by The 2023 Academy Awards made history with some groundbreaking premieres and important career milestones.
– Best Actress
Michelle Yeoh is the first person of Asian origin to win Best Actress.
She is also only the second non-white actress to ever win the award.
The first was more than 20 years ago in 2002 when Halle Berry was headed for the film Monster’s Ball.
Berry was on stage this year to present Yeoh with the award.
Of the five people in the running for best actress, all were white except for Michelle Yeoh, who was nominated for the offbeat comedy Everything Everywhere All at Once.
– Best director
Yeoh’s success was one of several wins for Everything Everywhere All at Once, which saw the film finish the night with seven awards.
There was another win in the Best Director category, which went to Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.
This is only the third time in the history of the Oscars that this award has gone to a director couple.
The other two occasions were in 1962 when Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins won for West Side Story and in 2008 when Joel and Ethan Coen accepted the award for No Country For Old Men.
– Best supporting actor
Everything Everywhere All at Once also helped make history in the Best Supporting Actor category, with Ke Huy Quan becoming the first person of Asian origin to win the award.
Four of the 10 most recent winners of this award are from non-white backgrounds: Mahershala Ali in 2017 (Moonlight) and again in 2019 (Green Book), followed by Daniel Kaluuya in 2021 (Judas & the Black Messiah) and Ke Huy Quan this year.
– Best Costume Design
Ruth Carter made history in 2019 when she became the first black woman to win Best Costume Design for her work on the first Black Panther film.
Her success this year in the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever category means she has made history once again and is the only black woman to win the award twice.
– Multiple wins
It’s the first time in nearly 50 years that the same film has won three of the four acting awards.
Everything Everywhere All at Once earned a hat-trick for Best Actress (Michelle Yeoh), Best Supporting Actor (Ke Huy Quan), and Best Supporting Actress (Jamie Lee Curtis).
The last time this happened was in 1977, when Network received Best Actor (Peter Finch), Best Actress (Faye Dunaway), and Best Supporting Actress (Beatrice Straight).
