‘Mank’ leads the nominees in the 93rd Oscars
Ben Mankiewicz would be interested in the Oscars anyway, but this year, the film industry’s top event also is very much a family matter for him.
The longtime Turner Classic Movies host is the grandson of Herman J. Mankiewicz, the co-writer (with director and title star Orson Welles) of 1941’s legendary “Citizen Kane” – and the subject of “Mank,” the most-nominated picture in the 93rd Academy Awards ceremony, to be staged in the coronavirus-pandemic era for the first time as ABC televises it Sunday, April 25. The show will be broadcast principally from Los Angeles’ Union Station, permitting social distancing for attendees, while the traditional Oscar setting of Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre still will be used for certain elements of the special.
Nominated for best picture, “Mank” is in the running for a total of 10 Oscars also including best actor (Gary Oldman), supporting actress (Amanda Seyfried) and director (David Fincher). “It’s a very particular movie about the struggles of an artist who sort of hated himself and hated the business and couldn’t get out of his own way,” Ben Mankiewicz reflects, “but he was the guy everybody wanted to be around. He was the smartest, funniest guy in the room.”
While he normally is analytical when it comes to movies, Mankiewicz notes that “what makes me emotional” about “Mank” is that his late father, veteran political insider Frank Mankiewicz, “didn’t get to see this movie about his father. He would have loved it. And to me, it is precisely how he talked about his dad. Gary Oldman captured what my image was of my grandfather perfectly, and I imagine it is locked into Gary Oldman for the rest of my life.”
Following are the nominees in several categories in the 93rd Oscars.
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 director: Lee Isaac Chung, “Minari”; Emerald Fennell, “Promising Young Woman”; David Fincher, “Mank”; Thomas Vinterberg, “Another Round”; Chloé Zhao, “Nomadland”
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 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 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 supporting actress: Maria Bakalova, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”; Glenn Close, “Hillbilly Elegy”; Olivia Colman, “The Father”; Amanda Seyfried, “Mank”; Yuh-Jung Youn, “Minari”