The 2021 Oscars nominations break several records in diversity and representation, which The Academy has frequently been criticized for lacking. The Oscar nominees have historically been overwhelmingly white and male, both in front of and behind the camera, which has drawn the understandable ire of many in recent years. While the 2021 Oscars can’t fix all the inherent biases in Hollywood, they have broken notable ground in a few key areas.
As far as the films themselves go, the 2021 Oscar nominees aren’t too much of a surprise. Netflix’s Mank, a drama about the creation of Citizen Kane, leads the pack with 10 nominations – an expected development that still feels a bit self-indulgent for Hollywood. Minari, Sound of Metal, Promising Young Woman, Nomadland, The Father, Judas and the Black Messiah, and The Trial of the Chicago 7 make up the rest of the Best Picture list. That leaves out a few popular picks, including several Black-centric stories like Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Da 5 Bloods, and One Night in Miami. The acting categories feature a collection of veterans and newcomers alike, including a posthumous nomination for Chadwick Boseman in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
Overall, the 2021 Oscars look to be a mix of the expected and the unprecedented. It’s a banner year for women and artists of Asian descent; a stronger showing of diversity in some ways than recent years, and a weaker showing in others.
The 2021 Oscars have broken the record for the most nominations of women across all categories, with 70 women receiving 76 total Oscar nominations. The jump in numbers over past years is particularly reflective of a heightened focus on women behind the camera; direction and production roles where, historically, the nominees have almost always been men. That includes landmark achievements in the Best Director Category, and seven female-identifying producers nominated for Best Picture. Nomadland and Promising Young Woman are particularly of note, given both are up for numerous awards under the respective creative leadership of Chloé Zhao and Emerald Fennell.
Along with the overall increase in nominations for female-identifying artists, the 2021 Oscars have made history by nominating two women for the esteemed Best Director award for the first time. Chloé Zhao has been nominated for Nomadland, and Emerald Fennell has been nominated for Promising Young Woman. Their historic nominations come after a year when 27% of all Best Picture-eligible films were directed by women – a record in its own right. If Nomadland carries its success from the Golden Globes, Zhao could be set to make even more history quite soon.
The Oscar nominees include a record number of nonwhite performers nominated in the acting categories. That list includes Viola Davis (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal), Steven Yeun (Minari), Chadwick Boseman (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), Andra Day (The United States vs. Billie Holiday), Youn Yuh-jung (Minari), Daniel Kaluuya (Judas and the Black Messiah), Leslie Odom Jr. (One Night in Miami), and LaKeith Stanfield (Judas and the Black Messiah). Hollywood and the Academy still have significant work to do in terms of racial equity, but this year’s list is still a landmark moment that will hopefully set the trend going forward.
With her Best Actress nomination for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Viola Davis has become the most Oscar-nominated Black actress in history, and the only Black actress to have received two Best Lead Actress nominations. Davis has previously been nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her performances in Fences (For which she won the award) and Doubt. She was nominated for Best Lead Actress for her role as Aibileen Clark in The Help. Davis has established herself as one of Hollywood’s premiere performers over the years, and that acclaim is duly reflected in her historic fourth nomination.
Chloé Zhao is breaking several records with the 2021 Oscars. In addition to being one of the two women nominated for Best Director, Zhao has also made history with her four total nominations – the most ever for a woman in a single year at the Oscars. Zhao’s three other nominations are for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Editing, all for Nomadland. Zhao is also the first woman of Asian descent to be nominated in the best director category. Nomadland is widely seen as a favorite to win Best Picture.
After a controversial relegation to the “Foreign Language Film” category at the Golden Globes (which it won), Minari has received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor in a Leading Role for Steven Yeun. Yeun is the first Asian-American performer ever to be up for the award, with Ben Kingsley and Yul Brynner being the only two actors of Asian descent ever nominated for it prior to this year. Yeun’s performance has been widely praised by viewers and critics alike, and the cultural impact of Minari could be the start of a kind of renaissance for the star following his initial rise to prominence on The Walking Dead.
Steven Yeun isn’t the only Minari star breaking new ground with the 2021 Oscars. Youn Yuh-jung, who plays the grandmother Soon-ja in the film, is the first Korean performer ever nominated for an Academy Award (Parasite, despite earning four Oscar wins in 2019, received no nominations for its cast). Youn has been a major name in Korean film and television for decades, and recognition at the Oscars is well-earned.
For his performance in Sound of Metal, Riz Ahmed has become the first Muslim performer nominated for the Best Actor in a Leading Role at the Academy Awards. The film is up for a total of six awards at the show, including Best Picture. Despite an extensive career in the arts, Ahmed didn’t become as widely recognizable until his debut in the Star Wars universe in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Ahmed has long been a proponent of better Muslim representation in film, and hopefully his notable success with The Sound of Metal can be a meaningful step in that direction.
For the second year in a row, Netflix has the most Oscar nominations of any media studio at a whopping 35. While not unexpected, Netflix’s success is emblematic of a broader shift in the industry away from strictly theatrical releases and towards streaming. That shift was obviously magnified in 2020 by the mass closures of movie theaters worldwide, but it’s unlikely that the current streaming trend in film will abate after the pandemic subsides. Hopefully, that future will also continue the trend of heightened equity and representation that the Academy Awards are showing glimpses of this year.
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