Staff and Wire Reports
LOS ANGELES — The 93rd annual Academy Awards show April 25 will be like no other in the long history of the event.
This year’s show will be held mainly at Union Station downtown with some elements of the show broadcast from its usual home, the Dolby Theater in Hollywood and international locations via satellite.
The Oscars will begin with a pre-show at 3:30 p.m. “Oscars; Into the Spotlight” on KABC 7 with the live telecast starting at 5 p.m.
“Oscars: After Dark” will immediately follow the Oscars show, also on KABC 7.
Performances of the five Academy Award nominees for best original song — normally a staple of Oscar night — will be included in the 90-minute pre-ceremony telecast, which is billed as a show highlighting “nominees’ journey to Hollywood’s biggest night,” while also providing a “sneak peek into the party.” The show will be hosted by actor Lil Rey Howery and actress Ariana DeBose of “Hamilton”.
One of the original song performances — “Husavik” from “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga,” performed by Molly Sanden — will be recorded in Husavik, Iceland. The other four will be recorded at the Dolby Family Terrace at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
H.E.R. will perform her nominated song “Fight For You” from “Judas and the Black Messiah.” Celeste and Daniel Pemberton will perform “Hear My Voice” from “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” while Leslie Odom Jr. will perform “Speak Now” from “One Night in Miami” and Diane Warren and Laura Pausini will perform “Io Si (Seen)” from “The Life Ahead (La Vita Davanti a Se).”
The vintage Hollywood tale “Mank” scored a leading 10 nominations for this year’s Oscars, while “Nomadland” writer/director Chloe Zhao became the first woman to be nominated four times in a single year.
“Nomadland,” the life-affirming drama about grief and healing as seen through the eyes of van-dwelling wanderers, is considered a front-runner in the best picture race, having collected Golden Globe and Critics Choice awards, while Zhao was named best director at both of those ceremonies.
“Nomadland” and “Mank” — the black-and-white portrait of screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz as he struggled to complete the script for the Hollywood classic “Citizen Kane” — were both nominated for best picture, along with “The Father,” “Judas and the Black Messiah,” “Minari,” “Promising Young Woman,” “Sound of Metal” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”
Zhao was nominated as a producer of “Nomadland,” as well as for directing, adapted screenplay and editing to become the first woman with four nominations in a single year. “Promising Young Woman” producer/director/writer Emerald Fennell earned three nominations, joining Sofia Coppola and Fran Walsh as the only women to accomplish that feat.
Viola Davis became the most-nominated Black actress in Oscar history, earning her fourth career nomination for her leading turn in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Davis was previously tied with Octavia Spencer at three. Both Davis and Spencer have won once.
Also nominated for best actress were Andra Day for “The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” Vanessa Kirby for “Pieces of a Woman,” Frances McDormand for “Nomadland” and Carey Mulligan for “Promising Young Woman.”
The late Chadwick Boseman was among those nominated for the best-actor prize for his work opposite Davis in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Also nominated were Riz Ahmed for “Sound of Metal,” Anthony Hopkins for “The Father,” Gary Oldman for “Mank” and Steven Yeun for “Minari.”
The nomination makes Ahmed the first Muslim actor to ever land in the best-actor category, while Yeun’s is the first for an Asian performer. Hopkins, at age 83, is the oldest-ever best-actor nominee.
Many expected Boseman to also land a supporting-actor nomination for his work in Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods,” but he was left off the list. Nominations went to Sacha Baron Cohen for “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” Daniel Kaluuya for “Judas and the Black Messiah,” Leslie Odom Jr. for “One Night in Miami,” Paul Raci for “Sound of Metal” and Lakeith Stanfield for “Judas and the Black Messiah.”
For supporting actress, nominations went to Maria Bakalova for “Borat Subsequent Movie Film,” Glenn Close for “Hillbilly Elegy,” Olivia Colman for “The Father,” Amanda Seyfried for “Mank” and Yuh-Jung Youn for “Minari.”
Joining Zhao in the best-director category were Thomas Vinterberg for the Danish film “Another Round,” David Fincher for “Mank,” Lee Isaac Chung for “Minari” and Emerald Fennell for “Promising Young Woman.” Fincher is the only repeat nominee in the category, having received previous nominations for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “The Social Network.”
With Zhao and Fennell in the category, it marks the first time two women have ever been nominated for best director in the same year.
A total of 76 nominations went to women, which the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said is a record for any given year.
Competing with Fennell for original screenplay are Will Berson, Shaka King, Kenny Lucas and Keith Lucas for “Judas and the Black Messiah”; Lee Isaac Chung for “Minari”; Darius Marder, Abraham Marder and Derek Cianfrance for “Sound of Metal”; and Aaron Sorkin for “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”
In the adapted screenplay category, Zhao will be challenged by Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Dan Swimer, Peter Baynham, Erica Rivinoja, Dan Mazer, Jena Friedman, Lee Kern and Nina Pedrad for “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”; Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller for “The Father”; Kemp Powers for “One Night in Miami”; and Ramin Bahrani for “The White Tiger.”
Denmark’s “Another Round,” in addition to scoring a best-director nomination for Vinterberg, was also nominated for best international feature, along with Hong Kong’s “Better Days,” Romania’s “Collective,” Tunisia’s “The Man Who Sold His Skin” and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s “Quo Vadis, Aida?” The nominations were the first for films from Romania and Tunisia.
Disney/Pixar’s “Soul” leads the list of contenders for best animated feature, a category that also includes Disney’s “Onward,” Apple’s “Wolfwalkers” and Netflix’s “Over the Moon” and “A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon.”
The nominations for best original music score were Terence Blanchard for “Da 5 Bloods,” Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for “Mank,” Emile Mosseri for “Minari,” James Newton Howard for “News of the World” and Reznor, Ross and Jon Batiste for “Soul.”
