For the first time in Oscar history, a record-setting four Asian actors received nominations in a single year, including Michelle Yeoh, who is up for best actress for the gorgeous and wonderfully trippy "Everything Everywhere All at Once.” That film, which received 11 nods, the most in 2022, features a largely Asian and Asian American cast.
In fact, a bumper crop of filmmakers, performers and artists of Asian descent were nominated for Academy Awards this year. The honorees run the gamut: There are actors, of course, but also directors, screenwriters and musicians, as well as artists skilled in animation, costume design and makeup.
Among the contenders are Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro and Domee Shi, the first woman to direct a short film for Pixar (2018’s "Bao,” which won an Oscar). The films themselves range from a critically acclaimed animated feature that is metaphorically about menstruation (Shi’s "Turning Red”) to a visually haunting documentary about a bird hospital in India ("All That Breathes”) and a tune-filled anti-colonialist action extravaganza ("RRR”).