"Everything Everywhere All At Once" star Michelle Yeoh’s Oscar nomination has made history
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Multiverse sci-fi hit Everything Everywhere All At Once dominated the Oscar 2023 nominations.
The action comedy helmed by Michelle Yeoh and comeback star Ke Huy Quan received a total of 11 nominations: Acting nods for Yeoh and her supporting cast Jamie Lee Curtis, Stephanie Hsu (who was snubbed at the Golden Globes), and Quan (who won a Golden Globe), as well as picture, director, costume design, editing, original song, original score, and original screenplay. Malaysian-born Yeoh is the first woman who identifies as Asian to win a nomination for the best actress category.
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Next in line were Martin McDonagh’s tragicomedy The Banshees of Inisherin starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, and All Quiet on the Western Front, Edward Berger’s devastating Netflix drama about an idealistic German soldier sent to the trenches—both with 9 nominations each.
The 95th Oscars nominations were announced on Tuesday (Jan. 24) at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in California by Oscar winner Riz Ahmed and actor and producer Allison Williams. This marks the first time since 2016 that the nominations were unveiled in front of a live audience.
Cheers for sequels, and Angela Bassett
🎬 Of the 10 movies nominated for best picture, two are sequels—Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water—for the first time ever. Both the films were also last year’s two top grossers. Thirteen years ago, Avatar was a top contender for best picture but The Hurt Locker had it beat.
🎞️ Netflix’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, where Daniel Craig reprised his role as Benoit Blanc, got nominated in the adapted screenplay category. The new Top Gun movie also features in this set of nominations. All sequels are considered adapted because they stem from original, earlier films.
🎭 Angela Bassett, the grieving mother in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, earned a best supporting actress nomination. She made history by landing Marvel Studios its first-ever Oscar nomination in the acting category.
Oscars flashback, by the digits
54: Movies that have received nominations in the double digits at the Academy Awards since its inception in 1929
3: Times television host Jimmy Kimmel is hosting the Oscars. He’s due to helm the March 12 ceremony, and previously emceed the Oscars in 2017 and 2018
$3.5 billion: Combined earnings for Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water
16: Academy Award nominations Netflix bagged at the 95th Oscars. Nine of the 16 nominations were for All Quiet on the Western Front, a Netflix remake by German director Edward Berger of Lewis Milestone’s 1930 epic. Back then, the movie was the first book adaptation to ever win an Oscar.
19: Nominations streaming services Netflix, Amazon, and Apple accounted for; less than half of last year’s 37. Last year, Apple’s drama Coda won best picture.
RRR’s Naatu Naatu reaches the Oscars
After winning the Golden Globe for best original song, Telugu film RRR’s catchy and upbeat “Naatu Naatu” bagged the best original song nomination at the 95th Oscar awards.
At the event hosted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, RRR’s track beat songs by Rihanna, Lady Gaga, and Taylor Swift. At the Oscars, not all of these pop stars made the shortlist: Swift didn’t get a nomination for “Carolina,” from Where the Crawdads Sing.
Here are the songs that did make the cut:
“Applause” from Tell It Like a Woman, music and lyrics by Dianne Warren
“Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick, music and lyrics by Lady Gaga and BloodPop
“Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, music and lyrics by Tems, Rihanna, Ryan Coogler, and Ludwig Goransson
“Naatu Naatu” from RRR, music by M.M. Keeravaani, lyrics by Chandrabose
“This Is a Life” from Everything Everywhere All at Once, music by Ryan Lott, David Byrne, and Mitski, lyrics by Ryan Lott
One more thing: A dip in diversity
After two years of women winning best director at the Oscars, no women were nominated this year. There were options: Gina Prince-Bythewood, who made the historical epic The Woman King, Charlotte Wells of Aftersun, whose male lead Paul Mescal got a best actor nod, or Domee Shi, director of Pixar’s Turning Red (which was nominated for best animated feature) to name a few. Sarah Polley, whose Women Talking was nominated for best picture and for best adapted screenplay, didn’t make the cut either. While disappointing, it’s not entirely unexpected. In the last 95 years, only seven female directors have been in the running for that award, and just three have won.
Nominations for the acting categories overall reflected more diversity compared to the all-white slate of 20 nominations that launched the viral #OscarsSoWhite hashtag in 2015. A notable exception was the best actor category, whose five nominees—Austin Butler (Elvis), Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin), Brendan Fraser (The Whale), Paul Mescal (Aftersun), Bill Nighy (Living)—reflected a range of ages and nationalities, but no ethnic diversity.
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