Oscars 2023: 95th Academy Awards is a year of 'firsts'
Sixteen of the 20 acting nominees will walk the now "champagne carpet" for their first-ever nominations.
LOS ANGELES, California (WPVI) -- No matter who takes home the statue this Oscar Sunday, this is proving to be a year of "firsts."
Sixteen of the 20 acting nominees will walk the now "champagne carpet" for their first-ever nominations. That includes everyone in the Best Actor category: Colin Farrell, Bill Nighy, Paul Mescal, Brendan Fraser and Austin Butler. They are all first-time nominees.
The Philadelphia Film Society has been showing the contenders to our home crowd and tracking the road to Oscar gold.
"There feels like there's a tidal wave right now towards 'Everything Everywhere all at Once,'" says Andrew Greenblatt, the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Film Society.
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The film is up for 11 awards, including Best Picture. While some say it seems like a lock, others argue this category could be a ballot buster.
"If there's any film that has a path to upsetting 'Everything Everywhere All at Once,' it's probably 'All Quiet on the Western Front,'" says ABC News contributor Chris Connelly. "Why? Because it plays to kind of an old-school demographic."
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There are a record number of Asian American nominees this year, four of them in the major acting categories. That includes Michelle Yeoh who is up for Best Actress. She's considered the front-runner by many, but critics say this race is also hard to predict.
"Anything could happen," Greenblatt says. "Cate Blanchett's performance is stunning from 'Tár.' For a while, that was where all of the momentum was going. So it wouldn't be a tremendous surprise if she won Best Actress."
There's also a dark horse in that category. Newcomer Andrea Riseborough is up for Best Actress for her role in 'To Leslie.' Her nomination followed a grassroots lobbying campaign led by a powerhouse group of Hollywood A-listers.
"I don't think anyone should ever apologize for getting nominated for an Oscar," Connelly says, "but the process made people kind of think about it and led the Academy to have a conversation about it."
