60 Fun Facts About Oscars 2023

On what date was the 95th Academy Awards ceremony held?

The 95th Academy Awards took place on March 12, 2023, honoring films released in 2022 and handing out Oscars in 23 categories in a ceremony broadcast on ABC.

Which Hollywood venue hosted the 2023 Oscars ceremony?

The Dolby Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard opened as the Kodak Theatre in November 2001 and has been the Oscars' home since the March 2002 ceremony.

Which comedian hosted the 2023 Oscars, his third time in the job?

Jimmy Kimmel hosted the 95th Academy Awards, returning after two earlier back-to-back ceremonies, one of which ended with the La La Land / Moonlight Best Picture envelope mix-up.

Before 2023, the host had already presided over the Oscars in which two consecutive years?

The host's earlier stints were 2017 and 2018, the 89th and 90th ceremonies; the first of them ended with the La La Land / Moonlight Best Picture envelope mix-up.

Which film won Best Picture at the 2023 Oscars?

Everything Everywhere All at Once won Best Picture at the 95th Academy Awards, the multiverse comedy-drama also taking Best Director for Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.

How many Oscars did the Best Picture winner take home in 2023?

Seven Oscars went to the Best Picture winner: Picture, Director, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay and Film Editing, the most of the night.

How many nominations did the 2023 Best Picture winner receive, the most of any film that year?

Eleven nominations went to the Best Picture winner, the most of the year; its two closest rivals, a Netflix remake and an Irish black comedy, had nine each.

The 2023 Best Picture winner was the first film of which genre to win the top prize?

Science fiction had never taken Best Picture before the 2023 winner; earlier sci-fi nominees such as Star Wars, E.T. and Arrival all lost the top prize.

Which of these films also won three acting Oscars, like the 2023 Best Picture winner?

The other was A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). Network's three wins in 1977 included a posthumous Best Actor for Peter Finch.

Who won Best Actor at the 2023 Oscars for playing a reclusive, 600-pound English teacher in The Whale?

Brendan Fraser won Best Actor for The Whale, capping a celebrated comeback; director Darren Aronofsky said he had spent a decade searching for the right actor to play Charlie.

The 2023 Best Actor winner became the first person from which country to win the category?

Canada got its first Best Actor winner: born in Indianapolis to Canadian parents, he holds dual citizenship, and Aronofsky cast him after seeing a trailer for an obscure Brazilian film.

For the first time since 1935, all five 2023 Best Actor nominees shared what distinction?

The field was Fraser, Austin Butler, Colin Farrell, Paul Mescal and Bill Nighy, none of whom had been nominated before.

Which of these actors was NOT nominated for Best Actor at the 2023 Oscars?

Tom Cruise was passed over even though his fighter-jet sequel earned six nominations; Mescal was recognized for Aftersun and Nighy for Living.

Who won Best Actress at the 2023 Oscars for playing laundromat owner Evelyn Quan Wang?

Michelle Yeoh, the Malaysian star, became the first Asian winner of Best Actress at 60 for playing laundromat owner Evelyn in the multiverse comedy-drama.

Who was the first woman of color to win Best Actress, before the 2023 winner?

Halle Berry won Best Actress in 2002 for Monster's Ball, the first woman of color to do so, and she was among the presenters of the lead acting awards in 2023.

Ana de Armas earned a 2023 Best Actress nomination for Blonde, playing which figure?

Blonde was Netflix's fictionalised take on Marilyn Monroe's life. De Armas was the only nominee from a streaming-first release in the category.

Whose surprise 2023 Best Actress nod for To Leslie triggered an Academy review of campaigning?

Andrea Riseborough's nomination for To Leslie followed no conventional campaign; the film's director and his wife rallied celebrities to host screenings and post online, and the Academy reviewed but kept the nomination.

Who won Best Supporting Actor at the 2023 Oscars for playing Waymond Wang?

Ke Huy Quan won Best Supporting Actor for Waymond Wang, opening his tearful speech with 'Mom, I just won an Oscar!' after roughly two decades away from acting.

The 2023 Best Supporting Actor winner was the first Oscar winner from which country?

Vietnam-born, he came to the United States as a refugee and became the first Vietnamese-born actor to win an Oscar, only the second Asian winner of the category after Haing S. Ngor.

The 2023 Best Supporting Actor winner played Short Round as a child in which 1984 film?

Temple of Doom, shot in 1983, cast him as Short Round after he tagged along to his brother's audition; he played Data in The Goonies the following year.

