Oscars 2021 Recap: The Best and Worst Moments
In between a cinematic entrance and a letdown of an ending, there were breakthroughs, heartbreaks and a wolf howl. It was a strange night. More
Oscars 2021
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Chloé Zhao Wins Oscar for Best Direct of 'Nomadland'
Chloé Zhao on Sunday became the first woman of color, first Chinese woman and second woman ever to win the Oscar for directing, capping off a historically impressive run of honors she has amassed this awards season for her work on the drama “Nomadland.”In accepting the award, Zhao recalled a phrase she had learned as a child that she said translated from Mandarin to “people at birth are inherently good.” “I have always found goodness in the people I met everywhere I went in the world,” she said. “So this is for anyone who has the faith and the courage to hold on to the goodness in themselves. And to hold on to the goodness in each other, no matter how difficult it is to do that. And this is for you, you inspire me to keep going.”This year’s Oscars marked the first time in its history that more than one female filmmaker was nominated for the best director in a single year. In addition to Zhao, Emerald Fennell scored a nomination for “Promising Young Woman.”Before this year, only five female filmmakers had been recognized in the director category. In 2010, Kathryn Bigelow became the first and only woman to be named best director until Zhao won the category on Sunday.Earlier in the awards season, Zhao took home the top directing prize at the Golden Globes, the Critics Choice Awards and the Directors Guild Awards and she has won similar accolades from several other groups.“Nomadland” has also garnered wide praise and several honors. The movie tells the story of a widow who travels the country in a van and joins the itinerant work force while connecting with other Americans she meets along the way. Zhao adapted the movie from Jessica Bruder’s nonfiction book of the same name and used several nonprofessionals in the cast, including people featured in Bruder’s book.Zhao, who adapted and helped produce “Nomadland,” was nominated for four Oscars in all: directing, adapted screenplay (which she lost to Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller of “The Father”), editing and best picture. More
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Two Black Women Win Oscar for 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom'
In what may shape up as a night of firsts, Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson became the first Black women to win an Oscar for best hair and makeup for their work on “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”“I want to say thank you to our ancestors who put the work in, were denied, but never gave up,” Neal said. “And I also stand here as Jamika and I break this glass ceiling with so much excitement for the future. Because I can picture Black trans women standing up here and Asian sisters and our Latina sisters and Indigenous women, and I know that one day it won’t be unusual or groundbreaking; it will just be normal.”Neal and Wilson, who were honored for the film’s hairstyles (Sergio Lopez-Rivera was cited for the film’s makeup) were also the first Black women ever nominated in the category. The award was added in 1981 after the 1980 drama “The Elephant Man” was not recognized.The film, adapted from August Wilson’s play and directed by George C. Wolfe, is set during a recording session in 1920s Chicago. It tells the story of Rainey, a pioneering blues singer played by Viola Davis, and her battle to protect her gift from exploitation by a white-owned record label. When Chadwick Boseman’s musician, an ambitious upstart named Levee, wants to play a song his way, a clash of egos ensues.The film is “a powerful and pungent reminder of the necessity of art, of its sometimes terrible costs and of the preciousness of the people, living and dead, with whom we share it,” The New York Times co-chief film critic A.O. Scott wrote in his review. More
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Daniel Kaluuya Wins Oscar for Best Supporting Actor
Daniel Kaluuya won the Academy Award for best supporting actor for his nuanced portrayal of Fred Hampton in “Judas and the Black Messiah,” beating out his co-star, Lakeith Stanfield, who was also nominated in the category.“To chairman Fred Hampton,” Kaluuya said in his acceptance speech. “What a man. How blessed we are that we lived in a lifetime where he existed.”“There’s so much work to do,” Kaluuya added, speaking about Hampton’s legacy. “That’s on everyone in this room.”Kaluuya’s win was far from a surprise. Critics have widely praised his performance of Hampton, an ascendant leader of the Black Panther Party who was killed by the police in 1969. And Kaluuya won the Golden Globe for best supporting actor earlier this awards season.But when Oscar nominations were unveiled last month, Stanfield’s inclusion in the supporting actor category alongside Kaluuya puzzled some Oscars pundits, who thought Stanfield a better fit for the best actor category. As it turned out, it did not ultimately cost Kaluuya, who was considered something of a lock to win the category.Kaluuya previously had earned a best actor Oscar nomination for his turn in the 2017 smash “Get Out.” Sunday marked his first Oscar win.Kaluuya’s rousing call-and-response speeches drive some of the most electric scenes in “Judas and the Black Messiah.” But in an interview with The New York Times, Kaluuya detailed the great lengths he went to in order to understand Hampton and, in so doing, come to capture his idiosyncratic voice and style of speaking. “I gave it everything I had. I gave. I gave. I gave,” he said then.In his review of the film, The New York Times co-chief film critic A.O. Scott acknowledged Kaluuya’s efforts, writing that the actor “finds inflections of Southernness in his voice and manner — undertones of humor and courtliness, an appreciation of the expressive possibilities of language.”“I don’t feel like I’m entitled to anyone’s attention,” Kaluuya told The Times. “I have to offer, or channel, or shape something that’s going to make you want to give it to me.” More
