NEW YORK (AP) – David Fincher’s “Man” led the nominations for the 93rd Oscar with ten nods on Monday, and for the first time, two women – Chloé Zhao and Emerald Fennell – were named best director.
Eight films were nominated for Best Picture. ‘Mank’ was accompanied by Fennell’s ‘Promising Young Woman’, Zhao’s ‘Nomadland’, ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’, ‘Sound of Metal’, ‘Minari’, ‘The Father’ and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ . ‘
History was made in the best director category. Only five women have been nominated in the category before. Zhao is the first woman of Asian descent to get a nod – and the woman most nominated in a single year in Oscar history. She also received nominations for the film’s adapted screenplay, editing and as a producer in the best picture category.
The other directors were Lee Isaac Chung for “Minari”, Fincher for “Mank” and Thomas Vinterberg for “Another Round.”
For artists, this is the most diverse nomination to date – and far from the white-acting nominees who produced the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag five years ago. Nine of the 20 acting nominees are people of color, including a posthumous nomination for best actor for Chadwick Boseman (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), and nods to Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal”), Steven Yeun (“Minari”), Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield (“Judas and the Black Messiah”), Leslie Odom Jr. (“One Night in Miami”), Viola Davis (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), Andra Day (“The People vs. Billie Holiday”) and Yuh-Jung Youn (“Minari”).
Davis, who won ‘Fences’ for her performance in 2016, earned her fourth Oscar nomination, making Davis the most nominated black actress ever. Yeun is the first Asian American ever to be nominated for Best Actor.
The other nominees for Best Actress are: Carey Mulligan, “Promising Young Woman”; Frances McDormand, “Nomadland”; Vanessa Kirby, “Pieces of a Woman.”
The remaining nominees for Best Actor are: Anthony Hopkins, “The Father”; Gary Oldman, ‘Mank.’
After a pandemic year that closed most movie theaters, the best candidates had almost no box office to speak of. The Oscars will not only lack short films, but it continues with many films that have barely played on the big screen. This makes streaming services dominate the biggest and most coveted awards in Hollywood.
As expected, Netflix led the series with 35 nominations. The service is still going for its first winner in the best picture, and this year has two shots in ‘Mank’ and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ – a film Paramount Pictures that was sold during the pandemic. Netflix also led the way with 24 nominations last year, but only two wins.
Other streamers were in the mix. Amazon in particular was well represented with ‘Sound of Metal’, ‘Borat Subsequent Moviefilm’ and ‘One Night in Miami’.
The nominations have been announced from London by presenters Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra Jonas. The Oscars would normally have taken place by this time, but this year was postponed by two months due to the pandemic. They will rather be broadcast on April 25th.
The film academy confirmed Monday that the show will be held at its regular home at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles and the city railroad, Union Station.
In addition to Youn, the nominees for Best Supporting Actress are: Maria Bakalova, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”; Glenn Close, “Hillbilly Elegy”; Olivia Colman, “The Father”; Amanda Seyfried, “Mank.”
In addition to Odom Jr., Kaluuya and Stanfield, the nominees for Best Supporting Actor are: Sacha Baron Cohen, “The Trial of the Chicago 7”; Paul Raci, “Sound of Metal.”
The nominees for Best Documentary are: “Collective”; “Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution”; “The Molagent”; “My Octopus Teacher”; ‘Time.’
The nominees for best international film are: “Quo Vadis, Aida ?,” Bosnia and Herzegovina; “Another round,” Denmark; ‘Better Days’, Hong Kong; ‘Collective’, Romania; ‘The man who sold his skin’, Tunisia.
The nominees for best original song are: “Husavik” from “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga”; “Fight for You” from “Judas and the Black Messiah”; “Io Sì (Seen)” from “The Life Ahead (La Vita Davanti a Se)”; “Speak Now” from “One Night in Miami”; and “Hear My Voice” from “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”
The nominees for best animated feature: “Onward”; “Over the moon”; “A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon”; “Soul”; “Wolfwalkers.”
The nominees for best original screenplay are: “Judas and the Black Messiah,” Shaka King and Will Berson; “Minari,” Lee Isaac Chung; “Promising Young Woman,” Emerald Fennell; “Sound of Metal,” Darius Marder and Abraham Marder; “Trial of the Chicago 7,” Aaron Sorkin.
The nominees for best costume design are: Alexandra Byrne, “Emma”; Ann Roth, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”; Trish Summerville, “Mank”; Bina Daigeler “Mulan”; Massimo Cantini Parrini “Pinocchio.”
The film academy and ABC will hope that the nominees can get more excitement than elsewhere. Interest in small gold figurines plunged during the pandemic. The ratings for a largely virtual Golden Globes dropped to 6.9 million viewers – a 64% drop from 2020 – last month. Although the Grammys on Sunday managed to break through the Zoom trap which has won other awards.
The pandemic is punishing for the film industry, with the notable exception that it has fueled the growth of the stream of subscribers. Production slowed down to a crawl, the cartoons were delayed or turned over to stream, and thousands were fired or basemented.
But the outlook for Hollywood has recently brightened as coronavirus cases have slipped and vaccines have increased. Movie Theaters Start Again in the two largest markets in the US, New York and Los Angeles. Several major films – including the Walt Disney Co. ‘s “Black Widow” (May 7) – is scheduled for May and beyond.
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Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP