With 10 nominations, “Mank,” a black-and-white immersion into old Hollywood and the writing of “Citizen Kane,” leads the nominees for the 93rd Academy Awards announced Monday, setting up an odd Oscars celebration following a year when movies were largely exiled from theaters.
Included with “Mank” among the eight best-picture nominees are “The Father,” “Judas and the Black Messiah,” “Minari,” “Nomadland,” “Promising Young Woman,” “Sound of Metal,” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”
Monday’s reveal begins the final phase of an awards season that managed to seem both shrunken in scale and endless in duration. The marquee Oscar categories are populated by movies that played to niche audiences, who mostly watched at home. By this time last year, Oscars had long since been handed out (including the top prize for “Parasite”). The 2021 telecast is scheduled for Sunday, April 25.
Two firsts occurred in the best director category, where the nominees are: Thomas Vinterberg, (“Another Round”), Emerald Fennell (“Promising Young Woman”), David Fincher (“Mank”), Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”) and Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”). This is the only time that more than one woman has been nominated in a single year. And it’s the first time a female director of color (Ms. Zhao) has received a nod. In the previous 93 iterations of the Academy Awards, five women total have been nominated for best-director Oscar, and one has won: “Hurt Locker” director Kathryn Bigelow.
Chadwick Boseman, who died last year at age 43, received a best-actor nomination for his role in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” If he goes on to win, he would be the second posthumous best-actor winner, after Peter Finch for “Network” in 1977.
Mr. Boseman is competing with Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal”), Anthony Hopkins (“The Father”), Gary Oldman (“Mank”) and Steven Yeun (“Minari”), who became the category’s first Asian American nominee ever.
Chadwick Boseman in a scene from Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
Photo: Netflix/Everett Collection
Mr. Boseman’s co-star Viola Davis was nominated for best actress, along with Andra Day (“The United States vs. Billie Holiday”), Vanessa Kirby (“Pieces of a Woman”), Frances McDormand (“Nomadland”), and Carey Mulligan (“Promising Young Woman.”)
Glenn Close, who in 2019 lost the best-actress Oscar to Olivia Colman, will have a rematch against her in the race for best supporting actress. Ms. Close is nominated for “Hillbilly Elegy,” Ms. Colman for “The Father,” along with Maria Bakalova (“Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”), Amanda Seyfried (“Mank”) and Youn Yuh-jung (“Minari”).
“Judas and the Black Messiah,” about the FBI’s infiltration of the Black Panther Party, landed two candidates for best supporting actor: Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield. They were nominated with Sacha Baron Cohen (“The Trial of the Chicago 7”), Leslie Odom, Jr. (“One Night in Miami”), Paul Raci (“Sound of Metal”).
With most big-budget movies wiped from the release calendar in 2020, only a handful of would-be blockbusters were eligible for Oscars. “Mulan” and “Tenet” were among the few exceptions and were represented in technical categories, such as visual effects.
This image released by Searchlight Pictures shows writer-director Chloé Zhao, left, and Frances McDormand, center, on the set of “Nomadland.” (Searchlight Pictures via AP)
Photo: Searchlight Pictures/Associated Press
Write to John Jurgensen at [email protected]
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