Who won Best Supporting Actress at the 2023 Oscars for playing IRS auditor Deirdre Beaubeirdre?

Jamie Lee Curtis won Best Supporting Actress on her first nomination, at 64, decades after her 1978 Halloween debut made her a scream queen.

The 2023 Best Supporting Actress winner is the daughter of Janet Leigh and which actor?

Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh were both Oscar nominees but neither won; Leigh was nominated for Psycho and Curtis for The Defiant Ones.

The 2023 Best Director winners were which-numbered pair of directors to win for one film?

Third such pair: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, the Daniels, followed Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for West Side Story and the Coen brothers for No Country for Old Men.

Before their Oscar-winning film, the Daniels were best known for the video to which 2013 hit?

Turn Down for What, the DJ Snake and Lil Jon video, earned the Daniels a Grammy nomination; their feature debut was 2016's Swiss Army Man, with Daniel Radcliffe as a flatulent corpse.

Which studio distributed the 2023 Best Picture winner, then its highest-grossing film?

A24 released the film, which grossed about $143 million worldwide on a budget under $25 million after opening in just ten theaters, then the studio's biggest hit.

Which film won Best International Feature at the 2023 Oscars?

All Quiet on the Western Front, Netflix's adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's novel, was also named Best Film at the BAFTAs, Germany's first win in the category since The Lives of Others.

How many Oscars did the 2023 Best International Feature winner take home in total?

Four Oscars in total: it added Cinematography, Original Score and Production Design to its International Feature win, second only to the Best Picture winner's haul.

How many Oscars did The Banshees of Inisherin win from its nine 2023 nominations?

None: despite acting nominations for Farrell, Gleeson, Condon and Keoghan, it went home empty-handed, though writer-director Martin McDonagh already owned an Oscar for the short Six Shooter.

Which composer won Best Original Score in 2023 for the German First World War film?

Volker Bertelmann, who also records as Hauschka, won for the German war film's score, beating 90-year-old John Williams, then the oldest competitive nominee in Oscar history.

John Williams' 2023 Best Original Score nomination, at age 90, was for which film?

The Fabelmans, Steven Spielberg's semi-autobiographical drama about his childhood, brought Williams his 53rd nomination and made him, at 90, the oldest competitive nominee in Oscar history to that point.

Judd Hirsch's 2023 supporting nomination came a record 42 years after his first, for which 1980 film?

Ordinary People brought his first nomination; the 42-year gap to his second was the longest between two acting nominations, and he lost both times, in 1981 to co-star Timothy Hutton.

Which stop-motion film won Best Animated Feature at the 2023 Oscars?

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, a dark stop-motion take set in Fascist Italy, had been in development since 2008 before Netflix backed it; del Toro shared the award with co-director Mark Gustafson.

Which song won Best Original Song at the 2023 Oscars, the first Indian song ever to do so?

Naatu Naatu, the RRR dance number composed by M. M. Keeravani, was performed live by singers Kaala Bhairava and Rahul Sipligunj to a standing ovation.

RRR, whose song won an Oscar in 2023, is a film in which Indian language?

Telugu is RRR's language: S. S. Rajamouli's period action epic was shot in Telugu, and lyricist Chandrabose wrote the Oscar-winning song's Telugu words.

Which song did Rihanna perform at the 2023 Oscars?

Lift Me Up, the nominated ballad from the Black Panther sequel, was co-written with Tems and Ludwig Göransson; it was Rihanna's first Oscars performance.

Lady Gaga almost skipped singing 'Hold My Hand' at the 2023 Oscars because of which film?

Joker: Folie à Deux was shooting at the time, so her appearance was confirmed only on the morning of the show; she performed a stripped-back version in jeans and a T-shirt.

Which film won Best Documentary Feature at the 2023 Oscars?

Navalny premiered at Sundance in January 2022 and won the festival's audience award; its subject, Alexei Navalny, died in an Arctic prison in February 2024.

Which cable news channel's film arm co-produced the 2023 Best Documentary Feature winner?

CNN Films co-produced the winner with HBO Max and Fishbowl Films; the film follows the investigation into the 2020 Novichok poisoning that put its subject in a coma.

Which film won Best Documentary Short in 2023, the first Indian film to win in that category?

The Elephant Whisperers follows an indigenous couple raising orphaned elephants at a camp in Mudumalai National Park; director Kartiki Gonsalves spent about five years filming them.

What is the name of the orphaned baby elephant in the 2023 Best Documentary Short winner?

