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The 2021 Oscar Nominations are Finally Here!

Check out all the nominees, including a number of record-breakers, before the 93rd Academy Awards on April 25, 2021.
Oscar Nominations
By  · Published on March 15th, 2021

Sorry, folks, but we still have more than forty days until the end of this year’s (last year’s) Oscar season. However, we’re at least past the hurdle of the final contenders being named. The Oscar nominations for the 93rd Academy Awards, which will be held on April 25, 2021, were announced this morning, and they actually managed to offer some surprises.

Obviously, our first reactions are noticing the snubs, including Delroy Lindo being overlooked for Best Actor for his performance in Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods. The late Chadwick Boseman was also missing from the Best Supporting Actor category for his work in that movie, though he did receive a posthumous nomination for Best Actor for his portrayal of a jazz trumpeter in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

Personally, I’m also disappointed with the lack of nominees for Da 5 Bloods outside its much-deserved nod for Terence Blanchard‘s original score. I’m also disappointed that One Night in Miami, my favorite film of 2020, was not nominated for Best Picture or Best Director for Regina King, among other snubs, despite this seeming like it’d be we could get three women in the latter category — the Oscars still made history with this being the first time two women filmmakers were nominated for Best Director in the same year, with Nomadland‘s Chloé Zhao and Promising Young Woman‘s Emerald Fennell recognized.

On the positive side, the Best Supporting Actress category includes two performances that weren’t certain to be nominated: newcomer Maria Bakalova from the comedy sequel Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (which also earned a Best Adapted Screenplay nod) and veteran Korean actress Youn Yuh-jung, who plays the grandmother Soonja in Minari. She’s the first Korean ever nominated in an acting category, while her co-star, Steven Yeun is the first Korean-American nominee for Best Actor. Minari also wasn’t a sure thing for Best Picture, nor was filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung expected to be nominated for Best Director, along with his Best Original Screenplay honor.

As for other landmark achievements and records, this year’s Oscar nominations include the most ever earned by women in the film industry — at seventy-six (including multi-nominees) — across the twenty-three competitive categories. And Zhao became the first woman nominated in four categories in a single year, with four (Best Director, Best Picture, Best Editing, and Best Adapted Screenplay, all for Nomadland). Zhao is also the first woman of color nominated for Best Director. And the acting categories saw the most non-white performers yet, with nine of the nominees.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom costume designer Ann Roth tied the record for oldest Oscar nominee in history at age 89 (James Ivory and Agnès Varda are the other two she matches). Meanwhile, Anthony Hopkins became the oldest person nominated for Best Actor, at age 83, for his performance in The Father — another favorite 2020 film of mine, by the way, which pleasantly surprised in the Best Picture category. Also up for Best Actor is the first Muslim contender there, Riz Ahmed for Sound of Metal. In the Best Actress category, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom star Viola Davis broke the record for the most-nominated Black actress, now having four (she won in 2017 for another August Wilson adaptation, Fences).

Without further ado (unless there’s anything else remarkable to add to the above later), here are all of the 2021 Oscar nominations:

Best Picture
The Father
Judas and the Black Messiah
Mank
Minari
Nomadland
Promising Young Woman
Sound of Metal
The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best Directing
Thomas Vinterberg, Another Round
David Fincher, Mank
Lee Isaac Chung, Minari
Chloe Zhao, Nomadland
Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Andra Day, United States vs. Billie Holiday
Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman
Frances McDormand, Nomadland
Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman

Best 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

Best 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

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Sacha Baron Cohen, The Trial of the Chicago 7
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

Best Original Screenplay
Judas and the Black Messiah
Minari
Promising Young Woman
Sound of Metal
The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best Adapted Screenplay
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
The Father
Nomadland
One Night in Miami
The White Tiger

Best Cinematography
Judas and the Black Messiah
Mank
News of the World
Nomadland
The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best Film Editing
The Father
Nomadland
Promising Young Woman
Sound of Metal
The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best Animated Feature Film
Onward
Over the Moon
A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
Soul
Wolfwalkers

Best Animated Short Film
Burrow
Genius Loci
If Anything Happens I Love You
Opera
Yes-People

Best Live-Action Short Film
Feeling Through
The Letter Room
The Present
Two Distant Strangers
White Eye

Best International Feature Film
Another Round
Better Days
Collective
The Man Who Sold His Skin
Quo Vadis, Aida?

Best Documentary Feature
Collective
Crip Camp
The Mole Agent
My Octopus Teacher
Time

Best Documentary Short Subject
Colette
A Concerto Is a Conversation
Do Not Split
Hunger Ward
A Love Song for Latasha

Best Original Score
Da 5 Bloods
Mank
Minari
News of the World
Soul

Best Original Song
“Fight For You,” Judas and the Black Messiah
“Hear My Voice,” The Trial of the Chicago 7
“Husavik,” Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga
“Io Si (Seen),” The Life Ahead
“Speak Now,” One Night in Miami

Best Sound
Greyhound
Mank
News of the World
Soul
Sound of Metal

Best Costume Design
Emma
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Mank
Mulan
Pinocchio

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Emma
Hillbilly Elegy
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Mank
Pinocchio

Best Production Design
The Father
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Mank
News of the World
Tenet

Best Visual Effects
Love and Monsters
The Midnight Sky
Mulan
The One and Only Ivan
Tenet

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Christopher Campbell began writing film criticism and covering film festivals for a zine called Read, back when a zine could actually get you Sundance press credentials. He's now a Senior Editor at FSR and the founding editor of our sister site Nonfics. He also regularly contributes to Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes and is the President of the Critics Choice Association's Documentary Branch.