by Here are the key stats from the 2023 Oscar nominations:
– Acting talent in the UK
This year represents the poorest screening of British actors in a decade.
Only two performers received a nod: Bill Nighy in the best actor category for the period drama Living, and Andrea Riseborough for best actress, acknowledging her role in the gritty film To Leslie.
This is the lowest number of UK nominees in the acting categories since 2013, when the total was also two.
It’s a stark contrast to 2021, when the UK accounted for nearly half (eight) of all 20 acting nominations.
Last year the number was five out of 20.
The average since the turn of the century has been four.
While 2023 offers little earnings for the UK, it’s still a personal milestone for both Nighy and Riseborough as it’s the first time either has been nominated for an Academy Award.
– Ethnic diversity
2021 saw the most ethnically diverse acting nominations in Oscar history, with non-white performers making up nine of the 20 acting nominees.
This year, the total is six out of 20, up slightly from four in 2022.
All of the nominees for Best Actor are white, while there is only one non-white nominee for Best Actress: Michelle Yeoh, for Everything Everywhere All At Once.
Two of the five nominees for supporting actor are non-white: Brian Tyree Henry (Causeway) and Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All At Once).
The one category where non-white nominees are in the majority is Supporting Actress, with nods for Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), Hong Chau (The Whale), and Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All At Once).
The 2023 list is at least more diverse than it was in 2020, when only one of the 20 candidates was non-white.
But it follows several years of criticism leveled at the film industry in both the US and UK for underrepresentation of people from ethnic minorities at awards ceremonies.
In 2015 and 2016, there were no non-white artists nominated in any category at the Oscars.
Most recently, not a single non-white actor was nominated for the Bafta Film Awards in 2020.
The first non-white actress to win an Oscar for acting was Hattie McDaniel, nominated for Best Supporting Actress in 1940 for Gone with the Wind.
There have been non-white winners in the acting categories 24 times: six for Best Actor, once for Best Actress, six for Best Supporting Actor, and 11 for Best Supporting Actress.
– Gender diversity
There are no women in the running for Best Director in 2023 – a step back from last year when Jane Campion was nominated and won for The Power Of The Dog, and from 2021 when both Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Women) and Chloe Zhao (Nomadland ) were chosen and when Zhao won.
Campion was the first woman to be nominated for Best Director twice, with her first nomination in 1994 for The Piano.
Only seven women in Oscar history have received a Best Director nomination.
Along with Campion, Fennell and Zhao, they are Lina Wertmuller (for Seven Beauties in 1977); Sofia Coppola (Lost In Translation, 2004); Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, 2010); and Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird, 2018).
Of the 10 films nominated for Best Picture, one is directed by a woman: Women Talking, by Canadian director Sarah Polley.
– Most nominations
Breakthrough fantasy Everything Everywhere All At Once has the most nominations, garnering a total of 11.
Close behind is the World War I epic All Quiet on the Western Front and the dark comedy The Banshees Of Inisherin, both of which won nine awards.
The biopic Elvis earned eight nominations and the coming-of-age drama The Fabelmans seven.
Two films that couldn’t be more different, the intense drama Tar and the action blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick, both earned six nominations.
– Beginners
All five people in the running for Best Actor are getting their first Oscar nominations.
Joining Nighy are Austin Butler (for Elvis), Farrell (The Banshees Of Inisherin), Brendan Fraser (The Whale) and Paul Mescal (Aftersun).
Three of the five nominees for Best Actress have never been nominated before: Ana de Armas (Blonde), Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All At Once) plus Riseborough.
Four of the five nominees for supporting actor are newcomers: Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees Of Inisherin), Brian Tyree Henry (Causeway), Barry Keoghan (The Banshees Of Inisherin) and Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All At Once).
Most of the nominees for Supporting Actress are also Oscar newcomers: Kerry Condon (The Banshees Of Inisherin), Hong Chau (The Whale), Jamie Lee Curtis (Everything Everywhere All At Once) and Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All At Once).
– Nationality
A range of nationalities are represented in the 2023 performers list, with nominations for performers from Australia, Cuba, Ireland and Malaysia, along with the UK and US.
Ireland is particularly well represented, accounting for a quarter of all 20 actor nominations, with nominations for Condon, Farrell, Gleeson and Keoghan (The Banshees Of Inisherin) plus Mescal (Aftersun).
