Oscar noms more diverse than ever
The pandemic Academy Award nominations were notably more diverse than ever before, and they strongly suggest wins for “Nomadland” and Chloe Zhao for best picture and director. Netflix’s “Mank,” a great Netflix film about old Hollywood, scored the most nominations (10), including picture, director (David Fincher), actor (Gary Oldman) and supporting actress (Amanda Seyfried).
But that is not the real story. That “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” One Night in Miami” and “Da 5 Bloods” did not make the best picture race is disappointing. But for the first time in Academy Award history, two women, Zhao of “Nomadland” and Emerald Fennell of “Promising Young Woman,” were among the director nominees. Zhao was also nominated as producer, writer and editor, making her the ninth person in Oscar history to be nominated four times in one year. She is also the first woman of color to be nominated for director. Actress nominee Viola Davis of “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” is now the most nominated (four times) Black woman in film history. Hollywood is making up for its #OscarSoWhite mistakes.
The best director category is a snub nightmare because up to 10 films can be nominated for best picture (this year we have 8). But there are only five director slots. In addition, Thomas Vinterberg, whose fine film “Another Round” was not nominated for best picture (it’s in the best international feature film race), was nominated for director. That has left Aaron Sorkin (“The Trial of the Chicago 7”), Darius Marder (“Sound of Metal”), Shaka King (“Judas and the Black Messiah”) and Florian Zeller (“The Father”) conspicuously lacking director nods to match their films’ picture nominations.
The Academy created this mess by inventing a “sliding scale” of five to ten picture nominees in an effort to add commercial titles to the race and raise TV ratings for the awards ceremony. But there are no conventional blockbusters in this pandemic year, although the popular hit “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” was nominated for supporting actress (Maria Bakalova) and adapted screenplay.
In the acting categories, actors of color made an unprecedented showing. Instant best actor front
runner Chadwick Boseman (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”) received a posthumous nomination in an admirably diverse category. Steven Yeun (“Minari”) is the first Asian and Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal”) the first Muslim best actor nominee. Andra Day (“The United States vs. Billie Holiday”) and previous winner Frances McDormand (“Nomadland”) lead a tight and very strong best actress race with the newcomer perhaps a hair ahead. David Kaluuya (“Judas and
the Black Messiah”) has been winning handily in precursor races and is the front runner for supporting actor, where he is up against costar Lakeith Stanfield. Also in the supporting actor race is Leslie Odom Jr. of “One Night in Miami.”
In the supporting actress race, Bakalova is the front runner, although Korean veteran Yuh-Jung Youn (“Minari”) is a close second. Why famously left-at-the-Oscaraltar Glenn Close was nominated for her Mammy Yokum turn in “Hillbilly Elegy” is a mystery to me. In the animated film category,
I yearn for an upset for GKIDS’ “Wolfwalkers” over Disney’s credulous and metaphysically grotesque “Soul.” Christopher Nolan’s similarly knotty and imponderable time-travel movie “Tenet,” which was released in theaters while the pandemic raged, was nominated only for two technical awards. Two more predictions: 1. “Mank,” which has no screenplay nod among its nominations, is going to get stiffed; and 2. The diversity of the Academy Awards of 2021 is just a thankful preview of #OscarsNotSoWhite.