Notable Firsts and Records

[HarryGoldfarb]

The Daniels becomes the third team to win Best Director following the Coen Brothers and Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins.

And every time this has happened, each director ends up with two oscars of his own. On top of winning for Best Director, they won each an aditional award:

- Jerome Robbins won also a special achievement award for Choreography.
- Robert Wise won personally Best Picture as The Sound of Music sole producer.
- The Coens won Adapted Screenplay.
- The Daniels won Original Screenplay.

[Big Magilla]

Michelle Yeoh is of course the first Asian actress and the second woman of color to win Best Lead Actress.

The last time an Asian actress was nominated for an Oscar in the lead category was 87 years ago when Merle Oberon got a nod in 1935 for The Dark Angel. Yeoh has finally broken that barrier just as Halle Berry did for a Black actress in 2002.

You're both wrong.

Michelle Yeoh is only the second woman of color to win a Best Actress Oscar, but she is not the first Asian. She was preceded by Vivien Leigh (twice), Cher, and Natalie Portman.

Yeoh is the first Southeast Asian actress nominated for Best Actress. She was preceded by Merle Oberon (part Sri Lankin and Maori), Leigh (part Armenian and Parsi Indian), Cher (Armenian descent), Salma Hayek (Lebanese descent), Angelina Jolie (joint American/Cambodian citizenship), and Natalie Portman (Israeli born, of dual Israel and American citizenship). All except Hayek have won. Jolie’s win was in support.

Yul Brynner, born in Vladivostok, Russia of Buryat descent was the first actor of Asian descent to be nominated and win in the Best Actor category for 1956’s <em>The King and I</em>. He was succeeded by Topol (Israeli), Ben Kingsley twice, F. Murray Abraham (Syrian descent), Demian Bichir (Lebanese descent), Riz Ahmd (Pakistani descent), and Steven Yeun (Korean descent). Kingsley and Abraham were also winners, for <em>Gandhi</em> and <em>Amadeus</em>, respectively.

Stephanie Hsu (Chinese descent) and Hong Chau (Vietnamese) were te eleventh and twelfth actresses nominated in support. They were preceded by Miyoshi Umeki (Japanese), Cher, Meg Tilly (Chinese descent). Jennifer Tilly (Chinese descent), Jolie, Catharine Keener twice (Lebanese descent), Shohreh Aghdashloo (Iranian), Portman, Rinko Kikuchi (Japanese), Hailee Steinfeld (Filipino descent), and Yuh-Jung Youn (Korean). only Umeki, Jolie, and Youn won.

Ke Huy Quan was preceded in nominations by eight other actors of Asian descent. They were Akim Tamiroff twice (the Armenian descendent was the first Asian to achieve multiple nominations), Sessue Hayakaka, (the Japanese actor was the first East Asian nominated), Omar Sharif (Lebanese descent), Mako (Japanese descent), Haing S. Ngor (Japanese/Cambodian descent), Pat Morita (Japanese descent), Ben Kingsley twice (Indian descent), Ken Watanabe (Japanese), and Dev Patel (Indian descent). Ngor was the only previous winner.

[Uri]

For only the fifth time since 1936, at 64 and 60, both winning actresses are older than their male cohorts (54 and 51). It happened before in 1955, 1978, 1989 and 2018. The opposite – both male winners being older the female ones – happened 35 times. (Had Barbra not maneuvered her way into a fishy co-win in 1968, it would have been the sixth time).

And for only the second time ever, following the vastly geriatric lineup of 1981 (Gielgud, Fonda, Hepburn and Baby Stapleton), all four winners are over 50.

[Reza]

Michelle Yeoh is of course the first Asian actress and the second woman of color to win Best Lead Actress.

The last time an Asian actress was nominated for an Oscar in the lead category was 87 years ago when Merle Oberon got a nod in 1935 for The Dark Angel. Yeoh has finally broken that barrier just as Halle Berry did for a Black actress in 2002.