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Yuh-Jung Youn Nabs Historic Oscar Win for 'Minari'
After the Korean actress Yuh-Jung Youn’s delightfully hilarious BAFTA acceptance speech earlier this month, the Academy gave the 73-years-young “Minari” grandmother the chance to deliver another Sunday night when it selected her as its best supporting actress. It is the first time a Korean actress has ever won an acting Oscar.“I don’t believe in competition, how can I win over Glenn Close?” Youn said in her acceptance speech. “Tonight, I have just a little bit luck, I think, maybe. I’m luckier than you. And also maybe it’s American hospitality for the Korean actor. I’m not sure. But anyway, thank you so much.”Youn triumphed as the grandmother in Lee Isaac Chung’s film about a family from South Korea who takes up farming near the Ozarks. The film is named for the leafy green vegetable popular in Korean cooking. Our critic A.O. Scott called it “in its circumspect, gentle way, moving and downright revelatory.” Scott classed Youn as a sly scene-stealer but noted that is “also true of her character, who infuses her daughter’s home with mischief, folk wisdom and mostly unspoken memories of war, poverty and other hardship.”She also thanked her two grown sons, who she said “make me go out and work. … This is the result, because mommy worked so hard.”This was Youn’s first nomination, and, until recent weeks, an invite to speechify on the film industry’s biggest stage was far from a sure thing. One of her biggest foes might have been the 74-year-old Glenn Close, who’s now been nominated eight times without a single statuette (can we give her an honorary Oscar yet?). But after Youn’s SAG Award win and smile-inducing BAFTA speech earlier this month that thanked British voters — whom she labeled “very snobbish” people — for selecting her, the race was hers to lose.She didn’t repeat her BAFTA roast, but she did offer a kindly zinger Sunday night.“As you know, I’m from Korea, and my name is Yuh-Jung Youn — most of European people call me Yuh Youn and some call me Yuh-Jung,” she said. “But tonight, you are all forgiven.” More
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2021 Oscars Nominees List
#masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }Awards SeasonliveOscar Nominations UpdatesOscar Nomination PredictionsOscars Dos and Don’tsOscars DiversityDirectors Guild NominationsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story2021 Oscars Nominees ListA list of the Academy Award nominees for 2021.The 2021 Academy Awards will air April 25.Credit…Etienne Laurent/EPA, via ShutterstockMarch 15, 2021Updated 8:38 a.m. ET[Follow live coverage and analysis of the Oscar nominations.]This time last year, the red carpets were already back in storage.The 93rd Academy Awards ceremony is scheduled to take place on April 25, more than two months later than last year’s ceremony. The awards will recognize films released during a year in which movie theaters were largely closed.Streaming services, which were already on the rise as an awards-season presence, are poised to dominate, both with their own productions (like Netflix’s “Mank”) and with traditional studio films that were released through streaming platforms because of the pandemic (like Searchlight Pictures’s “Nomadland,” which is streaming on Hulu).Nominations will be announced on Monday morning. See below for the full list, which will be updated as nominees are announced.Best ActorRiz Ahmed, “Sound of Metal”Chadwick Boseman, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”Anthony Hopkins, “The Father”Gary Oldman, “Mank”Steven Yeun, “Minari”Best ActressViola Davis, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”Andra Day, “The United States vs. Billie Holiday”Vanessa Kirby, “Pieces of a Woman”Frances McDormand, “Nomadland”Carey Mulligan, “Promising Young Woman”Best Supporting ActorSacha 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”Best Supporting ActressMaria Bakalova, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”Glenn Close, “Hillbilly Elegy”Olivia Colman, “The Father”Amanda Seyfried, “Mank”Yuh-Jung Youn, “Minari”Original Screenplay“Judas and the Black Messiah”“Minari”“Promising Young Woman”“Sound of Metal”“The Trial of the Chicago 7”Adapted Screenplay“Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”“The Father”“Nomadland”“One Night in Miami”“The White Tiger”Production Design“The Father”“Mank”“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”“News of the World”“Tenet”Costume Design“Emma”“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”“Mank”“Mulan”“Pinocchio”Cinematography“Judas and the Black Messiah”“Mank”“News of the World”“Nomadland”“The Trial of the Chicago 7”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”Sound“Greyhound”“Mank”“News of the World”“Soul”“Sound of Metal”Visual Effects“Love and Monsters”“The Midnight Sky”“Mulan”“The One and Only Ivan”“Tenet”Score“Da 5 Bloods”“Mank”“Minari”“News of the World”“Soul”International Feature“Another Round,” Denmark“Better Days,” Hong Kong“Collective,” Romania“The Man Who Sold His Skin,” Tunisia“Quo Vadis, Aida?” Bosnia and HerzegovinaDocumentary Short“Colette”“A Concerto Is a Conversation”“Do Not Split”“Hunger Ward”“A Love Song for Latasha”Live-Action Short“Feeling Through”“The Letter Room”“The Present”“Two Distant Strangers”“White Eye”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More
