NEW YORK (AP) – David Fincher’s “Mank” topped the 93rd Academy Award nominations with 10 gestures on Monday and, for the first time, two women (Chloé Zhao and Emerald Fennell) were included as best director.
Eight films were nominated for Best Picture. A “Mank” was joined 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. “
The story was made in the category of best director. Only five women have been nominated in the category before. Zhao is the first woman of Asian descent to make a head gesture and the most nominated woman in a single year in Oscar history. She also received nominations for the adapted screenplay for the film, for editing and, as a producer, for Best Picture.
The other nominees for direction were Lee Isaac Chung for “Minari,” Fincher for “Mank” and Thomas Vinterberg for “Another Round.”
For performers, it’s the most diverse list of nominees in history, and a far cry from the all-white nominees for acting that spawned the #OscarsSoWhite label five years ago. Nine of the 20 nominees for the performance are people of color, including a posthumous nomination for Best Actor for Chadwick Boseman (“Ma Rainey’s Black Background”), and nods to Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal”), Steven Yeun (“Minari”), Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield (“Judas and the Black Messiah “), Leslie Odom Jr. (“A Night in Miami”), Viola Davis (“Ma Rainey’s Black Background”), Andra Day (“People Against Billie Holiday”) and Yuh-Jung Youn (“Minari”).
Davis, who won for her performance in 2016’s “Fences,” earned her fourth Oscar nomination, making Davis the most nominated black actress in history. Yeun is the first Asian American nominated for Best Actor.
The other nominees for Best Actress are: Carey Mulligan, “Young Promise”; Frances McDormand, “Nomadland”; Vanessa Kirby, “Women’s Pieces.”
The remaining nominees for Best Actor are: Anthony Hopkins, “The Father”; Gary Oldman, “Lack.”
After a year of pandemic that covered most cinemas, the nominees for best films had almost no box office to talk about. The Oscars will not only lack blockbusters, but will have many films that have barely been shown on the big screen. This makes broadcast services dominate Hollywood’s biggest and most sought after awards.
Netflix, as expected, led the group with 35 nominations. The service is still shooting its first best film winner, and this year it has two plans in “Mank” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” a film Paramount Pictures sold during the pandemic. Netflix also led last year, with 24 nominations, but only got two wins.
Other streamers were in the mix. Amazon, in particular, had a good performance with “Sound of Metal,” “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” and “One Night in Miami.”
Nominations were announced from London by presenters Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra Jonas. The Academy Awards would normally have passed now, but this year they were postponed for two months due to the pandemic. Instead, they will air on April 25th.
The film academy confirmed Monday that the show will be held both at its usual home at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles and at the city’s railroad center, 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 feature-length documentary are: “Collective”; “Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution”; “The Mole Agent”; “My Pop 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 (Vist)” from “La vida per diante (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 film: “Forward”; “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,” Emerald Fennell; “Sound of Metal,” Darius Marder and Abraham Marder; “Chicago 7 Test,” Aaron Sorkin.
The nominees for best costume design are: Alexandra Byrne, “Emma”; Ann Roth, “Ma Rainey’s Black Background”; Trish Summerville, “Mank”; Bina Daigeler “Mulan”; Massimo Cantini Parrini “Pinocchio”.
The film academy and ABC will hope the nominees can generate more excitement than elsewhere. Interest in small golden statuettes has been noticed during the pandemic. The ratings of the largely virtual O Globes fell by 6.9 million viewers, a drop of 64% compared to 2020 – last month. Although on Sunday the Grammys managed to open the Zoom trap which has suffered other awards.
With the notable exception of fueling the growth of streaming subscribers, the pandemic has been punishing for the film industry. Production slowed to drag, overproductions were postponed or diverted to transmission, and thousands have been laid off or abandoned.
But Hollywood’s outlook has brightened recently as coronavirus cases have dropped and vaccines have risen. Cinemas reopen in the two largest markets in the United States, New York and Los Angeles. And several larger films, including Walt Disney Co.’s “Black Widow.” (May 7), are scheduled for May and beyond.
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Follow AP Film writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP