Mank leads nominations for 93rd Oscars with 10
At this morning's Academy Award nominations, Netflix's Mank pulled ahead, as expected. The movie, which is itself about Hollywood, picked up 10 nominations, including best picture.
But still, it wasn't the definitive slam-dunk typical of recent seasons. Following closely behind Mank were a number of equally lauded films. Judas and the Black Messiah, Nomadland, The Father, The Trial of the Chicago 7, Minari and Sound of Metal all crowded the field with six nominations each, making a definitive front-runner difficult to name.
Still, Mank helped Netflix to lead the pack with 35 nominations overall, as the streaming service guns for its first best picture winner. Alongside Mank, it has a second shot in The Trial of the Chicago 7 — a movie Paramount Pictures sold off during the pandemic. Netflix led last year, too, with 24 nominations, but came away with just two wins.
Best picture
The Father
Judas and the Black Messiah
Mank
Minari
Nomadland
Promising Young Woman
Sound of Metal
The Trial of the Chicago 7
And history was made in the best director category, where, for the first time, two women were nominated: Chloé Zhao for Nomadland and Emerald Fennell for Promising Young Woman. Only five women have ever been nominated in the category before and only one, Kathryn Bigelow, has won.
Zhao is also the first woman of Asian descent to be nominated for the award.
Best director
Chloé Zhao, Nomadland
Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman
Lee Isaac Chung, Minari
David Fincher, Mank
Thomas Vinterberg, Another Round
Meanwhile, Canadian filmmaker Ben Proudfoot has scored an Oscar nomination for A Concerto Is a Conversation.
The documentary focuses on Horace Bowers, the grandfather of American composer Kris Bowers, and how he left his home in the Jim Crow South to eventually find success as a business owner in Los Angeles.
The film is nominated in the category of documentary short subject.
Documentary short subject
Colette
A Concerto Is a Conversation
Do Not Split
Hunger Ward
A Love Song for Latasha
Documentary feature
Collective
Crip Camp
The Mole Agent
My Octopus Teacher
Time
Among performers, it's the most diverse slate of nominees ever — and a far cry from the all-white acting nominees that spawned the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag five years ago.
Nine of the 20 acting nominees are people of colour, including a posthumous best-actor nomination for Chadwick Boseman, and nods for Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal), Steven Yeun (Minari), Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield (Judas and the Black Messiah), Leslie Odom Jr. (One Night in Miami), Viola Davis (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom), Andra Day (The People vs. Billie Holiday) and Yuh-Jung Youn (Minari).
Davis, who won for her performance in 2016's Fences, landed her fourth Oscar nomination, making Davis the most nominated Black actress ever.
Actress in a leading role
Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman
Frances McDormand, Nomadland
Viola Davis, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman
Andra Day, The United States vs. Billie Holiday
Actor in a leading role
Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal
Anthony Hopkins, The Father
Gary Oldman, Mank
Steven Yeun, Minari
Chadwick Boseman, the best actor front-runner, was posthumously nominated half a year after his death in August at the age of 43.
The nominations were announced from London by presenters Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra Jonas. The Academy Awards would typically have happened by now but this year were postponed for two months due to the pandemic. They will instead be telecast on April 25.
Surprising Snubs
While the Oscars did make history in the director category, notably absent was Regina King for her Toronto International Film Festival smash One Night in Miami. The film did pick up three nominations — including best adapted screenplay, best supporting actor and best original song — but its Oscars exclusion was a letdown after a successful premiere at TIFF and a best director nomination at the Golden Globes.
Canadian Eli Goree, who played boxer Muhammad Ali, was also absent from the nomination list.
WATCH | Can more diverse nominees help save awards shows?:
And Minari may have found itself in a six-way tie for second-most nominations, but the Academy showed no love for its eight-year-old star, Alan Kim. Despite early speculation Kim would join the short list of children nominated for the awards, the young actor was passed over for a best supporting actor nomination.
Kim was recently nominated for a BAFTA award, and in early March made a tearful acceptance speech for the Critics Choice award for best young actor.
