Everything Everywhere All At Once’s Michelle Yeoh among historic firsts for 2023 Oscar nominations
2023 Oscar nominations include historic firsts and broken records for Michelle Yeoh, Angela Bassett, John Williams and more
Film News Michelle Yeoh
The Oscar nominations are here, and the list is gratifyingly full of firsts. Quite literally: 16 of the 20 acting nominees are first-timers. But many of the nominations represent firsts not just on an individual basis, but also on a larger scale. Among the year’s historic firsts and record-breakers are cinema mainstays like John Williams, Angela Bassett, and Michelle Yeoh.
Yeoh’s Best Actress nomination is not just the culmination of a triumphant campaign for Everything Everywhere All At Once and an incredible career; it’s the first time that an Asian actor has ever been nominated in a historically white category. (Halle Berry remains the only woman of color ever to have won Best Actress.) There are some possible discrepancies—Merle Oberon (Dark Angel, 1936), who reportedly hid her Asian ancestry, or nominees like Salma Hayek, Cher, and Natalie Portman who “have claims to some western Asian heritage” per The Hollywood Reporter—but Yeoh is the first nominee in the category who actually identifies as Asian. Yeoh is joined in the acting categories by co-stars Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu as well as Hong Chau, marking the most-ever Asian actors nominated in a single year.
Angela Bassett, a previous nominee for What’s Love Got To Do With It, became the first actor to be nominated for a Marvel Studios film for her role as Queen Ramonda in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. If she wins she’ll not only be the MCU’s first, she’ll join the small group of performers who have won for comic book movies (which so far consists of two Jokers: Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix).
According to THR, the country of Ireland received its first-ever nomination for Best International Feature Film for An Cailín Ciúin or The Quiet Girl, written and directed by Colm Bairéad. Incidentally, the Irish already have had quite a good turnout at the 2023 Oscars; in addition to a host of nominations for The Banshees Of Inisherin, An Irish Goodbye was nominated for Best Short Film (Live Action) and Paul Mescal was nominated for his role in Aftersun. If Mescal or Colin Farrell take home the Best Actor trophy, they’ll be the only other Irish actor to have done so besides Daniel Day-Lewis, who holds both British and Irish citizenship. In another international first, “Naatu Naatu” from RRR became the first number from an Indian film to be nominated for Best Original Song, according to Variety.
At 90 years old, famed composer John Williams has become the oldest-ever Oscar nominee (excluding honorary awards), per Deadline. His nomination for The Fabelmans broke Williams’ own record for Best Score nominations at 48. With 53 nominations total, he is also the most nominated living artist–surpassed only by Walt Disney with 59.
Some other Fabelmans fun facts: Best Supporting Actor nominee Judd Hirsch, 87, becomes the second-oldest ever acting nominee after Christopher Plummer, who was 88 years old when he won for Beginners. According to Deadline, the 42 years that elapsed between Hirsch’s nominations for Fabelmans and Ordinary People is the longest gap between Oscar acting nominations, a record previously held by Henry Fonda.
Meanwhile, director Steven Spielberg continues to make history, extending his record as the only person nominated for Best Director in six different decades and tying Martin Scorsese for the second-most nominations in the category with nine each (trailing William Wyler with 12). Per The Wrap, Spielberg has tied Wyler for directing the most Best Picture nominees (13) and broken his own record for most individual Best Picture nominations as a producer (12).
With all the record-breaking nominees teed up, it could be a very historic Academy Award ceremony come March 12. A full list of nominees can be found here, and The A.V. Club’s list of snubs and surprises can be found here.
30 Comments
…Scorsese.Just sayin’…
…ah, they fixed it. Good.
Well, if I had a vote, I would have studied all the nominees, carefully considered the options and then voted for Cate Blanchett for Elizabeth over Gwyneth Paltrow and everyone else because I’m also Australian.So, for this one, ditto with the approach and then I’d vote for Michelle Yeoh because I’ve loved her films since Yes Madam back in 1985, I loved Everything Everywhere All at Once and well, Cate Blanchett already has two Academy Awards.(Depressingly, this is probably closer to the voting logic for more voters than people realise.)
I have a hard time imagining this isn’t Michelle’s year and it is 100% deserved. I watched EEAAO again this past weekend and it’s just a terrific movie, and it’s all anchored by her performance (as well as Ke Huy Quan, who is the real heart of this movie) which comes across even better on subsequent viewings. Playing the same person in so many different lives and being convincing with each is an achievement.It’s a shame RRR wasn’t nominated for Best Picture, as it was definitely more worthy of a nomination than a couple of the ‘you made a lot of money and we appreciate that’ picks.
