SIFF Artistic Director Beth Barrett's take on this year's Oscar Nominations, announced March 15, 2021.
It was a big morning for one of my favorite films of 2020 – Minari. Landing nominations for Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay, and Score. It was also historic for Steven Yeun as the first Asian-American nominated for Best Actor.
The International Feature race veered away from some conventional choices (Night of the Kings, Charlatan) in the inclusion of Better Days and The Man Who Sold His Skin. However, it still remains a two horse race between Another Round (with Vinterberg also grabbing a Best Director nod) and Collective, which also is a frontrunner as Best Documentary.
Documentaries – always a fascinating category – recognizes some incredible work; Maite Alberdi for The Mole Agent, Jim Lebrecht’s Crip Camp, and Garrett Bradley’s indelible Time among them. Sad that Kirsten Johnson’s truly inventive Dick Johnson is Dead didn’t make this race. My vote is for Time, though Collective is a formidable competitor here.
My personal Oscar “wringing hands, want both of them to win” moment will be for Best Picture, with Minari going up against Nomadland – my other favorite film of 2020! Chloé Zhao and Lee Isaac Chung are running against each other for Best Director, while the path to Best Actress just became more complicated for Frances McDormand with the nominations of Andra Day (The United States vs. Billie Holiday) and Viola Davis (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), but what a race it is!
With 70 women receiving a total of 76 nominations (a record), and many of the categories recognizing a diverse slate, there were some omissions at the top – where is Regina King and One Night in Miami? Da 5 Bloods? Every year there will be favorites that get no love, and familiar-feeling films that run away with nominations (cough, Mank, cough). Still, this is one of the more interesting races, emerging from one of the more “interesting” years in cinema – may I humbly suggest a tie for Best Picture?
