Nothing can stop Hollywood from giving awards to each other. Here is a round up of the biggest winners and not-so-sore losers of the 93rd Academy Awards.
It may not look like an ideal time to celebrate films when thousands of people are – quite literally – gasping to breathe. But it is art that has sustained us through the darkest of times and it is poetic that it was through the biggest celebration of cinema, that we found 3 hours of semblance of normalcy last night. Yup, we are talking about the Academy Awards 2021.
The Oscars gave us exactly what we expected (and needed, I suppose): winners and losers, tears and cheers, sweeps and surprises, and dramatic speeches that made this kind of gathering look important and justified. And of course, we were here for all of it – with tissues handy (I am a professional weeper).
The best thing about this year’s batch of Oscar nominees was that there was no worst thing about it. Academy has come a long way from the 2015’s #OscarsSoWhite campaign with historic nominations but given the almost hundred year history of the awards, it was about time we saw the change we did.
BEST PICTURE
NOMINEES
THE FATHER
JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH
MANK
MINARI
NOMADLAND
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
SOUND OF METAL
THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7
Out of the eight respectable movies nominated for Best Picture, just one could have been a mainstream movie. The fact that these small festival-circuit films made it here – though less a reflection on the taste of voters than on the circumstances of the past year – was itself amazing.
Won:
NOMADLAND
Of course, a clear frontrunner from the beginning, the film had swept awards left right and centre, like a giant COVID wave. The Academy tends to judge films according to their relevance in these divisive times and Nomadland fits the bill to the tee. But what truly made it Oscar bait was the sentimentalizing gaze upon the non-actors it has. That said, it is an amazing feat of meshing documentary with fiction.
Snubbed:
For me, Minari and The Father were the most path-breaking films out of the lot. Neither of them was a seasonal flavour film unfortunately. The Academy, especially this year, likes the films with clear moral lines instead of deep psychological dramas.
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
NOMINEES
RIZ AHMED (Sound of Metal)
CHADWICK BOSEMAN (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom)
ANTHONY HOPKINS (The Father)
GARY OLDMAN (Mank)
STEVEN YEUN (Minari)
So for the first time in nearly a century, there were two Asian actors contending for this category. Yayyy?
Won:
ANTHONY HOPKINS (The Father)
I was the happiest person on earth to see this win, even though the veteran actor’s performance transcends awards. His realistic portrayal of a man trying to keep up his dignity while battling dementia was subliminal without being sentimental as many films about this subject tend to be.
Snubbed:
Chadwick Boseman was touted to win this award posthumously. After all, he elevated what was a fairly average period drama with pure will and talent. He was a formidable screen presence and is grievously missed. An Oscar nod would have sealed his legacy.
Also snubbed, are all the hearts that had jumped on the Riz Ahmed train last year. But our RIZ MC won all the hearts by fixing his wife’s hair on the red carpet.
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
NOMINEES
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)
Won:
DANIEL KALUUYA (Judas and the Black Messiah)
Well, it says something about the movie that failed to give any one of its two leads enough depth to land them an Oscar nomination in the Best Actor’s category. Kaluuya, with his sheer eyes, steals each scene he is in, playing the Black Panther party member with equal aplomb and ambiguity.
Snubbed:
Paul Raci should have easily won if only Kaluuya was in a different category. He is a movie veteran but acts with the raw intensity of a newcomer delivering a life-hardened performance against Riz Ahmed.
ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
NOMINEES
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)
This by far was the toughest category. The race had snaky twists and turns and until last night, there was no clear frontrunner. It started with McDormand earning festival awards, but somewhere in the middle, Andra Day sneaked in and lastly, it looked like Mulligan would finally walk away with an Oscar.
Won:
FRANCES MCDORMAND (Nomadland)
Not to say she didn’t deserve it. She is the queen of silent transformations but I believe this win is attributed to the fact the McDormand was also the producer of the film and so captained this Indie gem and the slew of non-actors it had.