Bomman and Bellie, of the Kattunayakan tribe, later adopt a second calf, Ammu, and eventually have to give Raghu up.

Which film won Best Live Action Short at the 2023 Oscars?

An Irish Goodbye, a comedy about two estranged brothers reunited on a Northern Ireland farm, also won the BAFTA; its makers led the audience in singing happy birthday to star James Martin.

Which film won Best Animated Short at the 2023 Oscars?

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse was adapted from Charlie Mackesy's best-selling illustrated book, and Mackesy shared the Oscar with producer Matthew Freud.

Ruth E. Carter won her second Oscar in 2023 for Costume Design on which film?

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever brought Carter her second Costume Design Oscar, after the original Black Panther in 2019; she had earlier been nominated for Malcolm X and Amistad.

Ruth E. Carter dedicated her 2023 Oscar to her mother, who had died the week before at what age?

Her mother, Mabel Carter, had died at 101 the week before the ceremony, where Carter became the first Black woman to win two Oscars.

Which film won Best Visual Effects at the 2023 Oscars?

Avatar: The Way of Water gave the franchise a second Visual Effects Oscar, the original having won in 2010; the sequel was the only 2022 release to gross over $2 billion worldwide.

Sarah Polley won Best Adapted Screenplay in 2023 for which film?

Women Talking, adapted from Miriam Toews's novel, was also a Best Picture nominee; Polley beat Kazuo Ishiguro's Living and Rian Johnson's Glass Onion.

Which was the highest-grossing Best Picture nominee of the 2023 Oscars, with about $719M domestically?

Top Gun: Maverick, the year's biggest domestic release with about $719 million, earned six nominations including Best Picture and won Best Sound.

What color was the arrivals carpet at the 2023 Oscars, the first non-red carpet since 1960?

Champagne was the color chosen by consultant Lisa Love, who said the lighter shade would not clash with the sienna-colored tent shielding guests from the weather.

Why did the Academy hire a 'crisis team' for the 2023 ceremony?

The Will Smith slap in 2022 prompted CEO Bill Kramer to say the Academy had 'run many scenarios'; the host still opened with jokes about the slap, and the night passed without a repeat.

The 2023 host's press release called being invited back 'either a great honor' or what?

A trap, he said, adding he was grateful the Academy asked 'so quickly after everyone good said no'; he had hosted twice before.

Which pair announced the 2023 Oscar nominations on January 24, 2023?

Riz Ahmed and Allison Williams read the nominations at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills; Ahmed had won an Oscar the previous year for the short The Long Goodbye.

Which action star presented the Best Picture award at the 2023 Oscars?

Harrison Ford presented Best Picture, a moment that reunited him with his former child co-star Short Round, who had just won Best Supporting Actor and jumped into his arms on stage.

Which singer performed 'Calling All Angels' during the 2023 In Memoriam segment?

Lenny Kravitz performed Train's 'Calling All Angels' during the In Memoriam tribute, which honored Olivia Newton-John, Angela Lansbury and Raquel Welch among others.

Roughly how many US viewers watched the 2023 Oscars on ABC?

18.75 million viewers watched, about 12 percent more than 2022's 16.6 million and the second straight annual gain after the pandemic-era low of 2021.

Who received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Governors Awards ahead of the 2023 Oscars?

Michael J. Fox was honored for his Parkinson's advocacy; the foundation he started in 2000 had funded well over $1 billion in research by then.

Which songwriter received an Honorary Oscar for 2023 while also being nominated that year for 'Applause'?

Diane Warren got the honorary statuette after 13 nominations without a win; she performed 'Applause' on the show with Sofia Carson, then lost a 14th time.

Who produced the 2023 Oscars telecast, with one of the pair also directing?

Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner were hired in September 2022, with Weiss also directing the telecast; Rickey Minor served as musical director.

Which film won Best Makeup and Hairstyling at the 2023 Oscars?

The Whale won Best Makeup and Hairstyling for Adrien Morot, Judy Chin and Annemarie Bradley, whose prosthetics transformed its star into the 600-pound Charlie.

Which presenter pulled out of the 2023 ceremony after testing positive for COVID-19?

Glenn Close withdrew as a presenter after testing positive for COVID-19 shortly before the ceremony; the eight-time nominee had yet to win an Oscar.

Who introduced the In Memoriam segment at the 2023 Oscars?

John Travolta introduced the tribute, choking up as he remembered his Grease co-star Olivia Newton-John, who had died in August 2022.