Michelle Yeoh may have broken Academy regulations

Michelle Yeoh has deleted her Instagram post that featured a story about the Best Actress in a Leading Role race at the Oscars and may have broken Academy regulations. The Malaysian actor who has been nominated for her performance in the multiverse-spanning Everything Everywhere All At Once, is the frontrunner in the category to win, which could be historic since it would make Michelle the first Asian actor to win the award in the Academy's almost 100 year-old history.

Just hours before the Oscars voting closed on 7 March, Michelle shared screenshots of a Vogue article written by Radhika Seth titled 'It's Been Over Two Decades Since We've Had a Non-White Best Actress Winner. Will That Change in 2023?' which highlighted the lack of diversity in the category.

Going into the Oscars night on 13 March, the biggest competition for Michelle Yeoh in the Best Actress category is Cate Blanchett, who is nominated for her performance in Tar. Cate has won majority of the critics circle awards, and the Golden Globe, Critics Choice and BAFTA. The article whose screenshots Michelle highlighted on her Instagram also took note of the possibility of Cate's win, received severe backlash from users online. 

"Detractors would say that Blanchett's is the stronger performance—the acting veteran is, indisputably, incredible as the prolific conductor Lydia Tár—but it should be noted that she already has two Oscars. A third would perhaps confirm her status as an industry titan but, considering her expansive and unparalleled body of work, are we still in need of yet more confirmation? Meanwhile, for Yeoh, an Oscar would be life-changing: her name would forever be preceded by the phrase 'Academy Award winner,' and it should result in her getting meatier parts, after a decade of being criminally underused in Hollywood," said the article.

Shortly after, Michelle deleted the article after receiving numerous online criticisms for singling out the other candidate Cate Blanchett in her post. Additionally, it might have gone against one of the Academy's regulations. As stated in no. 11, 'References to Other Nominees', Part B of the rule of The Academy reads: "any tactic that singles out 'the competition' by name or titles is expressly forbidden."

The Academy has not made any comments as of yet.