OSCARS
2023 Oscars first-time nominated award winners
Three stars who came to the event as first-time nominees took home an Academy Award.
Some people get nominated for an Academy Award over and over without ever taking home a trophy, while others win an award as first-time nominees. This was the case for Jamie Lee Curtis, Brendan Fraser, and Ke Huy Quan.
Each actor picked up their first Oscar win at the 2023 Oscars Sunday night in Hollywood, after never receiving a nomination prior to the event.
Jamie Lee Curtis wins Best Supporting Actress
Jamie Lee Curtis won her first Academy Award Sunday evening in the category of Best Supporting Actress for her role in ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’.
The veteran Hollywood actress’ mother, Janet Leigh, was nominated for the same category in 1960.
In her acceptance speech, Curtis thanked her husband and daughters, her agents, and Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, the film’s directors. She also acknowledged her late parents and the hundreds of thousands who have contributed to her long career.
“To all of the people who have supported the genre movies I have made all these years,” Curtis began, “the thousands and hundreds of thousands of people, we just won an Oscar together!”
“I just won an Oscar!”
Brendan Fraser wins Best Actor
Brendan Fraser accepted the award for Best Actor Sunday night for his leading role in ‘The Whale’, setting a new milestone for himself. Fraser had never even been nominated for an Oscar in his impressive career, and he said that winning one now was particularly special.
Fraser, who stepped back from his acting career for most of the 2000s, got emotional onstage as he reflected on his journey. After thanking A24, the film’s studio and the crew, director Darren Aronofsky, writer Samuel D. Hunter, and Hong Chau, Academy Award-nominated actress and Fraser’s co-star, who plays his nurse.
“Only whales can swim at the depth of the talent of Hong Chau,” Fraser said.
“I started in this business 30 years ago,” the actor continued, “and things, they didn’t come easily to me, but there was a facility that I didn’t appreciate at the time, until it stopped. And I just want to say thank you for this acknowledgement.”
Ke Huy Quan wins Best Supporting Actor
Ke Huy Quan took home the award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’, his first-ever Oscars nomination.
Quan thanked his 84-year-old mother watching from home, as well as the other people that helped him along the way.
“Mom, I just won an Oscar!” the actor said excitedly to open his acceptance speech.
“They say stories like this only happen in the movies,” Quan continued. “I cannot believe it’s happening to me.”
“This, this is the American dream.”