Oscar nominations: Five things to remember

(AFP) – The nominations for the Oscars were unveiled at dawn on Monday in Los Angeles, with their usual batch of records, surprises and misses.

Here are five things to remember for this 93rd edition:

– Lead or supporting role? –

It’s been the eternal debate since the Oscars have existed: who is considered to have the lead role, up for the “Best Actor” award, and who should swallow his pride and settle for competing in the “Best Supporting Actor” category. role” ?

If the nominations for this edition are to be believed, the film “Judas and the Black Messiah” would have no main role. Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield are both up for supporting roles for their portrayals of Black Panther activist Fred Hampton and police informant William O’Neall, respectively.

The jurors of the Oscars would not have succeeded in deciding between them? Unlike other film awards, the Oscars place actors in the category where they received the most votes.

“Only Oscar voters would watch a talkie about two black men and decide they were both supporting roles,” Robbie Collin, critic for British newspaper The Telegraph, tweeted.

– Diversity –

After having been criticized for a long time for having favored white men, the Oscar jury distinguished itself on Monday by the diversity of its choices in different categories.

Steven Yuen thus became the first Asian-American to be selected in the category of best actor for “Minari”. He will face Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal”), the first actor of Pakistani origin in the running for the Oscars.

For her part, Viola Davis broke the nomination record for a black actress, obtaining her fourth selection for “The Blues of Ma Rainey”. She finds there a second black actress, Andra Day for “Billie Holiday, a state affair”, again a historic first.

In total, nine “non-white” actors are in the running in the four categories devoted to actors, note Hollywood specialists.

“The Blues of Ma Rainey” and “One Night in Miami”, two films directed and starred by black artists, are however absent from the list of nominations for the “best feature film”, the queen category.

– Live from platform number 3… –

David Rubin, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which awards the prestigious Oscars, announced on Monday that the ceremony would take place not only in the traditional hall of the Dolby Theater in the heart of Hollywood, but also in a historic train station in downtown Los Angeles.

We still don’t know the details, but the famous Union Station, renowned for its Spanish colonial-style architecture, should allow the audience of stars to participate in the gala evening while respecting the strict safety distances with the coronavirus, like artists invited to the Grammy Awards on Sunday evening.

– Patience pays off –

Romanian films have often been cursed at the Oscars. On 35 occasions, the country proposed candidates to the jury, which systematically ignored them, until Monday.

“The Collective Affair”, which highlights corruption after a tragic accident in a Bucharest nightclub, does not do things by halves: it is not only selected in the category of “best foreign film” but also in that of “best documentary”.

Tunisia also obtained the first Oscar nomination in its history thanks to “The man who sold his skin”.

The two works will however find on their way the Danish film “Drunk”, given favorite for the Oscar of the foreign film.

– A very promising young woman –

British director Emerald Fennell couldn’t have found a better title for her film. At 35, she became, thanks to “Promising Young Woman”, the first director to win an Oscar nomination for her first feature film.

“Promising Young Woman” is a feminist thriller about a woman (Carey Mulligan) who quenches her thirst for revenge by scouring bars and pretending to be drunk to trick men into exposing their misogyny.

The film received five nominations in total, including one in the supreme category of “best feature film”.