Photo: Josh Ethan Johnson / A24
The 2021 Oscar nominations were announced this morning and were not bad. It seems that, after the annual Golden Globe calamity (and the possible reckoning that his ridiculous electoral body may be having), voters at the Academy did some research.
I say this because this year’s nominees were full of premieres: British Pakistani actor Riz Ahmed is the first Muslim to be nominated for Best Actor in a Lead Role for Metal sound, while Chloé Zhao is the first black woman to be nominated in the Best Director category for Nomadland (Emerald Fennell’s nomination in the same category makes it the first time in the history of the ceremony that more than one woman will enter the category in a single year.) Also historic is that two Asian-American directors received nods: In addition to Zhao, Lee Isaac Chung was appointed to Minari.
Which brings us the happiest news of the morning. There was fear that Minari he would be excluded from the main prize categories, especially after the Globes classified him in the foreign film category because of arbitrary language rules. Instead, he received five nominations in addition to Best Director: Best Film, Best Original Screenplay, Best Soundtrack and two acting nominations (Best Supporting Actress for Youn Yuh-jung and Best Supporting Actor for Steven Yeun).
There are more good ones (and history) nominations, and these are encouraging. This does not mean that Hollywood and its most ostentatious ceremony are fixed – both are historically racist and elitist institutions, and a year of good nominations will not reverse that history. In fact, unless all major award ceremonies are completely destroyed, or everyone stops caring, or all boomers in charge retire, it will be a long time before things start to look totally different.
But representation is important, and these awards are important. I wish I didn’t, but everyone, from their weird uncle who loves movies to studio executives, learns from them. And it is encouraging to see people of color – the creators, actors and artists behind the scenes – being rewarded for their work, something that seemed almost impossible a few years ago. In fact, it’s the most diverse year so far – if it hadn’t taken nearly a century to get here.