Oscars 2021: the films nominated for Best Picture

The upcoming 93rd Annual Academy Awards will air this Sunday 25 April, at 8 pm ET (1 am, UK time). The ceremony will take place across two sites – Union Station in downtown Los Angeles and the Oscars’ usual home of the Dolby Theatre, Hollywood.

Unlike any other pandemic-secure award shows this year, nominees have been encouraged to attend in person. As the glittery stars begin to don their gowns, armed with masks and sanitiser, here is a red-carpet rollout of the films nominated for the ceremony’s most coveted award: the ‘Best Picture’ category.

Mank

Directed by: David Fincher 

Stars: Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, Tom Burke, Charles Dance

Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Actor (Oldman), Best Supporting Actress (Seyfried), Best Director, Best Original Score, Best Sound, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Mank is a black-and-white biopic about Herman J. Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman), the screenwriter for Orson Welles’ debut film – and one that is considered to be the greatest ever made – Citizen Kane (1941). The film sheds light on 1930s and 1940s Hollywood through the lens of the quick-witted but self-destructive Mankiewicz as he races to finish writing the film’s script. The film is based on a screenplay written by David Fincher’s late father, Jack, who died before completing it in 2003. The film is nominated for ten awards – more than any other film in the competition.

Nomadland

Directed by: Chloé Zhao 

Stars include: Frances McDormand, David Strathairn, Charlene Swankie, Bob Wells

Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Actress (Frances McDormand), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Film Editing

Nomadland tells the story of Fern (Frances McDormand), a woman in her sixties, who after losing everything in the Great Recession – both her job and her husband – decides to leave her hometown of Empire, Nevada, to embark on a journey through the American West. As Fern drifts from job to job, she meets other kindred spirits and becomes a part of a community of similar nomads (some actors play themselves, such as Linda May, Swankie and Bob Wells). The third feature film from Zhao has been described as a “visual poem” and she has been praised for her masterful depiction of a subculture of Americans who adopted a nomadic lifestyle after the crippling blow of the 2008 financial collapse. Nomadland is currently the runaway favourite to win Best Picture in 2021. If it wins, the Director Chloé Zhao will become the first woman of colour to have won the award.

Sound of Metal

Directed by: Darius Marder

Stars include: Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cooke, Paul Raci, Mathieu Amalric  

Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Actor (for Ahmed), Best Supporting Actor (for Paul Raci), Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing and Best Sound

Sound of Metal follows a punk-metal drummer named Ruben (Riz Ahmed), who tries to deal with the sudden loss of his hearing. Ruben is one half of the metal duo ‘Blackgammon’ alongside his singer and girlfriend, Lou. The pair live in an RV while driving across the US performing adrenalin-fuelled gigs when Ruben starts to experience intermittent hearing loss. When a specialist tells him his condition will worsen, he thinks his music career (and his life) is over. Eventually, Ruben is welcomed into a deaf community that accepts him for who he is. Ahmed is the first Muslim Lead Actor Oscar Nominee and, if chosen, would become the first Muslim in history to win for a leading performance.

Promising Young Woman

Directed by: Emerald Fennell

Stars: Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Laverne Cox, Alison Brie, Clancy Brown 

Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Carey Mulligan), Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing

Promising Young Woman is a #MeToo rape-revenge comedy. Cassie (Carey Mulligan) is a woman seeking vengeance after her best friend, Nina, was raped. Cassie is on the brink of turning 30, still lives with her parents and spends her days barely working at a coffee shop. However, at night, she dresses up, goes out to clubs and bars and seeks her revenge, fooling men into thinking she is drunk to see whether they’d take advantage of her. The directorial debut from Emerald Fennell has proved somewhat divisive (especially the ending), but it has been praised for its bold exploration of consent and for Mulligan’s Oscar-worthy performance.

 The Trial of the Chicago 7

Directed by: Aaron Sorkin

Stars: Eddie Redmayne, Alex Sharp, Sacha Baron Cohen, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and John Carroll Lynch

Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Baron Cohen), Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Original Song, Best Film Editing

The Trial of the Chicago 7 is a courtroom drama that centres on the five-month trial of the Chicago Seven, a group of anti-Vietnam War protestors. The context of the film is that in 1968 a protest outside the Democratic National Convention quickly turned into a violent clash with the police and the National Guard. The organisers of the protest, Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen), Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong), David Dellinger (John Caroll Lynch), Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne), Rennie Davis (Alex Sharp), John Froines (Daniel Flaherty) and Lee Weiner (Ben Shenkman) were tried for conspiracy; the film is about the trial that followed. 

The Father

Directed by: Florian Zeller 

Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Coleman, Imogen Poots, Rufus Sewell, Olivia Williams

Nominated For: Best Picture, Best Actor (for Hopkins), Best Supporting Actress (for Coleman), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, and Best Production Design

The Father follows an elderly man called Anthony (Anthony Hopkins), who is suffering from dementia. Set in Anthony’s spacious flat in London, the 80-something widower becomes overwhelmed with the everyday. His well-meaning daughter Anne (Olivia Coleman) attempts to find proper care for him, but he continually rejects caregivers as he grows increasingly disillusioned with reality. We watch Anthony’s understanding of truth unravel as the lines between his past, present, and future become increasingly blurred. Hopkins has been praised for giving one of the best performances of his acting career.

Judas and the Black Messiah

Directed by: Shaka King

Stars: Daniel Kaluuya, LaKeith Stanfield, Dominique Fishback, Jesse Plemons, Martin Sheen

Nominated for: Judas and the Black Messiah is nominated for six awards: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Stanfield and Kaluuya), Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Song, Best Cinematography

Judas and the Black Messiah is a biographical drama that tells the story of the FBI informant William O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield), who infiltrates the Illinois Black Panther Party and is tasked with keeping tabs on their young, charismatic leader, Chairman Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya). In 1969, at the age of 21, Hampton was cold-bloodedly shot at home during a raid by the FBI after the Bureau had been given information from an insider about the layout of his apartment. It turned out to be O’Neal, Hampton’s “trusted” security chief. Both Kaluuya and Standfield have been appraised for their electrifying performances in a tale that holds contemporary relevance.

Minari

Directed by: Lee Isaac Chung

Stars: Steven Yeun, Youn Yuh-jung, Alan S,Kim, Han Ye-ri

Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress (Yuh-Jung Youn), Best Original Score

Minari tells the story of a Korean-American family who move to a small farm in Arkansas to pursue their American Dream. As the patriarch Jacob Yi (Steven Yeun) attempts to build up the family farm, his wife, mother-in-law, and two children struggle to adjust to their new surroundings. The poignant family drama is based on Chung’s own experience of growing up in the Ozarks as the son of Korean immigrants. The film has received glowing reviews and prominent nominations at the precursors, which means it could just be this year’s underdog success story.