BEST OF THE BEST
In contrast to past years, Sunday’s slate of Oscar nominees is a groundbreaking collection of intimate films, diverse actors and directors, and thoughtful storytelling
Sunday’s slate of Oscar nominees is a collection of intimate films with thoughtful storytelling.
During a recent news conference, co-producer Stacy Sher described the red carpet at Sunday’s downsized Academy Awards broadcast as “teeny tiny.” You can’t say the same for Oscar’s silver lining.
After a year when nothing was normal, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rose to the singular occasion with a slate of Oscar nominees that was groundbreaking, historic and necessary. Records were set, barriers were smashed, and stars of many stripes were born. In honor of Sunday’s broadcast, here is a look at some of the early victories of the 93rd annual Academy Awards.
Hollywood loves nothing more than movies about itself, so it came as no surprise that this year’s mostnominated film was “Mank,” director David Fincher’s look at screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz and the long, torturous process of penning the screenplay for “Citizen Kane.” But the nominations got a lot less predictable after that.
In response to the #OscarsSoWhite embarrassments of 2015 and 2016 (and beyond), the academy — under the leadership of president Cheryl Boone Isaacs — doubled the number of female members and nearly tripled the
number of members from racial and ethnic minorities. It also expanded the number of international members.
The result of this diversity effort was an Oscar lineup unlike any we have seen before.
For the first time in Academy Awards history, two women were nominated in the best director category. First-time director Emerald Fennell (“Promising Young Woman”) and Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”) were also nominated for their screenplays and as producers of their films in the best picture category. Zhao received a nomination in the film editing category, making her the first woman to receive four nominations in a single year.
And the history-making did not stop there.
Two of the best actress nominees are Black (Viola Davis and San Diego’s Andra Day). Three of the five best actor nominees (Riz Ahmed, the late Chadwick Boseman and Steven Yeun) are not White; and three of the supporting actor nominees (Daniel Kaluuya, Leslie Odom Jr. and LaKeith Stanfield) are Black. Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson from “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” are the first Black women to be nominated for best makeup and hairstyling, and “Judas and the Black Messiah” is the first film with an all-Black producing team to be nominated for best picture.
The great news about increased diversity is that it is about so much more than demographics. This year’s Oscars have a record number of non-White acting nominees because filmmakers of color made movies that reflect their lives and their history. Unlike way back in 2020, when eight of the nine nominees for best picture were stories of White people (mostly men) told by White people (also mostly men), these milestone nominations were all the result of films that represented a rich swath of human experience.
First-time director Regina King and nominated
screenwriter Kemp Powers gave us “One Night in Miami,” a fictionalized look at the real evening in 1964 when Jim Brown, Cassius Clay (before he became Muhammed Ali), Sam Cooke and Malcolm X hunkered down in a Miami motel room to talk about racism, activism and personal accountability. Leslie Odom Jr. was nominated for his slow-burning turn as Cooke and for “Speak Now,” the song he and Sam Ashworth co-wrote for the film. Powers was also the codirector of Oscar-nominated “Soul,” Pixar’s first film with a Black star and a predominantly Black cast.
Davis and Day were nominated for their performances as Ma Rainey and Billie Holiday, two pioneering Black female singers making their way in a very White, very male world. In “Judas and the Black Messiah,” nominated screenwriters Will Berson and Shaka King (who also directed) gave us a fictionalized look at the real Bill O’Neal (supporting actor nominee Stanfield), who infiltrated the Black Panther Party of Chicago as a
paid informant for the FBI.
Actor Yeun was nominated for playing the stubborn, striving Korean American father in “Minari,” Oscar-nominated director/writer Lee Isaac Chung’s semi-autobiographical film about growing up in rural Arkansas. And the phenomenal Yuhjung Youn was nominated for her scene-stealing supporting actress performance in the film.
In the end, Hollywood might still indulge itself by giving the best picture Oscar to “Mank.” It is also possible that all four acting awards could go to people of color. If you have been lucky enough to catch Youn or Odom or Davis in the act, you’ve got your gold already.
The little things
With movie theaters shuttered and many blockbusters put on hold, the COVID-19 pandemic left the big screen and big movies in the dark. This was bad news for the industry and audiences alike, but what our pandemic movie-watching experience lacked in size, it made up for in absorbing intimacy.
Take “Sound of Metal.” In a different kind of year, a small character study about a heavy-metal drummer and recovering addict struggling to cope with a sudden hearing loss might not have made it into the best picture lineup. But here it is, sharing the category with a beautifully observed family film (“Minari”); an adaptation of a play about an aging man descending into dementia (“The Father”); an empathetic portrait of Americans living off the grid (“Nomadland”); and a very disturbing, very polarizing story of a woman’s plot to avenge a friend’s rape (“Promising Young Woman”).
These stories and these characters were not insignificant, but they were
not multiplex material, either. While they may not have been made specifically for the small screen, they were perfectly at home there. Thanks to streaming services like Amazon Prime, Netflix and Hulu, these anti-blockbusters were the stars of our shut-in living rooms. They were also Oscar bait.
Without big-budget star vehicles drowning them out, these deserving films were able to make themselves heard. And since we were a captive audience, we were more than ready for the stories they needed to tell.
The show will go on
The academy is not asking Oscar ceremony attendees to wear face masks when the cameras are rolling, but there will be no shortage of mysteries on Oscar night.
First-time show producers Steven Soderbergh, Sher and Jesse Collins are planning to put on an awards broadcast that address COVID-19 safety concerns without sacrificing the pomp and prestige of Hollywood’s biggest night. We will be watching from the homes we have barely left in more than a year, but the 2021 Oscar broadcast is being designed to take us somewhere special.
To that end, there will be live people presenting the awards in front of a live audience, which is being capped at 170 people. Audience members will be rotated in and out throughout the evening. There will be pre-recorded interviews, a special score from Questlove, and a 90-minute pretaped pre-show featuring performances of four of the five nominated songs from Celeste, H.E.R., Odom and others. The fifth song — “Húsavík,” from “Eurovision Song Contest” — is being recorded in Húsavík, Iceland.
There is no host, but there will be “guides” to shepherd us through this of-the-moment broadcast, which Soderbergh told news conference attendees will focus on the power of storytelling.
Will any of this be as much fun as watching Jodie Foster accepting her Golden Globe for “The Mauritanian” in her pajamas? Hard to say. But it will be an Academy Awards ceremony unlike any other, brought to you by a collection of films that provided escape and insight during a dark time. The broadcast airs on Sunday. The victory lap starts now.