The 2021 Oscar nominations are being hailed as the most diverse ever with multiple nods to civil rights films, persons of colour, and women.
Nominations in all 23 categories of the 93rd Academy Awards were announced on Monday, March 15, 2021. Mank received the maximum nods with 10 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director.
Judas and the Black Messiah earned six nominations, including supporting actors for Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield. The two were joined by Leslie Odom Jr. in the category for One Night in Miami.
This year witnessed a record 70 women getting nominated in 76 categories. Of them were Chloé Zhao and Emerald Fennell nominated Best Director for Nomadland and Promising Young Woman, respectively — the first time two women have been nominated in this category the same year.
Zhao is also the first woman of colour ever nominated as director. Fennel posted a tweet expressing her emotions following the honour.
Nominated for Best Actress in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Viola Davis became the only Black woman with two best actress nods and the most-nominated Black actress ever with four nominations in total. Davis took to Twitter to congratulate the team behind the film.
It was also the first time that two actors of Asian descent were nominated in the Best Actor category. While Pakistani-origin Riz Ahmed became the first Muslim to earn the nod for his performance in Sound of Metal, Korean-American Steven Yeun found himself in the category for Minari.
While expressing gratitude for his nomination, Ahmed gave a shout out to the film’s writer-director Darius Marder, actor Paul Raci and the rest of the crew members in a series of tweets and an Instagram post.
Streaming platforms dominated the 2021 Oscar nominees list. Films by Netflix earned a total of 35 nominations. Besides Mank, the streamer earned nominations for The Trial of the Chicago 7, Da 5 Bloods and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
The nominations were presented by actor-producer Priyanka Chopra Jonas and her singer-songwriter husband Nick Jonas. The presentation was aired live from London on the Academy’s official website and digital platforms.
Due to COVID-19, the 2021 Oscar ceremony will be held on April 25 this year instead of in its usual early April slot. The organisation also changed the eligibility criteria to allow films that would have gone to cinemas to still be eligible if they debuted on streaming services.
Academy president David Rubin confirmed that this year’s ceremony would be broadcast from Union Station in Los Angeles as well as the Oscars’ traditional Dolby Theatre home in Hollywood.
(Hero image: a scene from Netflix’s Mank from @mank on Instagram)
Here’s the full list of nominees
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