Oscars 2023: Best Supporting Actor Nominees:
Brendan Gleeson (“The Banshees of Inisherin”), Brian Tyree Henry (“Causeway”), Judd Hirsch (“The Fabelmans”), Barry Keoghan (“The Banshees of Inisherin”), and Ke Huy Quan (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”).
Hirsch is the only returning nominee among the five, as he was previously recognized for his featured turn in “Ordinary People” in 1981.
He is the 74th man to earn at least two supporting notices and the sixth to be added to that list in the last five years after Mahershala Ali, Sam Rockwell, Anthony Hopkins, Brad Pitt, and J. K. Simmons. The 42-year gap between his first and second bids is the largest for any performer across any of the lead or supporting categories. The previous record holder was Henry Fonda, who won Best Actor for “On Golden Pond” (1982) after last competing as the star of “The Grapes of Wrath” (1941).
At 87, Hirsch is the second oldest person to ever contend for any acting Oscar. The only one who outpaces him is Christopher Plummer, who was 91 days older when he received his third and final supporting nomination for “All the Money in the World” (2018). The other members of the new top five are Gloria Stuart (87; “Titanic,” 1998), Judi Dench (87; “Belfast,” 2022), and Emmanuelle Riva (85; “Amour,” 2013). Hirsch could also set a new record as the oldest acting Oscar winner ever, supplanting 2021 Best Actor champ Hopkins (“The Father”) by over four years.
At just 30 years of age, Keoghan falls within the youngest 11% of men who have ever vied for this prize. He has a shot at becoming the first male acting winner to have been born in the 1990s, as do current lead contenders Austin Butler (“Elvis”) and Paul Mescal (“Aftersun”). At this point, the only female victors representing the decade are 2013 Best Actress recipient Jennifer Lawrence (“Silver Linings Playbook”) and reigning Best Supporting Actress champ Ariana DeBose (“West Side Story”)
“The Banshees of Inisherin” is the 22nd film to receive more than one nomination in this category and the fourth to do so in as many years after “The Irishman” (2020; Al Pacino and Joe Pesci), “Judas and the Black Messiah” (2021; Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield), and “The Power of the Dog” (2022; Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee).
Hirsch was involved in a similar situation in 1981, when he ended up being bested by his “Ordinary People” cast mate, Timothy Hutton.
Henry has the chance to become this category’s seventh Black winner, directly following Kaluuya.
This precedent was set by Louis Gossett Jr. (“An Officer and a Gentleman”) in 1983, when Henry was just one year old.
Quan could end a much longer drought by joining Haing S. Ngor (“The Killing Fields,” 1985) as only the second Asian Best Supporting Actor winner.
The most recent victors in this category are Troy Kotsur (“CODA,” 2022), Kaluuya, Pitt (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” 2020), and Ali (“Green Book,” 2019).
This year’s winner will be revealed during the 95th Academy Awards ceremony, airing March 12 on ABC.