Actor in a supporting role
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
Actress in a supporting role
Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Glenn Close, Hillbilly Elegy
Olivia Colman, The Father
Amanda Seyfried, Mank
Yuh-jung Youn, Minari
Tom Hanks snagged his sixth Oscar nomination last year for his portrayal of Fred Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, but didn't see the same love on Monday. The actor was eligible for nominations from both News of the World and Greyhound, but was left out for both.
Hanks has two Oscar wins to his name — consecutive best actor awards in 1994 for Philadelphia and 1995 for Forrest Gump.
Interest in little golden statuettes has taken a nosedive during the pandemic. Last month, ratings for a largely virtual Golden Globes, with acceptance speeches by Zoom, plunged to 6.9 million viewers — a 64 per cent drop from 2020.
With the notable exception of driving subscriber growth for streaming services, the pandemic has been punishing for the movie industry. Production slowed to a crawl, blockbusters were postponed or detoured to streaming and thousands of workers have been laid off or furloughed.
But the outlook for Hollywood has recently brightened as coronavirus cases have dropped and vaccination campaigns have ramped up. Movie theatres are reopening in two of the largest U.S. markets, New York and Los Angeles. And several larger movies — including Disney's Black Widow — are scheduled for May and beyond.
And in Canada, moves to reopen theatres across the country have begun, even if they are inconsistent. Ontario and Quebec allowed some theatres to resume operations in late February, though some operators said the restrictions — like not being able to sell food — meant reopening made no financial sense.
In British Columbia, movie theatres were forced to shut down in November after COVID-19 numbers resurged. They were allowed to reopen in January, but only if they operated as restaurants or bars — showing sports instead of movies on the big screen.
Oscar nominees, continued:
Original screenplay
Judas and the Black Messiah, Shaka King and Will Berson
Minari, Lee Isaac Chung
Promising Young Woman, Emerald Fennell
Sound of Metal, Darius Marder and Abraham Marder
Trial of the Chicago 7, Aaron Sorkin
Adapted screenplay
Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Dan Swimer, Peter Baynham, Erica Rivinoja, Dan Mazer, Jena Friedman and Lee Kern, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Florian Zeller and Christopher Hampton, The Father
Chloe Zhao, Nomadland
Kemp Powers, One Night in Miami
Ramin Bahrani, The White Tigers
Animated feature film
Onward
Over the Moon
A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
Soul
Wolfwalkers
Original song
Fight for You, (Judas and the Black Messiah). Music by H.E.R. and Dernst Emile II; Lyric by H.E.R. and Tiara Thomas
Hear My Voice, (The Trial of the Chicago 7). Music by Daniel Pemberton; Lyric by Daniel Pemberton and Celeste Waite
Húsavík, (Eurovision Song Contest). Music and Lyric by Savan Kotecha, Fat Max Gsus and Rickard Göransson
Io Si (Seen), (The Life Ahead). Music by Diane Warren; Lyric by Diane Warren and Laura Pausini
Speak Now, (One Night in Miami). Music and Lyric by Leslie Odom, Jr., and Sam Ashworth
Original score
Da 5 Bloods, Terence Blanchard
Mank, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
Minari, Emile Mosseri
News of the World, James Newton Howard
Soul, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Jon Batiste
Animated short film
Burrow
Genius Loci
If Anything Happens I Love You
Opera
Yes-People
Live-action short film
Feeling Through
The Letter Room
The Present
Two Distant Strangers
White Eye
International feature film
Another Round (Denmark)
Better Days (Hong Kong)
Collective (Romania)
The Man Who Sold His Skin (Tunisia)
Quo Vadis, Aida? (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Cinematography
Judas and the Black Messiah
Mank
News of the World
Nomadland
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Costume design
Alexandra Byrne, Emma
Ann Roth, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Trish Summerville, Mank
Bina Daigeler Mulan
Massimo Cantini Parrini Pinocchio
Production design
The Father
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Mank
News of the World
Tenet
Film editing
The Father
Nomadland
Promising Young Woman
Sound of Metal
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Makeup and hairstyling
Emma
Hillbilly Elegy
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Mank
Pinocchio
Visual effects
Love and Monsters
The Midnight Sky
Mulan
The One and Only Ivan
Tenet