‘Mank’ tops Oscar nomination list; two women up for best director.
The 93rd Academy Award nominations have been announced, for what will be remembered as the year of the asterisk. The movies under consideration were released over a period of 14 months (extending from January 2020 through February 2021) instead of the typical 12, and most weren’t released conventionally, but rather straight to streaming services.
For the first time, we can’t distinguish between popular successes and critical darlings, because this year there were no popular successes — at least none that can be measured. There is no box office count for entities such as Netflix, HBO Max and Amazon Prime. We can’t even be sure that all or most of these films would have been nominated in a normal year, when we consider all the films that have been held for release due to the pandemic.
So, yes, a big fat asterisk will go next to 2020 in the record books, and for that reason, it’s hard to get too excited about this batch of nominees who will be awaiting news of their Oscars fate on April 25. (Postponed from February, the awards show has only been delayed three times before, due to flooding in Los Angeles in 1938; after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968; and following the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan in 1981.)
Yet contained within these nominations, there is the indication of at least one encouraging trend. For the first time in Oscars history, two women were nominated for best director — Emerald Fennell (“Promising Young Woman”) and Chloe Zhao (“Nomadland”), and at least four more could have been (Sofia Coppola for “On the Rocks”), Julia Hart for “I’m Your Woman,” Niki Caro for “Mulan” and Regina King for “One Night in Miami.”)
The true significance of this has little or nothing to do with justice or equity. The significance is artistic. Women have been secondclass citizens in American film for many decades, and three things have been needed to turn that around: a talent base of great actresses, a willing audience and a lot more female directors. That last has been a sticking point, but now we have all three, and, if American film follows the pattern of other countries, the lasting result could be a somewhat less neurotically hypercharged, actionoriented cinema.
David Fincher’s biopic “Mank,” about the life of Hollywood screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz (“Citizen Kane”), led the pack with 10 nominations and may be on the way to winning best picture. It’s as good a movie as any from last year, but it
leads a pack of Bplus and Aminus nominees. There was no “The Irishman” or “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” in 2020. There was, however, Judd Apatow’s “The King of Staten Island,” which deserved some love but got none from Academy voters.
It’s nice to see Sacha Baron Cohen, who was one of the delights of 2020, rewarded with nominations for two films — for “The Trial of the Chicago 7” as best supporting actor and for “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” as best adapted screenplay. Maria Bakalova, his costar in the “Borat” sequel, was nominated for best supporting actress and deserves to win (her comic acting was extraordinary), but the Academy’s bias toward drama will probably give the award to one of her competitors.
For best actor, Chadwick Boseman looks poised to be the first person to win an acting Oscar posthumously since Heath Ledger (best supporting actor for “The Dark Knight”) and the first to win in the best actor category since Peter Finch (“Network”). Boseman’s main competition is Anthony Hopkins (“The Father”) and Gary Oldman (“Mank”), but they’ve won previously. Also nominated are Riz Ahmed in “Sound of Metal” and Steven Yeun (“Minari”).
Yeun’s nomination must be counted as a breakthrough, as he is the first Asian American ever to be nominated for best actor. Until very recently, Asians have been almost invisible in Hollywood films, so Yeun’s nomination indicates that things are changing. (Zhao made history as the first Asian woman, and only second woman, to win best director at the Golden Globe Awards last month.)
Watching the best actress category get announced next month will be interesting. Traditionally, best actress winners have been firsttime nominees, who are 35 years old or younger. Only one nominee fits that description, Vanessa Kirby (“Pieces of a Wom
an”), but two others come close. Andra Day (“The United States vs. Billie Holiday”) is a 36yearold firsttime nominee, and Carey Mulligan (“Promising Young Woman”) is only 35, but this is her second nomination. They will be competing against Viola Davis (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”) and Frances McDormand (“Nomadland”).
As for the snubs, don’t count “Da 5 Bloods” among them; it’s a bad movie, one of Spike Lee’s worst. Instead consider Tom Hanks, the Bay Areabred star who was great in “News of the World.” Unfortunately, he’s great so often that we hardly notice anymore.
For best actress, what about Aubrey Plaza
(“Black Bear”) and Elisabeth Moss (“The Invisible Man”)? I’d put them ahead of everyone in that category, with the possible exception of Mulligan.
Likewise, Bill Murray should have been nominated for best supporting actor (“On the Rocks”), along with Coppola, his director.
Yet this year, after the psychic pummeling we’ve all been through, it’s as difficult to feel outraged as it is to feel excited. Everybody’s doing their best, and the Academy has come up with a plausible list, with nothing embarrassing about it.