7 Historic Moments at the 2023 Oscars
The 2023 Academy Awards have come to a close, and with a few surprises—Lady Gaga did actually perform!—they went pretty much as expected.
That doesn't mean Oscars night wasn't exciting, though. There were numerous moments that were historic, including Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, and Ruth E. Carter's wins. Read on for all the ways the 95th Academy Awards made history:
1. Michelle Yeoh won Best Actress, becoming the first Asian woman to win the award.
Yeoh was the first Asian woman to win in the Best Actress category, and only the second woman of color to ever take home the award. (Halle Berry was the first in 2002.)
"For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibilities," Yeoh said in her acceptance speech. "This is proof that dreams do come true. And ladies, don’t let anybody tell you that you are ever past your prime. Never give up."
2. Ke Huy Quan won Best Supporting Actor, becoming the first actor born in Vietnam to win an Oscar.
"My journey started on a boat, I spent a year in a refugee camp, and somehow, I ended up here, on Hollywood's biggest stage," an emotional Quan said in his speech. Quan's family fled Vietnam in 1978 and ended up in a refugee camp in Hong Kong; they arrived in the United States in 1979.
He was the second Asian actor to ever win in the category; Haing S. Ngor, a Chinese Cambodian refugee, won in 1984 for his performance in The Killing Fields.
3. Ruth E. Carter becomes the first Black woman to win two Oscars, after winning for costume design.
"Nice to see you again," Carter said in her acceptance speech. "Thank you to the Academy for recognizing the superhero that is a Black woman. She endure, she loves, she overcomes, she is every woman in this film. She is my mother."
In 2019, Carter also made history when she was the first Black designer ever to win the Oscar for costume design. On making history tonight, she said, "I feel that this win opens the door for other young costume designers that may not think this industry is for them."
4. A24 became the first studio to sweep the top six awards: Best Picture, Best Director, and all four acting awards.
Five out of six of those came from Everything Everywhere All at Once, and the sixth came from Brendan Fraser winning for The Whale.
"I'd like to thank the Academy for this honor, and studio A24 for making such a bold film," Fraser said in his acceptance speech.
5. "Naatu Naatu" became the first Telugu song to win best original song.
The song, from Indian action epic RRR, beat out Rihanna, Lady Gaga, and Dianne Warren to take home the top prize, making Oscars history in the process: It became the first Telugu song to win, and the first song from an Indian film to win. RRR also became the first Indian feature film to win in a category that is not Best International Film.
"Thank you Academy. I grew up listening to the Carpenters. And now, here I am with the Oscars. There was only one wish on my mind....," Keeravani sang in his acceptance speech.
Earlier in the evening, actress Deepika Padukone introduced the performance, saying, "Do you know Naatu? Because if not, you're about to."
6. Judd Hirsch broke the record for longest gap between nominations.
The 87-year-old actor broke the record for longest gap between Oscar nominations when he was nominated for his role in The Fabelmans: 41 years and 341 days, breaking the record previously set by Henry Fonda. Hirsch is also the second-oldest ever acting nominee ever.
The Oscars acting categories also made history, more broadly: 16 out of 20 total nominees in the acting categories were newcomers, the largest group of first-time acting nominees ever.
7. Guillermo del Toro became the first person to win Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Animated Feature in Oscars history.
Guillermo del Toro took home the first prize of the night, winning Best Animated Film for Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio. He previously won Best Picture and Best Director for The Shape of Water in 2017.
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