“Mank,” David Fincher’s black-and-white meditation on old Hollywood, received 10 Academy Award nominations on Monday, leading a diverse set of films and filmmakers after a year in which the movie industry was transformed by the pandemic and the Oscar season was pushed back two months.
The Netflix-produced film was nominated in the best picture, director, actor and supporting actress categories. Voters recognized a number of films in multiple categories, with six nominations each going to “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” “Sound of Metal,” “Nomadland,” “Minari,” “Judas and the Black Messiah” and “The Father.”
All of those films were nominated for best picture, along with “Promising Young Woman.”
For the first time, the academy nominated two women for best director, recognizing Chloé Zhao for her work on “Nomadland” and Emerald Fennell for “Promising Young Woman.” Also nominated were Fincher, Lee Isaac Chung of “Minari,” a semi-autobiographical tale about a Korean-American family, and, in a surprise, the Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg, for his work on “Another Round,” about middle-age men who decide to get drunk daily. It was also recognized in the best international film category.
“I’m grateful to have gone on this journey with our talented team of filmmakers and to have met so many wonderful people who generously shared their stories with us,” Zhao said in a statement about her film, which features a number of nonactors who are part of the nomad community in the United States. “Thank you so much to my academy peers for recognizing this film that is very close to my heart.”
Nine of the 20 acting nominations went to people of color. Although the academy, which has 9,137 voting members, remains overwhelmingly white and male, the organization has invited more women and people of color into its ranks following the intense #OscarsSoWhite outcry in 2015 and 2016, when the acting nominees were all white.
This year, nominations in the lead actor category went to Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal”), Chadwick Boseman (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”) and Steven Yeun (“Minari”). Gary Oldman (“Mank”) and Anthony Hopkins (“The Father”) rounded out the category. Yeun is the first Asian-American to be nominated for best actor and Ahmed is the first Muslim to be nominated for best actor.
For best actress, the academy recognized Viola Davis (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), Andra Day (“The United States vs. Billie Holiday”) and Carey Mulligan (“Promising Young Woman”). Also nominated were Vanessa Kirby (“Pieces of a Woman”) and Frances McDormand (“Nomadland”).
It was a year in which streaming took firm hold in Hollywood, thanks to the theater shutdowns caused by the coronavirus. Contenders like “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “Mank,” “One Night in Miami” and “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” were released by the likes of Netflix and Amazon. Even releases from traditional studios, like Searchlight’s “Nomadland” and “Judas and the Black Messiah,” from Warner Bros., were probably watched by more people on streaming services rather than in the limited number of theaters that could show them.
“We were starving for film, starving for new stuff to watch and I recognized that I probably wasn’t alone in that,” said Shaka King, the writer-director of “Judas and the Black Messiah,” who has spent most of the pandemic quarantining in his home in Brooklyn. “In a lot of ways, I think we got to folks who otherwise wouldn’t have ventured to the theaters to see a movie about a Black Marxist revolutionary. They ended up watching it and I think a lot of people who would have been repelled by his politics probably connected to them in some way.”
As expected, Netflix dominated, with 35 nominations. With the majority of theaters closed this year, many of the major studios moved their Oscar contenders into next year’s competition. Still, the manner in which Netflix has hammered its way into Hollywood’s most prestigious club in recent years is stunning: It had as few as eight nominations in 2018.
The company with the second-largest number of nominations this year was Disney, which had 15. Its Searchlight division scored for “Nomadland,” while Pixar’s “Soul” was recognized for its score, sound and in the best animated feature category. Pixar’s “Onward” was also nominated for best animated feature.
Amazon Studios earned 12 nominations, including the recognition for “Sound of Metal.” “One Night in Miami” received three nominations and “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” got two.
For the first time, Apple joined the Oscar race, with its “Wolfwalkers,” which was nominated for best animated feature, and “Greyhound,” which was nominated for best sound.
Traditional studios were still a significant presence, with films like “Judas and the Black Messiah” (Warner Bros.) and “The Father” (Sony Pictures Classics). Focus Features, the indie division of Universal, scored five nominations for “Promising Young Woman,” even though its parent company was shut out of the best picture race for “News of the World.” (That film was nominated in various technical categories, including sound and cinematography.)
The Oscars ceremony, which was pushed back two months because of the pandemic, will be held on April 25. The secretive academy has kept details under wraps, except to say that it will take place at two locations this year: the usual Dolby Theater in Hollywood and Union Station downtown.
There has never been more than one woman nominated for best director in a year, and only five women have been nominated in the category in the Academy’s close-to-100-year history.
This year that finally changed.
Chloé Zhao, the Chinese filmmaker behind “Nomadland,” scored her first directing nomination in a category traditionally dominated by white men. Zhao, who won the Golden Globe, is the first Chinese woman to be nominated for a best director Oscar.
She was joined by the director Emerald Fennell for her debut effort, “Promising Young Woman.” Fennell’s nomination is the first time a woman has been nominated for her first feature.
Also nominated was Lee Isaac Chung for “Minari” and David Fincher for “Mank.” In a surprise, the director’s branch of the Academy chose to honor the Danish director Thomas Vinterberg for “Another Round,” which was also nominated in the best international film category.
Left out was Aaron Sorkin, who many prognosticators believed would land a nomination for his work on “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”
Regina King, a former Oscar winner for best supporting actress, was overlooked for her directorial debut, “One Night in Miami.” But the film did receive three nominations, including best adapted screenplay and best supporting actor for Leslie Odom Jr.’s portrayal of Sam Cooke. It was notably not included in the best picture category.
Of the five directors nominated, only Fincher (“The Social Network,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”) has been nominated before, though he has never won.
Chung was also nominated for best original screenplay for “Minari,” his personal story about growing up on a small farm in Arkansas as the son of Korean immigrants.
“Judas and the Black Messiah” made history: For the first time, a film with an all-Black producing team (made up of the director Shaka King, Ryan Coogler and Charles D. King) was recognized in the most prestigious best picture category. Among other firsts, Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal”) became the first Muslim to be nominated for best actor. Chloé Zhao became the first woman to receive four nominations in a single year, according to the academy.
Seventy women received a total of 76 nominations over all, a record.
Tunisia received its first nomination, with “The Man Who Sold His Skin,” about a tattooed refugee who finds himself exhibited in art galleries, among the contenders for best international film (formerly best foreign film). It will compete against movies from Denmark (“Another Round”), Hong Kong (“Better Days”), Romania (“Collective”) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (“Quo Vadis, Aida?”).
The nominees for best supporting actor are Sacha Baron Cohen for “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” Daniel Kaluuya for “Judas and the Black Messiah,” Leslie Odom Jr. for “One Night in Miami,” Paul Raci for “Sound of Metal” and Lakeith Stanfield for “Judas and the Black Messiah.”
Best supporting actress nominations went to Maria Bakalova for “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” Glenn Close for “Hillbilly Elegy,” Olivia Colman for “The Father,” Amanda Seyfried for “Mank,” Yuh-Jung Youn for “Minari.”
Other nominations went to Chloé Zhao, for her adapted screenplay for “Nomadland,” and Emerald Fennell for her original “Promising Young Woman” script. Baron Cohen also picked up a nomination for his “Borat” screenplay.
