Oscars 2023: How Oscar winners are getting older... but show no signs of slowing down

Michelle Yeoh accepts the award for best performance by an actress in a leading role for Everything Everywhere All at Once. Photo / AP

Hollywood’s glitterati were out of their seats on Sunday night, applauding the surprise winners at the 95th Oscars.

The annual Academy Awards may be Hollywood’s most lauded of prizes, yet the competition is repeatedly dogged by accusations of racism, ageism, ableism and sexism.

Despite the standing ovations, this year’s ceremony marked the first time since 1982, and only the third time in history, that all winners from the main acting categories were over 50.

At the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, Michelle Yeoh became the first southeast Asian woman to win the best actress award as Everything Everywhere All At Once, her multiverse adventure film, dominated the ceremony.

Michelle Yeoh accepts the award for best performance by an actress in a leading role for Everything Everywhere All at Once. Photo / AP

Accepting her award, the 60-year-old actress, who was also a first-time nominee, said: “For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibilities.

“And ladies, don’t let anybody tell you that you are ever past your prime.”

Meanwhile, Jamie Lee Curtis, who began acting when she was a teenager, was rewarded with her first Oscar nomination and first win as best supporting actress for the same film.

The 64-year-old took to the stage amid another standing ovation and declared that her win was one for the “hundreds of people” who had helped her career reach this moment.

These included “my bae Michelle” [Yeoh], as well as their fellow cast and crew and her family.

Jamie Lee Curtis won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Photo / Getty Images

Analysis revealed that the average age in all best and supporting actors and actresses categories this year was just short of 58.

This makes it the fourth oldest acting crop in the history of the ceremony, surpassed only by 1982 (71), 2021 (63) and 1931 (58).

In 2021, Anthony Hopkins’ win for The Father made him the oldest winner in history at just over 83 years old.

However, the average age that year was pulled down by Daniel Kaluuya, the relatively young British actor, for his win in the best supporting actor category for his role in Judas and the Black Messiah, when he was 32.

The 2018 Oscars saw Sam Rockwell win best supporting actor for his role in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, aged just 49.

Best Supporting Actor winner for Everything Everywhere All at Once, Ke Huy Quan. Photo / Getty Images

The average age of female winners has also seen a significant shift upwards over the past few years, overtaking men for the first time.

Over the past five years, the average age of female winners has been 53, compared to 52 for men.

However, the gap between nominees’ ages remains wide – male nominees tend to be seven years older than female ones, a trend seen throughout Hollywood’s history.