[anonymous1980]

Everything, Everywhere All At Once is the first film to win 6 above the line categories (Picture, Director, three acting wins and Screenplay), breaking the record of It Happened One Night, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and The Silence of the Lambs. It's also the first science-fiction film to win (or second, if you consider The Shape of Water as science fiction).

Daniel Kwan becomes the fourth Asian to win Best Director following Ang Lee, Bong Joon-ho and Chloe Zhao and I believe the first Asian-American to do so.

The Daniels becomes the third team to win Best Director following the Coen Brothers and Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins.

Ruth E. Carter is the first black woman to win two Oscars.

All Quiet on the Western Front ties Parasite, Fanny and Alexander and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with the most wins for a non-English language film with 4.

Michelle Yeoh is of course the first Asian actress and the second woman of color to win Best Lead Actress.

Any others?

[OscarGuy]

Not much of a trend, but it's the first time in four years that there hasn't been a black-and-white nominee. The last three years have all had them.

[anonymous1980]

Here’s one: This is Meryl Streep’s 5th year in a row without being nominated, the longest streak she’s had since first being nominated in 1979. This beats her record of 4 years missed between Postcards from the Edge (1991 awards) and The Bridges of Madison County (1996). I’m reminded of Maggie Smith’s line in California Suite, referring to Glenda Jackson: “She’s nominated every goddamned year!” Is the era of Streep inevitability finally over? Not that she’ll never be nominated again, but perhaps only once or twice a decade?

I find it also interesting that in the years since her last nomination, Meryl Streep has been in two Best Picture nominees (Little Women and Don't Look Up) but wasn't in the running for either of them.

I think this streak will last a while. I looked it up and her upcoming projects are all on TV (a guest appearance in Only Murders in the Building and the TV series Extrapolations).

[danfrank]

Here’s one: This is Meryl Streep’s 5th year in a row without being nominated, the longest streak she’s had since first being nominated in 1979. This beats her record of 4 years missed between Postcards from the Edge (1991 awards) and The Bridges of Madison County (1996). I’m reminded of Maggie Smith’s line in California Suite, referring to Glenda Jackson: “She’s nominated every goddamned year!” Is the era of Streep inevitability finally over? Not that she’ll never be nominated again, but perhaps only once or twice a decade?

[flipp525]

Is this the first time they’ve had two lesbian characters (Curtis, Hsu) in Best Supporting Actress?

Queen Latifah and Julianne Moore back in 2002 qualified too.

Boom. Thank you, Uri. I had a feeling there was another pair.

[CalWilliam]

Is this the first time they’ve had two lesbian characters (Curtis, Hsu) in Best Supporting Actress?

Queen Latifah and Julianne Moore back in 2002 qualified too.

This is not the topic nor the place to say it, but Uri, I miss your “Evaluating the nominees” a lot. Would you consider doing it again?

[Uri]

Is this the first time they’ve had two lesbian characters (Curtis, Hsu) in Best Supporting Actress?

Queen Latifah and Julianne Moore back in 2002 qualified too.

[mlrg]

First time since BAFTA moved to February that none of it's acting winners matched SAG winners.

[flipp525]

Is this the first time they’ve had two lesbian characters (Curtis, Hsu) in Best Supporting Actress?

[danfrank]

This year has the largest number of Irish actors nominated with 5 (the four Banshees actors plus Paul Mescal). The largest number previously was 3, in 1989 (Kenneth Branagh, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Brenda Fricker).

[Big Magilla]

Hepburn's co-stars in The Trojan Women were Vanessa Redgrave who received an Oscar nomination when she played Hepburn's earlier role in Mary, Queen of Scots, and Irene Papas and Genevieve Bujold who played the first two wives of Henry VIII in Anne of the Thousand Days, the latter who was Elizabeth's mother. Bujold received an Oscar nomination for that one. Papas, who never received an Oscar nomination, won the National Board of Review award for Best Actress as Helen of Troy in The Trojan Women.

I told you we could do this all day!