An astonishing majority of the 2023 Oscar nominees in acting categories received their first-ever Oscar nominations today.
There are 20 spots across four acting categories — Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress — and this year, 16 of those spots went to first-time nominees.
Oscar frontrunners Everything Everywhere All At Once and The Banshees of Inisherin scored four acting nominations each, all for first-time nominees. For Everything Everywhere All At Once, these are Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, and Jamie Lee Curtis. For The Banshees of Inisherin, they are Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, and Barry Keoghan.
The entire Best Actor lineup is made of first-time Oscar nominees, including Farrell, Brendan Fraser (The Whale), Bill Nighy (Living), Paul Mescal (Aftersun), and Austin Butler (Elvis). Other first-time nominees include Hong Chau for The Whale, Brian Tyree Henry for Causeway, Andrea Riseborough for To Leslie, and Ana de Armas for Blonde.
The large number of first-time nominees is a breath of fresh air. They give us a chance to celebrate industry veterans like Yeoh, Quan, and Fraser, as well as younger actors with fewer feature films under their belt like Mescal, Hsu, and Butler.
Of the four nominees who have already been nominated for Academy Awards — Cate Blanchett (TÁR), Judd Hirsch (The Fabelmans), Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), and Michelle Williams (The Fabelmans) — only Blanchett has ever won. Because of this, it's possible we'll seeing a lineup of four first-time Oscar winners come the 95th Academy Awards.
