Oscars
The Oscars will be awarded for the 94th time tonight in Los Angeles. Unlike last year’s ceremony, which was stripped down by corona measures, this time it will again take place as usual in the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, with no less than three hostesses, comedians Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes and Regina Hall.
Biggest contender is the psychological western The Power of the Dog with twelve nominations, the most since The Shape of Water Die was nominated for thirteen categories in 2018. Also this year there are a number of contenders with a special story; an overview of ten Oscar facts.
Nominated couples
Two couples have a chance to win a gold statue tonight: Javier Bardem and his wife Penélope Cruz and Kate Dunst and her partner Jesse Plemons. Plemons and Dunst play husband and wife The Power of the DogCruz was nominated for the Spanish Parallel Mothers† Bardem has a shot at his role as Lucille Ball’s husband in Being the Ricardoswhich his “film wife” Nicole Kidman has also been nominated for.
The Power of the Dog trailer:
In the past, it often happened that lovers together had a chance to win Oscar gold. For example, in 1967 Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were together in the race for Who’s Afraid of Virgina Woolf? (only she won). Their nominations for Brokeback Mountain Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger both failed to cash in 2006. Other stars were nominated for two different films, such as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in 2009 and Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh in 1940 (she won).
Newcomers and old hands
In the Best Actor category, only men have been nominated this year who have already had a chance at the Oscar (or even won one). The frontrunner is Denzel Washington, who cashed in two of his ten nominations in the past. Javier Bardem, who has now been nominated four times, already has a statue at home.
Will Smith hopes that with King Richard three times a charm, after missed opportunities for Ali and The Pursuit of Happyness† But maybe Andrew Garfield or Benedict Cumberbatch (both second-time contenders) will step in.
The King Richard trailer:
Almost exclusively newcomers have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor, such as Ciarán Hinds, Troy Kotsur, Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee. Only Oscar winner JK Simmons has been in the race before.
Same with the women
There is a similar distribution among women. Only Judi Dench has experienced Best Supporting Actress, with her eight nominations and a win in 1999 for her minor role in Shakespeare in Love (6 minutes of acting). Ariana DeBose, Jessie Buckley, Kirsten Dunst and Aunjanue Ellis are all Oscar nominees.
At Best Actress, only Kirsten Stewart (big contender for her role as/in Diana) not previously invited to the ball. She will compete against three former winners (Olivia Colman, Penélope Cruz and Nicole Kidman) and the twice unsuccessfully nominated Jessica Chastain.
Campion makes history
Of The Power of the Dog Jane Campion is the first woman to be nominated twice for a directorial Oscar. Of The Piano made in 1993 she chanced on the golden statue. However, she lost to Spielbergs Schindler’s List† She did win the award for Best Original Script at the time.
The directorial award has so far gone to a woman twice: in 2009 to Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker and last year to Chloé Zhao for nomad land†
Most versatile nominee
British actor/director Kenneth Branagh is officially the most versatile contender in Oscar history with his Best Original Screenplay nomination. With his autobiographical Belfast In addition to the script, he also has a chance to win Best Picture and Best Director, while for previous films he also had nominations in the categories for actor, supporting role, adapted script and short feature film. With his record number of nominations in seven different categories, he overtook Walt Disney and George Clooney. Unlike the two, however, the Northern Irish filmmaker has never won the award.
The Belfast trailer:
The Danish Flee has a unique combination of nominations. The story of a refugee from Afghanistan competes in the categories Animation, Foreign Film and Documentary. It is the first cartoon to be eligible for the documentary award and the second after Waltz with Bashir (2008) who has a chance to win Best Foreign Film. Documentaries are also rare in the international category: they have appeared only four times before since the scoop of Waltz with Bashir†
deaf actor
For the first time, a deaf actor has a chance to win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor: Troy Kotsur for CODA (the abbreviation for child of deaf adults† In the film, a teenage daughter as the only hearing aid struggles with her place in the family when she discovers a love for music. Kotsur (53) in the role of the father provides some of the funniest and most emotional moments in the film.
Kotsur hopes his breakthrough can also help other deaf actors: “Hopefully it will give young people who are deaf or hard of hearing more confidence and inspire them to follow their dreams.” By the way, Kotsur’s co-star Marlee Matlin was the first deaf actress to win Oscar gold in 1987 for her role in Children of a Lesser God† In CODA Matlin plays the mother of the family.
PEGOT
The EGOT is often referred to as the holy grail of the entertainment industry: 16 people have so far won the most important awards for TV (Emmy), music (Grammy), film (Oscar) and stage (Tony). Among them were such greats as Audrey Hepburn, Andrew Lloyd Weber and John Legend. Lin-Manuel Miranda makes his Oscar nomination for the encato-song Dos Oruguitas tonight a chance to win an even rarer honor: the PEGOT. The P in PEGOT stands for the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, which Miranda won with the Broadway hit Hamilton wrote in his name.
Miranda has already been awarded a total of three Tony’s, three Grammys and two Emmys, but managed to win a previous Oscar nomination for the Disney film. moana not redeemable. Until now, only two people managed to put a PEGOT in their name: musical legend Richard Rodgers (from many more The Sound of Music) and composer Marvin Hamlisch, known for example for the Streisand classic The way we were† Miranda remained sober about the possible honour: “I mainly want to make things that I feel passionate about. The rest is extra. Nice, but an extra.”
