Baby boomers and Gen Xers have won countless Oscars, validating their whole generation (maybe) with little gold statues.
And older millennials — loosely, those born in the 1980s — have enjoyed a solid Oscars run for a while. Emma Stone alone has won 4,353 of them.
But younger millennials — roughly, anyone born in the 1990s — haven’t managed to sway the Academy. Though the oldest of them will turn 35 this year, not a single man born in 1990 or later has ever won an acting Oscar, while only two women have — and none born after 1991. Forgive them for finding this whole awards thing a little sus.
But get ready for all that to change this year.
Maybe.
A generational battle is brewing at the Oscars. Sure, it might seem like this is a race between Brutalist architects and wicked witches, Anora strippers and reformed kingpins. But make no mistake: At heart, what we really have is a battle among generations, between those who once said, “Talk to the hand,” and those who wonder what the hell you’re talking about.
By the way, if you don’t think there’s a distinction between younger and older millennials, think again. Older millennials remember a time before smartphones, they knew what was happening on 9/11, and they helped America make history by electing the first Black president. (Literally — by a ratio of 2-to-1 in 2008.) Younger millennials are aware of all those things, but mainly from TikTok.
Yet a generation that was still in school when Wizards of Waverly Place and Victorious were on the air is now poised to take its turn at the Oscar podium. In fact, it is poised to do that with actors who were actually on Wizards of Waverly Place and Victorious.
Selena Gomez (b. 1992) and Ariana Grande (b. 1993) are contenders to win best supporting actress; they’re joined by Margaret Qualley (b. 1994).
Timothée Chalamet (b. 1995) is a favorite to win best actor (for playing a boomer icon, but beggars and choosers, etc). Mikey Madison (b. 1999, possibly Gen Z) has a legit shot to win best actress.
Even supporting actor has a younger millennial contender: Yura Borisov (b. 1992). It’s at least theoretically possible — if the Academy doesn’t go and ruin it all again — that people born in the ’90s will win all four acting awards this year.
I say ruin it all again because voters seem to have long had it in for those who don’t think of mail as something that requires an envelope. They didn’t give a prize to Paul Mescal (b. 1996) for Aftersun or Austin Butler (b. 1991) for playing Elvis Presley.
They didn’t honor Kristen Stewart (b. 1990) for playing Lady Di or Stephanie Hsu (b. 1990) for putting it all on a bagel in Everything Everywhere All at Once.
And don’t get me started on Saoirse Ronan (b. 1994), who was nominated three times between 2016 and 2020 (and back in 2008!) but never came away with a statuette.
The only two people born in the 1990s to win acting Oscars — Jennifer Lawrence and Ariana DeBose — were born in the first 13 months of the decade. DeBose was born a week into the Gulf War — the first one.
So maybe the Oscars will spoil it again. The Golden Globes kind of spoiled it on Jan. 5, shunning those ’90s kids; the closest anything that young got to the spotlight is when the camera panned to Chalamet’s mustache.
Ironically, the people most blocking the younger millennials’ way are Gen Xers. Yes, the generation that can’t even get themselves a good meme like those OK boomers.
And not just Gen Xers, but iconic Gen Xers. Two of Madison’s main competitors are Angelina Jolie and Nicole Kidman who, if they embodied their generation any more, would have misspent their youth in Seattle.
Chalamet’s main competition is Adrien Brody, ditto.
In fact, Brody — who just won a Golden Globe — is so emblematic of those mopey ’70s kids that he holds a historic distinction: He’s the first Gen Xer to win best actor. Does anything better reflect Gen Xers’ death-grip on glory? Chalamet and his hordes are coming for them. And Brody and his kind sit back and say, “Here we are now, entertain us.”
I mean, I won’t say the Academy prefers its actors seasoned, but the median age of the best actor winners in the 1980s was 44. You’d think that would get lower with the group’s big youth-voter push. You’d be wrong. The median age since 2010 is … 46. No one under 45 has prevailed this decade.
This isn’t just reflexive age veneration, though Demi Moore’s career-toil Globes speech showed how that phenomenon works. Older actors know more people and have worked with more people, and those people vote. Also, the gray winners this decade — Will Smith, Anthony Hopkins, Cillian Murphy, Brendan Fraser — are all pretty stellar.
Still, the ’90s kids are, literally, the future of acting. And they turned in some great performances this year. Watch Grande glide through as Glinda; behold Gomez wriggling under privilege. Listen to Chalamet multitool it; see Madison wield her power.
So when Academy members ask why more young people aren’t watching their show, they might also ask themselves why they’re not watching more young people.
The youngest man ever to win best actor is Brody — he was 29 years and 343 days old when he scored for The Pianist in 2003. Were he to win, Chalamet would be 29 years and 65 days old, becoming not only the first younger millennial winner but the youngest male winner ever. The times, they are a-changing.
Maybe.
This story appeared in the Jan. 9 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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