Great diversity of ethnicities, genres and films characterized the nominations.

Seven of the 20 acting nominees are people of the global majority, spread across all four races. Jeffrey Wright and Sterling K. Brown were nominated for lead and supporting actor, respectively, for best picture nominee American Fiction, which satirizes cultural depictions of Blacks. They join Colman Domingo (Rustin) in the lead actor race as the three Black men nominated for an acting Oscar this year.

My Oscar Book:

Best Supporting Actress: Three Nominees are Black and Latinas

Best supporting actress has historically been the most diverse of the acting races. This year is no different, with actresses of color comprising the majority of the category for the fifth time in Oscar history: The Color Purple’s Danielle Brooks, Barbie’s America Ferrera and The Holdovers’ Da’Vine Joy Randolph.

Ferrera’s surprise nomination makes her the first-ever nominee of Honduran descent in any Oscars category.

She joins Domingo, whose father is from Belize and Guatemala (also heretofore unrepresented at the Oscars) as the two Latino acting nominees this year.

Ferrera has said that she has roots among Honduras’ Lenca people, which would make for two nominated actors with Indigenous ancestry at the 2024 Oscars.

The other is best actress contender Lily Gladstone, who is the first Native American acting nominee in Academy history.

The Killers of the Flower Moon star’s nod gives her category a historic first for the second year in a row, following Michelle Yeoh’s breakthrough for actresses of Asian descent.

In her welcome remarks early Tuesday morning, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Janet Yang noted that the organization’s membership now comprises almost 11,000 people from 93 countries.

This was the first year that the Academy’s representation and inclusion standards, which determine eligibility for best picture, went into effect.

The procedure yielded 4 nominated movies at least partially not in English (Anatomy of a Fall, Killers of the Flower Moon, Past Lives and The Zone of Interest) and four comedies (American Fiction, Barbie, The Holdovers, Poor Things) joining Oppenheimer (13 total nominations) and Maestro (7).

The inclusion standards state that at least some members of the cast, crew or development/marketing/publicity/distribution teams must identify as a member of an underrepresented group, defined as women, historically excluded races or ethnicities, people of LGBTQ+ identity or people with cognitive or physical disabilities or who are deaf or hard of hearing.