By Erin Free
After the COVID-induced tedium of The Golden Globes, you have to raise the question of whether movie awards shows should even take place this year? Cinemas in the US have largely been closed due to the pandemic, with most movie watching done at home on streaming services, which makes the Oscars (and all other ceremonies) feel more than a little redundant this year. But despite this, The Academy Awards will roll on, with the ceremony to take place on April 25, pushed back from the original go-date of February 25. Most interestingly, and optimistically, the event is said to be an “in-person” one, taking place at two venues: the traditional location of The Dolby Theatre, and at Los Angeles’ Union Station. The Oscars at a train station? Maybe the organisers are pre-empting the snooze factors and providing attendees with an easy way to back-door it? Hopefully, the ceremony being spread over the two venues will allow for a greater number of actual attendees, and the scratching of The Golden Globes’ let’s-do-it-all-over-Zoom ethos. No host has been named as yet (the ceremony could even be host-less, as with its previous iteration), and very little has been revealed about the event itself, save for its date and locations. So, right now, what will happen with the Oscar remains something of a mystery.
What we do have, however, is the list of nominations, and the strange year in cinema-going (or lack thereof) has led to a decidedly unusual selection of films making the cut, in a similar vein to The Golden Globes. Would these films have been nominated in any other year? Should this year’s Oscar winners have an asterix next to their name? They are valid questions, but they’re also slightly unfair. In short, we’ve got what we’ve got, and there are some fine films in the mix…though admittedly, the Oscar nominations have never so closely mirrored those of The Independent Spirit Awards.
The major categories are filled with strong, against-the-grain pictures, with the Best Film nominees made up of Mank, Promising Young Woman, Judas And The Black Messiah, The Father, Minari, The Trial Of The Chicago 7, Nomadland and Sound Of Metal. In most years, David Fincher’s Hollywood story Mank (which leads the field with ten nominations) would have been the clear favourite (Hollywood loves nothing more than movies about Hollywood), but after last year’s surprise Best Film win for the brilliant Parasite, anything is possible. Keep your eye on the deeply humanist Minari and Nomadland – which mix plenty of grit in with their hard-earned sentiment – as leading contenders.
There’s a distinct lack of serious star power in the nominations listed below, so expect a very fresh list of winners this year, and one that will be way outside of the Oscars’ usual purview. There is, however, some much discussed diversity this year, with several nominees being people of colour, and (though this might be hard to believe) history being made with, for the first time ever, two women (Chloe Zhao and Emerald Fennell) being featured in the Best Director category. 2020 was no ordinary year, and somewhat fittingly, the Oscar nominations born from it are certainly not ordinary either. Check out the list of major nominations below.
BEST PICTURE
The Father
Judas and the Black Messiah
Mank
Minari
Nomadland
Promising Young Woman
Sound of Metal
The Trial of the Chicago 7
BEST ACTRESS
Viola Davis – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Andra Day – The United States vs Billie Holiday
Vanessa Kirby – Pieces Of A Woman
Frances McDormand – Nomadland
Carey Mulligan – Promising Young Woman
BEST ACTOR
Riz Ahmed – Sound of Metal
Chadwick Boseman – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Anthony Hopkins – The Father
Gary Oldman – Mank
Steven Yeun – Minari
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Maria Bakalova – Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Glenn Close – Hillbilly Elegy
Olivia Colman – The Father
Amanda Seyfried – Mank
Yuh-Jung Youn – Minari
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Sacha Baron Cohen – The Trial of the Chicago 7
Daniel Kaluuya – Judas and the Black Messiah
Leslie Odom Jr – One Night in Miami
Paul Raci – Sound of Metal
Lakeith Stanfield – Judas and the Black Messiah
BEST DIRECTOR
Another Round – Thomas Vinterberg
Mank – David Fincher
Minari – Lee Isaac Chung
Nomadland – Chloe Zhao
Promising Young Woman – Emerald Fennell
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Judas and the Black Messiah – Will Berson, Shaka King, Will Berson, Kenny Lucas and Keith Lucas
Minari – Lee Isaac Chung
Promising Young Woman – Emerald Fennell
Sound of Metal – Darius Marder, Abraham Marder, Derek Cianfrance
The Trial of the Chicago 7 – Aaron Sorkin
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm – Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Dan Swimer, Peter Baynham, Erica Rivinoja, Dan Mazer, Jena Friedman and Lee Kern
The Father – Christopher Hampton, Florian Zeller
The Mauritanian – Rory Haines, Sohrab Noshirvani, MB Traven
Nomadland – Chloé Zhao
The White Tiger – Ramin Bahrani
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Onward
Over the Moon
A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
Soul
Wolfwalkers
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Collective
Crip Camp
The Mole Agent
My Octopus Teacher
Time
BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE
Another Round (Denmark)
Better Days (Hong Kong)
Collective (Romania)
The Man Who Sold His Skin (Tunisia)
Quo Vadis, Aida? (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
For a complete of nominations, click here.
