The world on Monday saw the most diverse nomination in Oscars’ history ever. The raging of #OscarSoWhite all over the internet in the past years and the scandal in 2015 and 2016, finally bore fruit and paved the way for announcing the most diverse nominations which included crafts from every ethnic and racial minority of the world.
Independent and low-budget movies with diverse casts and crews finally got more attention than standard Hollywood productions.
But how did all this happen and what are the new changes that are being noticed in this year’s nominations?
Intrigued to find more about the diversification shown by the Oscars this year?
Continue reading the article then as we share with you all the details of the Oscar 2021 nominations and all the new changes that we would be seeing in this year’s award ceremony.
Why are the Oscars so Important?
Before we state all the wonderful changes by Oscars in 2021, it is essential to highlight why Oscars are deemed as such an esteemed ceremony.
The Academy Awards or as popularly known as the Oscars is considered the most prestigious and esteemed award ceremonies which acknowledge the artistic and technical excellence in every field of the entertainment industry.
The awards ceremony is held annually and is the oldest entertainment award ceremony telecasted every year.
Oscar Nomination 2021The Oscars play a huge role in boosting the career of a filmmaker or an actor. Winning an Oscar helps you to get noticed and since the Academy Awards are telecasted worldwide, the ceremony has a huge global impact.
The Oscars have an effect of increasing the box-office earnings of the winning film and we could not forget the attention and the special treatment that is meted for the winners.
Also, an important point to be mentioned, the jury panel is composed of some of the best members of Hollywood, and therefore getting recognition by people who have shown their merit previously, is a great achievement in itself.
The Academy Award helps in retrieving a movie of pure excellence and showcasing to the world what may have been forgotten in the mayhem of box office numbers.
Why are the Oscars 2021 Nominations Different from the Previous Years?
The nominations for Oscars 2021 on Monday saw nine actors of colors earn recognition for their stellar works in the entertainment industry. This came as a welcome surprise for everyone as the aggressive efforts by the Academy to change the #WhyOscarSoWhite for the better, finally manifested.
These nominations set an Oscar record for finally able to create diversity in the categories.
Some of the most refreshing changes that could be observed in the Oscar 2021 nominations are
- Steven Yeun starring in “Minati” became the first Asian American to be nominated for best actor
- Fiz Ahmed who starred in the Sound of Metal became the first person of Pakistani descent to ever be nominated for an acting Oscar.
- Similarly, Yuh-Jung Youn who won the supporting actress nominee became the first Korean person ever to be nominated for an acting Oscars.
- For the first time in Oscar history, the best actor category is not majorly white.
- Chloé Zhao became the first woman of color ever to win the nomination for the category of best director. Another accomplishment was achieved by Zhao too. She became the first woman ever to receive four nominations in a single year.
Oscar Nomination 2021- The category of best director also witnessed the first time where more than one woman got nominated in the category. Along with Chloé Zhao, Emerald Fennell, is also nominated for the honor of the best director in the Oscars.
- The category of makeup and hairstyling also witnessed the nomination of the first black women Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson for the esteemed prestige.
- Judas and the Black Messiah became the first movie with a complete all-black producing team to win a nomination for the best picture.
- Only 4 out of the 20 nominees across the four acting categories are white Americans.
- 9 out of 20 acting nominees belong to ethnic minority backgrounds setting an Oscar history.
Along with these happy changes, however, a sad milestone was achieved by Chadwick Boseman too. He earned a posthumous Oscar nomination. This tragic honor puts this man of color into an elite club that included Peter Finch, Spencer Tracy, Massimo Troisi and James Dean in the past.
Oscar Nomination 2021However, the fact that it took until 2021 for the Academy Awards to recognize heterogeneous arrays of nominees can be quite concerning. It somewhat showed how deeply rooted the prejudices are embedded in the entertainment industry and what kept people of color outside of the Oscars for so long.
And it has been reported that one of the biggest causes of the diversification of Oscars 2021 nominees is being credited to Academy’s vigorous programs which invited more people to join from groups that were previously underrepresented in the Academy in the past.
What else can we Expect from Oscars 2021?
However, the nominations are not the only thing that has been new for this esteemed award ceremony this year. When the main event of the Oscars will be held on April 25, 2021, there will be several things that will be very different from the Academy’s previous ceremonies.
Some of the most notable changes that we will be going to see are:
- Planning of holding an in-person event. The period of the global pandemic has seen several esteemed award shows go virtual, however, the Academy is planning to stage a live show at the historic Dolby theatre. A spokesperson for the Academy revealed that they would try their level best to showcase an award show like no other but will not forget to prioritize public health and safety. However, with the rise of COVID-19 cases, this idea might be put on hold.
- The Oscars which was going to be held on Feb 28, 2021, got rescheduled to Apr 25, 2021, and therefore, the eligibility window got extended too. It got pushed from Dec 31 to Feb 28, 2021.
- Unlike the previous years, for the 93rd Oscars only, the films do not require a theatrical run. If the films are commercially streaming or available on any online platforms, they are deemed eligible for entering the race for the Oscars.
- Sound mixing and sound editing categories got collapsed into one category which became the Best Achievement in Sound.
- Academy members will now be able to vote in the category’s preliminary rounds.
For back home, Oscars 2021 noticed only two Indian movies in the nomination lists. Tamil film Soorara Potter and Odia movie Kalira Atita were present in the initial nomination list published by the Oscars.
And also we should not forget that Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Nick Jonas got the privilege to announce the Academy Awards nominations for best picture in Los Angeles. We can hope that the diversity shown in the Oscar 2021 nominations will be maintained in the main ceremony too which will be held on April 25, 2021, and this celebration of diversification will be maintained in the future too.
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