The 2021 Oscar nominations are finally here! After all this delay, there really wasn’t as many surprises or freak snubs as I was hoping for. The Academy pulled a couple little substitutions in here, like Thomas Vinterberg for Another Round knocking out Aaron Sorkin in Best Director, and both leads of Judas and the Black Messiah being nominated in supporting (don’t ask me why they did that), but otherwise, the eight Best Picture nominees were more or less expected. The snubs in that category were Ma Rainey, News of the World and One Night in Miami being left off (boo!), while Sound of Metal turned out to be much stronger than I thought after all. But the story of the nominations today was all the diversity. For the first time in history, two women are nominated in Best Director (Chloe Zhao and Emerald Fennell) and both of their films (Nomadland and Promising Young Woman) are the only two that hit all the most important categories (Picture, Director, Screenplay and Editing). Also for the first time in history, there are two Asian men nominated for Lead Actor, with Steven Yeun for Minari becoming the first Asian-American man ever nominated in the category. And for only the second time since 1972, two black women are nominated in Lead Actress, with Viola Davis becoming the most nominated African-American woman ever. Those are things to celebrate, as the Oscars will be held on April 25th at both Union Station in Los Angeles and the Dolby Theater somehow (don’t know how they’re going to pull that off- if you ask me the obvious decision here was to hold the whole thing outside at the Hollywood Bowl).
2021 OSCAR NOMINATIONS
BEST PICTURE
"The Father"
"Judas and the Black Messiah"
"Mank"
"Minari"
"Nomadland"
"Promising Young Woman"
"Sound of Metal"
"The Trial of the Chicago 7″
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Riz Ahmed, "Sound of Metal"
Chadwick Boseman, "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom"
Anthony Hopkins, "The Father"
Gary Oldman, "Mank"
Steven Yeun, "Minari"
ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
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"
DIRECTOR
Thomas Vinterberg, "Another Round"
David Fincher, "Mank"
Lee Isaac Chung, "Minari"
Chloe Zhao, "Nomadland"
Emerald Fennell, "Promising Young Woman"