Following the Awards Season 2020/2021: Oscar Nominations
After months of waiting and analysing the various developments throughout the extended awards season, finally the official nominations for the 93rd Academy Awards have been announced, catching some off-guard with surprises both positive and negative. Rather than going through every single category, this is going to be a more focused breakdown of the developments to come from the announcement; however, for a full deep dive on each category, please check out a detailed predictions breakdown published earlier in the week and cross-reference with the nominations list.
When it comes to narratives seen throughout the nominations, none speak quite as clearly as the disappointment Mank faced in the announcements. Although the Netflix Original did lead the nomination tally at 10 nominations, most of these came from the predictable below-the-line categories, with the film missing multiple higher profile nominations which seemed to be near locks just a couple of weeks ago. The film missed both Best Visual Effects and Best Film Editing alongside Best Original Screenplay, which had one of the strongest narratives of the entire awards season, as the film was written by David Fincher's late father. Mank did make it into Best Actor and Best Director categories, which were considered a bit shaky as far as nomination chances, making the morning far from a complete failure. However, also it is clear that this early frontrunner for Best Picture is no longer a top tier contender.
With this said, every miss for one film allows for an opportunity for another film to step up, which can be seen in the form of Judas and the Black Messiah heavily over-performing in nominations. This was the film to surprise and ‘replace’ Mank in the Best Original Screenplay category. Also, in one of the biggest shocks of the morning, the film managed to score double nominations in the Best Supporting Actor category for both the category frontrunner Daniel Kaluuya and the unexpected LaKeith Stanfield. Stanfield has spent the entire season being pushed for the Best Actor category, which shows an incredibly rare mindset from the actors’ branch to go against the studio's placement for an actor, even if this means the film arguably doesn't have a lead in the eyes of the Academy voters. This has only happened a handful of times throughout the Academy's nearly century-long history – for instance when Kate Winslet won Best Actress for The Reader while the studio campaigned for her in the Best Supporting Actress category – and while it can feel frustrating to a point, at least it means that LaKeith Stanfield is being rewarded for his talents instead of missing entirely.
The other major film to over-perform was The Father. This was the film that scored the Best Film Editing nomination left open by Mank and also scored a surprising but also incredibly worthy Best Production Design nomination. There was quite a bit of worry surrounding how the film would perform on nomination morning but with these nominations as well as recognition in the Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Picture categories, it is entirely plausible to assume that the film might do better in the rankings towards a Best Picture victory than previously thought.
This especially rings true as Minari's chances seemingly have dropped quite a bit. Although the film did score nearly all predicted nominations with the only major trade being a Best Original Score nomination over a Best Cinematography nod, the film missing Best Film Editing is a major sign of weakness when it comes to a Best Picture win. The last Best Picture winner to miss this category came in 2015 with Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) but with the film's incredibly unique and subtle takes on editing, this can be overlooked similar to 1917 the same category missing last year. Other than Birdman, the last Best Picture winner to miss this category for at least a nomination was in 1981 with Ordinary People missing the category. For what was beginning to seem like the #3 film in the race for Best Picture, this is undeniably damning as far as the path towards a Best Picture win even if the film finds a win for Best Original Screenplay or Best Supporting Actress.
However, as far as statistics being broken, the nominations for this year's Academy Awards already have proven to not be afraid to make some history. Jodie Foster for her role in The Mauritanian becomes the first winner of the Best Supporting Actress category at the Golden Globes to miss an Oscar nomination since Katharine Ross back in 1976 while First Cow becomes the first winner of the Best Picture category at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards to miss an Oscar nomination in the organisation's entire 86-year history. The Glorias also becomes the first Julie Taymor film to miss a nomination in the Best Costume Design category proving the difference between causation and correlation within statistics. Where according to history these should stand as major surprises, all felt rather predictable due to the narratives formed over the previous award season, proving that history shouldn't always dictate modern logic when predicting these nominations.
The final few surprises to touch on speak more to individual showings of support rather than overarching narratives. Thomas Vinterberg is the latest foreign director to score a Best Directing nomination for his efforts on Another Round which also got recognized in the Best International Feature category continuing the film's narrative as the frontrunner of the category. The White Tiger surprised some by getting a sole Best Adapted Screenplay nomination which has slowly been building over the past number of weeks, knocking out Ma Rainey's Black Bottom which also failed to get a Best Picture nomination. A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon took advantage of a lack of passion towards the 5th slot in Best Animated Feature getting the nomination over the predicted The Croods: A New Age. Pinocchio over-performed by making it into the Best Costume Design category after only being predicted for Best Makeup & Hairstyling while Terence Blanchard pushed Da 5 Bloods to its only nomination of the morning for Best Original Score. Both Greyhound and Love and Monsters failed to gain much momentum over the awards season but also found sole nominations for Best Sound and Best Visual Effects, respectively, which clearly are deserved judging by the quality of those aspects within the films, even if the movies overall fail to be that impressive.
Where it seems the general takeaway from these nominations stands as overwhelmingly positive compared to recent years, the final note to leave on is one of frustration. This was yet another year where the Academy had an easy opportunity to stand by the LGBTQ+ community and seemingly went out of their way to not recognize the efforts of individuals trying to bring these stories to the big screen. In the Best Animated Short Film category, both Out and Kapaemahu missed nominations while in the Best International Feature category Two of Us managed to miss despite its momentum coming into the nomination announcement including a Golden Globes nomination for the same category. This also is clearly seen in the documentary Welcome to Chechnya which exposed the queer struggles within Russia and had momentum both in the Best Documentary Feature and Best Visual Effects categories. Both Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and The United States vs. Billie Holiday featured legendary queer figures but also were met with limited nominations. While it is absolutely worthy to celebrate where The Academy has improved, such as an increased effort to nominate performers of color and female directors, it is important not to overlook where the Academy still has work to do.
