The 2023 Oscars were historic. What’s next?

This year’s Academy Awards saw many firsts. Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian actress to win an Oscar for a leading role. “Black Panther” costume designer Ruth Carter became the first Black woman to win multiple Oscars. “RRR”, a Tegulu-language film, became the first Indian film to win in the Original Song category. These historic wins come three weeks after the BAFTAs (British Academy Film Awards), where every single winner was white — despite several nominations for “Everything Everywhere All At Once”, which ended up sweeping several Oscars, including “Best Picture”. Strides were made this year, but it’s clear we still have a long way to go.

In 2015, #OscarsSoWhite began trending on Twitter, kick-starting a movement that criticised the overwhelming white majority in the film industry. A study surveying films from 2007 to 2015 pointed out that 92% of top film directors were men, and a whopping 86% featured white actors in leading roles — a pattern that dates back decades. The first person of colour to win an Oscar for a leading role did not receive it until 2002. That was Halle Berry, who won for her role in “Monster’s Ball” — coincidentally, she presented the award to the second person of colour to win: Michelle Yeoh for “Everything Everywhere All At Once”. The fact that it took 74 years for a woman of colour to win Best Actress is appalling, and the fact that it took 21 years for it to happen again is even more so. #OscarsSoWhite, a hashtag started by activist and writer April Reign — drew attention to this trend: 2015 was the first of consecutive two years where all 20 acting nominations were given to white actors. Eight years later, change has been made: the Academy has established new representation and inclusion standards and made steps to reconfigure its nomination process. But still, this year’s BAFTAs show that, globally, there is still a long way to go.

Both Michelle Yeoh and her co-star Ke Huy Quan, a Vietnamese actor who came to the US in 1979 as a refugee, won for their roles in “Everything Everywhere All At Once”, an absurd and tender multiverse action comedy-drama about two immigrant parents who run a laundromat that’s being audited by the IRS. The directors, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, are underdogs — the film was produced with a low budget of $25 million USD, edited on Adobe Premiere Pro, and began a limited theatrical release in Spring 2022. Yeoh and Quan struggled for much of their careers to gain adequate recognition for their work: until 2018’s Crazy Rich Asians, Yeoh was primarily known for her stardom in Hong Kong cinema, and Quan left acting after his minor roles as a young actor, having struggled to find work. Everything Everywhere All at Once launched them both into stardom — it was in the most ordinary roles in which they delivered the most extraordinary performances. However, Michelle Yeoh’s historic win only highlights a deeper past for Asian representation at the Academy Awards. In 1936, Merle Oberon was nominated for the best actress Academy Award for her work in The Dark Angel — she was of Indian heritage but kept it hidden her entire life. Her mother, believed to be of Sri Lankan and Maori ancestry, gave birth at 14 — her father was a foreman of a tea plantation, and it’s assumed Oberon was a product of rape. Born in Mumbai, she grew up in poverty in Calcutta before moving to England to pursue acting. She claimed she was born in Tasmania, and that her birth certificate was lost in a fire. She used a posh accent and lightened her skin with bleach creams to present herself as white — the truth did not come out until after her death. Her story highlights the lingering pressure in the film industry for existing actresses of colour, and how far it ripples back, as well as the need for more representation and opportunities for new faces to come onto the scene.

It’s important to acknowledge the impact that representation has on young people of all careers, but especially those in creative and artistic industries. To see yourself represented on screen validates who you are, and reminds you that your story is worth telling. It helps break down barriers that were in place for centuries. Diverse actors and actresses shouldn’t win awards solely for their race, but they should be given equal opportunity to be cast and perform in roles that present their natural talent. Michelle Yeoh, after decades of being type-cast for stereotypical roles, she told Holywood Reporter she’s been “waiting a long time to get a script like [Everything Everywhere All at Once]”. After her Oscars win, Michelle Yeoh told reporters that her win was for “the Asian community and anyone who has ever been identified as a minority”, and “something that we have been working so hard towards for a very long time, and tonight we freaking broke that glass ceiling. I kung fu’d it out and shattered it, and we need this because there are so many who felt unseen, unheard”. Some may say that the all-white winners at the BAFTAs were merely a statistical probability (and the data is behind it — 82% of England and Wales is white) but the diverse array of winners at the Oscars this year only proves that the UK has a lot of catching up to do, and the fight is far from over.