Oscar 2023 nominations: Firsts, flukes and different enjoyable info

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The announcement of the Academy Award nominations at all times generates a barrage of enjoyable info and figures evaluating, contrasting, counting and categorizing the most recent fortunate contenders relative to previous Oscar cycles. This yr isn’t any exception and The Envelope is completely happy to current a choose trove of trivial truths ensuing from the movie academy’s most up-to-date slate of picks.

Firsts

  • Angela Bassett, a earlier nominee for 1993’s “What’s Love Got to Do with It” and present candidate for her supporting position as Queen Ramonda in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” is the primary actor to be tapped by the academy for an look in a Marvel Cinematic Universe entry. (Bassett can be solely the fourth Black actress to earn a number of Oscar nods. The others: Viola Davis, Whoopi Goldberg and Octavia Spencer.)
  • For her dazzling flip as Evelyn Wang in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Malaysian-born Michelle Yeoh grew to become the primary Asian-identifying nominee for lead actress. And sure, factoid followers, Merle Oberon did place within the class for 1935’s “Dark Angel,” however as a result of restrictive instances she hid her South Asian and Maori heritage.
  • The Emerald Isle lastly vies for the golden statuette with its drama “The Quiet Girl,” Ireland’s first-ever nominee for worldwide movie. (Sidebar: 1 / 4 of this yr’s performing nominees are Irish.)
  • It’s additionally the primary time that every one the director contenders are additionally nominated for writing (or co-writing) their photos. (All are competing within the authentic screenplay class.)

Seconds

  • “Blonde’s” Ana de Armas is simply the second Cuban-born actor to earn a nomination. The first: Andy Garcia for “The Godfather III.”
  • Judd Hirsch’s nod for “The Fabelmans” at age 87 makes him the competition’s second-oldest performing nominee after Christopher Plummer, who was 88 when nominated in 2018 for “All the Money in the World.”
  • Producer Dede Gardner (“12 Years a Slave,” “Moonlight”) now ranks because the second most-nominated lady in one of the best image class for her work on “Women Talking.” Kathleen Kennedy (“E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” “Lincoln”) stays the chief of this notable group with eight nominations.
  • Two sequels are among the many challengers for finest image for the primary time: “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way of Water.”
  • Bonus: They are additionally the 2 highest-grossing motion pictures of the yr. (The final time that occurred was in 1983 when “Tootsie” confronted off in opposition to “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.”)
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Thirds

  • The exuberant “Naatu Naatu” from Indian powerhouse “RRR” marks the third time in as a few years {that a} non-English language tune is competing for the unique track award following “Io sì (Seen)” from 2020’s “The Life Ahead” and “Dos Oruguitas” from 2021’s “Encanto.”
  • “Top Gun: Maverick” is the third conventional sequel, after “Toy Story 3” and “Mad Max: Fury Road,” to obtain a finest image nomination whose authentic installment was not a finalist for a similar prize.
  • For the third time, a nominated actor hails from mother and father who each additionally obtained Oscar nods. This yr, it’s Jamie Lee Curtis for “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (mother and father: Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh). Past recipients embody Laura Dern (dad is Bruce Dern, mother is Diane Ladd) and Liza Minnelli (daughter of Judy Garland and director Vincente Minnelli).
  • Daniel Kwan, co-director (with Daniel Scheinert) of “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” is simply the third Asian American (after “Minari’s” Lee Isaac Chung and M. Night Shyamalan for “The Sixth Sense”) to land a directing nomination.

Fourths

  • Speaking of Daniels, they’re the fourth directing pair to be nominated of their class. Their predecessors: Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins (1961’s “West Side Story”), Warren Beatty and Buck Henry (1978’s “Heaven Can Wait”), and Joel and Ethan Coen (“No Country for Old Men,” 2010’s “True Grit”).
  • Four performing award nominations have been bestowed this yr on every of two movies (“Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “The Banshees of Inisherin”) for the primary time since 1977’s “The Turning Point” and “Julia.”
  • A file whole of 4 Asian actors — Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu (all from “Everything Everywhere All at Once”) and Hong Chau (“The Whale”) — have earned nominations this yr.
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The strays

  • A complete of 16 of the 20 performing contenders this yr are first-time nominees.
  • Cate Blanchett, incomes her eighth nomination for her towering efficiency in “Tár” (and the one prior Oscar winner to be nominated in an performing class this yr) joins the ranks of such different eight-time (or extra) nominees as Katharine Hepburn, Judi Dench, Glenn Close, Bette Davis, Geraldine Page and Meryl Streep (the queen with 21 nods). This can be Blanchett’s tenth credited position in a finest image nominee, a file for any actress.
  • The common working time for this yr’s finest image nominees is 2 hours and 23 minutes. Only two movies (“Women Talking” and “The Banshees of Inisherin”) clock in underneath two hours.
  • Steven Spielberg, now Oscar’s most nominated producer together with his twelfth nod for “The Fabelmans,” has tied William Wyler (“The Best Years of Our Lives,” “Ben-Hur”) because the director of probably the most movies nominated for finest image: 13.
  • For his authentic rating for “The Fabelmans,” composer John Williams, 90, is now the oldest-ever Oscar nominee. With this, his 53rd nod, he breaks his personal file because the most-nominated residing individual. (He’s gained the gold 5 instances together with for “Star Wars” and “Schindler’s List.”)