The Oscars ceremony is going to look different this year, and not just because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The Academy Awards will be handed out in a new venue: the open, airy Union Station, located in downtown Los Angeles. There will still be some show elements from the Oscars’ usual home — the Dolby Theatre — but the bulk of the action, from the red carpet to the ceremony, will be at Union Station.
As with last year’s Oscars ceremony, there is no defined host, but instead a lineup of celebrities presenting and announcing awards.
The red carpet was back Sunday, minus the throngs of onlookers and with socially distanced interviews. Only a handful of media outlets were allowed on site, behind a velvet rope and some distance from the nominees.
Casual wear, the academy warned nominees early on, was a no-no. During the Oscar preshow, nominees gathered at an outdoor set at Union Station that resembled an open-air lounge.
David Fincher’s Mank leads the nominations with 10 nods, and for the first time, two women — Chloé Zhao and Emerald Fennell — were nominated for best director.
Eight films were nominated for best picture. Mank was joined by Fennell’s Promising Young Woman, Zhao’s Nomadland, as well as Judas and the Black Messiah, Sound of Metal, Minari and The Trial of the Chicago 7.
History was made in the best director category, as only five women have ever been nominated in the category before. Zhao is the first woman of Asian descent nominated. The other nominees were Lee Isaac Chung for Minari, David Fincher for Mank and Thomas Vinterberg for Another Round.
Zhao, the clear frontrunner, is poised to be only the second woman to ever win the award, and the first woman of colour.
A record nine of the 20 acting nominees are non-white. If Viola Davis (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), Chadwick Boseman (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), Yuh-Jung Youn (Minari) and Daniel Kaluuya (Judas and the Black Messiah) all win — as they did at the Screen Actors Guild Awards — it would be the first time people of colour swept the acting awards, and a dramatic reversal from the recent years of #OscarsSoWhite.
Award show viewership has cratered during the pandemic, and this year’s Oscar nominees — while widely streamed and more diverse than ever — lacked the kind of buzz generated in a normal year.
Find a complete list of the nominees below. Winners will be BOLDED live as the ceremony goes on.
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Best Picture
The Father
Judas and the Black Messiah
Mank
Minari
Nomadland
Promising Young Woman
Sound of Metal
The Trial of the Chicago Seven
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 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 Supporting Role
Sacha Baron Cohen, The Trial of the Chicago Seven
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
Actress in a Supporting Role
Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Glenn Close, Hillbilly Elegy
Olivia Colman, The Father
Amanda Seyfried, Mank
Yuh-Jung Youn, Minari
Directing
Thomas Vinterberg, Another Round
David Fincher, Mank
Lee Isaac Chung, Minari
Chloe Zhao, Nomadland
Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman
Cinematography
Judas and the Black Messiah
Mank
News of the World
Nomadland
The Trial of the Chicago Seven
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
** WINNER: The Father (Christopher Hampton, Florian Zeller)
Nomadland
One Night in Miami
The White Tiger
Writing (Original Screenplay)
Judas and the Black Messiah
Minari
** WINNER: Promising Young Woman (Emerald Fennell)
Sound of Metal
The Trial of the Chicago Seven
Film Editing
The Father
Nomadland
Promising Young Woman
Sound of Metal
The Trial of the Chicago Seven
International Feature Film
Another Round
Better Days
Collective
The Man Who Sold His Skin
Quo Vadis, Aida?
Animated Feature Film
Onward
Over the Moon
A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
Soul
Wolfwalkers
Animated Short Film
Burrow
Genius Loci
If Anything Happens
Opera
Yes People
Music (Original Song)
“Fight For You,” Judas and the Black Messiah
“Hear My Voice,” The Trial of the Chicago Seven
“Husavik,” Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga
“Io Si,” The Life Ahead
“Speak Now,” One Night in Miami
Music (Original Score)
Da Five Bloods
Mank
Minari
News of the World
Soul
Sound
Greyhound
Sound of Metal
Mank
News of the World
Soul
Documentary Feature
Collective
Crip Camp
The Mole Agent
My Octopus Teacher
Time
Documentary Short Subject
Colette
A Concerto Is a Conversation
Do Not Split
Hunger Ward
A Love Song For Latasha
Makeup and Hairstyling
Emma
Hillbilly Elegy
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Mank
Pinocchio
Costume Design
Emma
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Mank
Mulan
Pinocchio
Live Action Short Film
Feeling Through
The Letter Room
The Present
Two Distant Strangers
White Eye
Production Design
The Father
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Mank
News of the World
Tenet
Visual Effects
Love and Monsters
The Midnight Sky
Mulan
The One and Only Ivan
Tenet
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— With files from The Associated Press
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