Snubbed:
I believe Mulligan’s hectic pitch in the film was a difficult nut to crack without making her character look like a sugar-pumped doll. She did it while masking the film’s gaps and without grand theatricality. Now that’s what I call an Oscar-worthy performance, if only her protagonist had had more psychological definition, it would have been a sure win.
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
NOMINEES
MARIA BAKALOVA (Borat Subsequent Movie Film: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan) – I hope I haven’t mangled the name
GLENN CLOSE (Hillbilly Elegy)
OLIVIA COLMAN (The Father)
AMANDA SEYFRIED (Mank)
YUH-JUNG YOUN (Minari)
Honestly, there were no bad performances here. But Supporting actor’s awards generally land at a veteran actor’s feet and this one was no exception.
Won:
YUH-JUNG YOUN (Minari)
The strength, warmheartedness and ribaldry of Yuh-jung Youn, was the soul of Minari and deserved to win.
Snubbed:
Glenn Close is really carrying the Dicaprio curse. It was about time she should have walked away with an Oscar after 8 nominations in her 40 year career. But a stereotypical character and vague politics of the film, led her down.
DIRECTING
NOMINEES
ANOTHER ROUND (Thomas Vinterberg)
MANK (David Fincher)
MINARI (Lee Isaac Chung)
NOMADLAND (Chloé Zhao)
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN (Emerald Fennell)
I believe the only reason a superficially cynical ‘Another Round’ is here is because the Academy members were voting during the pandemic: the film’s social life became unintended nostalgia. But seeing two women in the list makes up for it I guess.
Won:
Zhao was the most awarded woman of this year’s award season. It is tough to evoke sentiment in a documentary style film where sweeping landscapes are part of the narrative. But I feel the real reason she bagged this historic win was because she was the one-woman ship with Directing, Editing, Writing and Producing to her credits. Regardless of ANY records she broke last night (becoming only the second woman in Oscar’s history to win Best Director), she deserved to win.
Other Categories…
Costume Design
I really thought that the extreme stylization would win “Emma” this one. But hey, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom ain’t an unfair pick either.
Best Animated Feature:
Won:
Soul
Never bet against Pixar, they say. I have nothing against “Soul” but the film’s implantation of Tina Fey’s character’s inner life into a Black protagonist’s body is a regressed step too far. But hey, Academy voters usually turn a blind eye towards the emotional narrowness of Pixar products, and this year was no exception.
Snubbed:
Cartoon Saloon’s “Wolfwalkers” was critically acclaimed throughout its festival run. Alas, it was an underdog that failed to take on the giant.
Best Documentary
Won:
My Octopus Teacher
A surprise win I have to say. I would have been glad to see any of the nominees win, but this doc (on Netflix) has a light amiability that took residence in my heart.
Snubbed:
‘The Collective’ was gathering traction but I feel ‘The Time’, was a clutter breaking and timely doc brimming with passion. How a Black family copes when one of its members is incarcerated is the story we all need to watch.
Best Adapted Screenplay
First of all, what was The White Tiger doing amongst the nominees? Someone (ahmmm … Mrs. Jonas) clearly wrote a big fat cheque to make this Oscar campaign successful. Thankfully, it was rightly snubbed last night.
Won:
THE FATHER
While I can’t stop raving about Anthony Hopkins, I do feel adapting a film from a theatre play has a superficial cleverness attached to it.
Snubbed:
The script for “One Night in Miami” should have won. It too, is a script adapted from the stage, but Kemp Powers wrote it in a complex manner that left actors space to act around it. Also snubbed is Borat, and he will come for you, just wait.
Best Original Screenplay
Won:
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN ( Emerald Fennell)
Well, if the script of this movie was anything, it was ORIGINAL. I harbour a secret grudge against Fennell (who plays Camilla in The Crown) – hey, anyone who is mean to Lady Diana albeit fictional, is my enemy. Never before I have seen a feminist revenge rape thriller subverted the way this film did. Well deserved !!!
Snubbed:
All Aaron Sorkin fans!! I loved the Trail of the Chicago 7 but at the end of the day, the movie was a clatterbox of dialogues interspersed with flashbacks. Nothing genius about writing that.
See the full list of winners at the Academy’s official site.
