Neal in Peter Bogdanovich’s 1973 black-and-white road-trip comedy Paper Moon. She remains the youngest competitive Oscar winner in history, beating out Linda Blair (The Exorcist), Sylvia Sidney (Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams), Candy Clark (American Graffiti) and her Paper Moon co-star Madeline Kahn. By the way, O’Neal would remain the youngest actress ever nominated – for nearly 40 years – until…Quvenzhané Wallis.

Jackie Cooper, 'Skippy' (1931)

Nominated for: Best Actor

Age: 9 years, 20 days

On the other side of things is Jackie Cooper, who, for his role as the eponymous scrappy youth in Norman Taurog’s 1931 comedy Skippy, became the youngest person ever nominated in the Best Actor category. It’s a distinction he still holds nearly a century later. Lionel Barrymore won the prize that year for A Free Soul, while the other nominees included Fredric March (The Royal Family of Broadway), Richard Dix (Cimarron) and Adolphe Menjoy (The Front Page).

Justin Henry, 'Kramer vs. Kramer' (1979)

Nominated for: Best Supporting Actor

Age: 8 years, 276 days

However, the distinction of youngest actor ever nominated in any Oscar category – for over four decades now – belongs to Justin Henry, who was recognized for his performance opposite screen legends Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep in Robert Benton’s Best Picture winner Kramer vs. Kramer. Henry found himself up against Mickey Rooney (The Black Stallion), who was once a child actor himself, Robert Duvall (Apocalypse Now), Frederic Forrest (The Rose) and the ultimate victor, Melvyn Douglas (Being There). Will anyone ever top his Oscar record? Time will tell!

Jane Campion Makes Oscars History as First Woman to Receive Two Best Director Nominations