The 93rd Oscars, or Academy Awards, has concluded after an extended 14-month eligibility window to accommodate the deficit of releases due to the ongoing pandemic. Despite some preconceived notions, the previous year in film was actually quite strong and contained some exquisite cinema that was honored on the evening of April 25. The nominees for Best Picture, the pinnacle prize of the evening, are the following: The Father, Judas and the Black Messiah, Mank, Minari, Nomadland, Promising Young Woman, Sound of Metal, and The Trial of the Chicago 7.
Chloé Zhao’s lyrical and contemplative masterpiece Nomadland won this coveted award in a groundbreaking victory for several involved in addition to Best Director for Zhao and Best Actress for star Frances McDormand. Zhao, who helmed the upcoming Marvel film The Eternals, became only the second woman to win Best Director and the first one of color in history, and McDormand won her third Best Actress statuette in a surprise victory while also taking home another trophy for producing the neo-realistic film, the first woman to do so. For those keeping tally, McDormand now has four Oscars to her revered name; she’s a modern Katherine Hepburn. However, Nomadland was also predicted to win several other key categories in which it did not prevail, including Best Cinematography and Best Adapted Screenplay.
The Academy chose to be more democratic this year and expanded its total number of films honored rather than allowing one picture to monopolize numerous categories. Dementia drama The Father was crowned with Best Actor (Anthony Hopkins) and Best Adapted Screenplay, Black Panther Party political thriller Judas and the Black Messiah won Best Supporting Actor (Daniel Kaluuya) and Best Original Song, Golden-Age Hollywood portrait Mank prevailed in Best Cinematography and Best Production Design, deaf character study Sound of Metal won Best Sound and Best Film Editing, feminist revenge thriller Promising Young Woman received Best Original Screenplay (writer-director Emerald Fennell is the first woman since 2007’s Juno to win a writing award), and intimate Korean immigrant story Minari was awarded Best Supporting Actress (actress Youn Yuh-jung is the second Asian performer to receive an acting honor). Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Soul and Tenet were also recognized in notable technical categories. Though my personal taste would dictate some differing winners (see below), this is objectively one of the most robust lineups of winners overall in almost a decade; there were no egregious or gratuitous winners like Green Book or Bohemian Rhapsody in 2019.
However, what makes the Oscars so venerable is that they celebrate the art of cinema first and foremost, and some fundamentally misguided producing choices this year really undermined that concept. For the past several years, the viewership ratings for this awards show have been flatlining, and this year’s primary producer Steven Soderbergh attempted to alter some predominant elements of the show to attract a larger audience, though the location of the show was moved to Union Station from the usual Dolby Theater to accommodate pandemic precautions.
The show began solidly, being shot on film for the first time at twenty-four frames per second and utilizing interesting tracking and over-the-shoulder shots, but the production quickly devolved into chaos. Soderbergh and team opted for a minimalist aesthetic, removing the normal clips and images that precede the winner being announced and pacing the program as an intimate dinner setting. These choices truly made the show feel inaccessible, flat and exclusionary to a larger audience with no context being given to great films, though it was delightful to see the acceptance speeches unrestrained this year and some facts about the artists being embedded into the show’s proceedings.
The final thirty minutes, though, are what extremely deflated the program and left me disheartened. The In Memoriam segment was legitimately disrespectful with fast-paced, upbeat music. The producers then rearranged the final three awards to Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Actor, rather than the normal Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Picture. This first stifled the monumental achievements of Nomadland, as it was reduced to an afterthought, but the execution of the Best Actor award was truly appalling. The Academy deliberately and blatantly exploited the potential Best Actor win of the late Chadwick Boseman for an ending emotional high note, but Boseman actually lost the award to Anthony Hopkins for The Father, who was not in attendance because of understandable health protocols as an 83-year-old man. Hopkins had been denied the opportunity to give his acceptance speech via Zoom. All of this coalesced into a staggering anti-climax with the show ending abruptly.
I certainly do not begrudge Hopkins for giving a masterful performance or the Academy for awarding it, but its presentation was cynical and tarnished the work of both.
The winners this year were unequivocally spectacular, but they were hindered by poor decisions. This is legitimately one of the worst Academy Awards I have ever seen. The reason I’ve always been enraptured by awards season is that it upholds the art of cinema. It is moments that occurred in this year’s Oscars, though, that directly undermine that notion. We did not necessarily have bad winners in most of the categories: We had the wrong producers.
The 93rd Academy Awards Winners are as follows with the winners indicated in bold and my preferred winners denoted with an asterisk (*):
Best Picture
- The Father
- Judas and the Black Messiah
- Mank
- Minari
- Nomadland *
- Promising Young Woman
- Sound of Metal
- The Trial of the Chicago 7
Directing
- Thomas Vinterberg, Another Round
- David Fincher, Mank
- Lee Isaac Chung, Minari
- Chloé Zhao, Nomadland *
- Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman
Actress in a Leading Role
- Viola 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 *
Actor in a Leading Role
- Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal
- Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom *
- Anthony Hopkins, The Father
- Gary Oldman, Mank
- Steven Yeun, Minari
Actress in a Supporting Role
- Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm *
- Glenn Close, Hillbilly Elegy
- Olivia Colman, The Father
- Amanda Seyfried, Mank
- Yuh-Jung Yoon, Minari
Actor in a Supporting Role
- Sacha 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 Original Screenplay
- Promising Young Woman *
- Judas and the Black Messiah
- Minari
- Sound of Metal
- The Trial of the Chicago 7
Best Adapted Screenplay
- The Father
- Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
- Nomadland *
- One Night in Miami…
- The White Tiger
Best Animated Feature Film
- Soul
- Onward
- Over the Moon
- A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
- Wolfwalkers *
Best International Feature Film
- Another Round (Denmark)
- Better Days (Hong Kong)
- Collective (Romania)
- The Man Who Sold His Skin (Tunisia)
- Quo Vadis, Aida? (Bosnia and Herzegovina) *
Best Documentary Feature
- My Octopus Teacher
- Collective
- Crip Camp
- The Mole Agent
- Time *
Best Documentary Short Subject
- Colette
- A Concerto Is a Conversation
- Do Not Split
- Hunger Ward
- A Love Song for Latasha *
Best Live Action Short Film
- Two Distant Strangers
- Feeling Through *
- The Letter Room
- The Present
- White Eye
Best Animated Short Film
- If Anything Happens I Love You *
- Burrow
- Genius Loci
- Opera
- Yes-People
Best Original Score
- Soul
- Da 5 Bloods
- Mank
- Minari *
- News of the World
Best Original Song
- “Fight for You” from Judas and the Black Messiah
- “Hear My Voice” from The Trial of the Chicago 7
- “Husavik” from Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga *
- “Io sì (Seen)” from The Life Ahead
- “Speak Now” from One Night in Miami…
Best Sound
- Sound of Metal *
- Greyhound
- Mank
- News of the World
- Soul
Best Production Design
- Mank *
- The Father
- Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
- News of the World
- Tenet
Best Cinematography
- Mank
- Judas and the Black Messiah
- News of the World
- Nomadland *
- The Trial of the Chicago 7
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
- Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom *
- Emma.
- Hillbilly Elegy
- Mank
- Pinocchio
Best Costume Design
- Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
- Emma. *
- Mank
- Mulan
- Pinocchio
Best Film Editing
- Sound of Metal
- The Father
- Nomadland
- Promising Young Woman
- The Trial of the Chicago 7 *
Best Visual Effects
- Tenet *
- Love and Monsters
- The Midnight Sky
- Mulan
- The One and Only Ivan