I sure wish I could watch EEAAO. I own over $100/month in entertainment subscriptions and it is on none of them. It isn’t even available on my emergency backup option, which is paying the $4.99 to “rent” a Prime Video movie. Almost every movie in existence can be rented for money on Amazon Prime, but not that one!
It’s on Showtime at the moment. It’s also available through less legal means. Honestly it’s hard to recommend Showtime, though, as the streaming interface legit looks like it was created by a 3-year-old. It is the single worst streaming interface I’ve ever used (yes, even worse than Amazon Prime). But it does appear to be the exclusive home of a few movies, including this one and X (which is why I subscribed originally)—so maybe subscribe for the free month, watch as much as you can and then unsubscribe.
I feel you!!! everytime I turn on my TV EEAAO pops up and I think it’s finally available for “free” on the apps I already pay for but no, its just to promote Showtime , which I don’t have. But seriously , why do some movies get stuck on that non HBO channel purgatory, and I am especially talking about Once Upon a Time in Hollywood . …I guess I got spoiled that every Tarantino film before OUATIH got to Netflix first , so I was waiting for Netflix to have this one and 3 years later, it’s still only available on Starz. (I did get to rent it on Prime once). and props to Peacock, they get some pretty good films straight to their app (Tar is coming this week, Violent Night last week, Nope, etc) that app is slowly becoming my most watched one (and with World Cup and Premier League in spanish on demand ! ( the only way to watch futbol) )
It’s on both Prime and Binge in Australia for some reason.
Get it from your local library. That’s what I did.
I just looked up who she lost to for Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and SHE WASN’T EVEN NOMINATED that’s embarrassing for the stupid AcademyOh God even worse it was Julia in Erin Brockovich as a Pretty Woman proxy. More acceptable would have been Ellen Burstyn for Requiem for a Dream.
It’s funny I like the actin gin Crouching Tiger but I HATED the fighting. That floaty tip toe type stuff drives me crazy lol.
Not even the fight between Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi where the latter wields the sword while Yeoh uses every other weapon available?
Well I mean it was ok but “floaty” kung fu buggs me. I mean the choreography is stunning don’t get me wrong. I prefer more of the below style as it just feels more physical, and granted no weapons.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon did not get nearly enough love from the Academy as that film is a masterpiece.
Burstyn belonged in the supporting category.
I’ve been saying this a lot, but it’s going to come down to either Yeoh or Cate Blanchett. I’m about 80% certain Blanchett will win, but I can see the Academy, when torn between two nominees with phenomenal performances, will go with the actor who hasn’t won before. (Just look at the year Adrian Brody got his Oscar—he was the only nominee who hadn’t previously won before.)
To be fair I have not seen Blanchett’s film yet, but I have no doubt she is excellent, as always. She’s 53 and has EIGHT nominations already. That in itself is pretty amazing.
Ke Huy Quan is a really feel good story too. Coming back to acting after a long break to find yourself in a really great film and suddenly an Oscar nominee. I’m really happy for him.
I think John Williams might have had a shot at winning this year if he hadn’t walked back his promise to retire just a few days ago. He might have gotten some legacy votes if people thought it was his last score with Spielberg. Sure, he’s doing Dial of Destiny this summer with Spielberg producing, but those kind of scores don’t usually get a lot of awards notice anyway. As it stands, The Fabelmans is not a typical score for him. It’s very quiet, almost all on solo piano, and only about 30 minutes of the movie is scored at all. It’s beautiful, but all things being equal, I wouldn’t give it much of a chance for winning.
It’s The Fabelmans. Fabelmans. Repeat after me: Fabelmans.
Fablemans?
FLABBYMANS, damnit!
Now I can’t unsee it… just went through a bunch of articles on the intrawebs, and it keeps staring me in the face.
Not to mention the sites where they’ve added an apostrophe to it, sometimes with the misspelling to boot. The Fableman’sTHE FABLEMAN’S WHAT, DAMMIT?
I’m pretty sure it’s The Fabelmain Bears
It’s StreiSAND. SAND. Streisand. Not Streisunnd. Like sand on the beach.
Well-deserved by Yeoh, Quan and Hsu.
Cate Blanchett’s character in TAR is a toxic creative who’s Gen Z students are trying to “cancel” her. That’s definitely going to win everything at the fart huffing Oscars.
Also, Judd Hirsch just broke Henry Fonda’s record for the longest gap between nominations, with 42 years since Ordinary People.
The first paragraph of this article gushes over the Oscar’s “historic firsts.” The rest of it is mostly a list of people who have been getting nominated over and over and over for longer than many of us have been alive. A lot of historic ten-millionths coming up this year.