Time.news – On the night between Sunday and Monday, postponed by two months from the date originally scheduled (February 28) due to the pandemic, Hollywood awards the best films of the season with the Oscars. Or, at least, those most voted by the members of the Academy who this year were able to express themselves exceptionally even on films released only in streaming to participate in them.
The ceremony (broadcast in the USA on ABC, in Italy on Sky Oscar – channel 303 – starting from a quarter past midnight) for the third consecutive year, will not have a single presenter but will see the stars awarded with the Oscar alternate on stage in the past that they deliver the statuette to the winners. Among them Brad Pitt, Halle Berry, Renèe Zellweger, Joaquin Phoenix, and Harrison Ford.
The novelty is that the ceremony will take place from several locations: from Union Station and the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles as well as, in connection, from London and Paris.
The six nominations for “Mank”
At the starting line, it is full of nominations – ten, including the one for best film and best director – and expectations of David Fincher’s’ Mank ‘, a sophisticated black and white work that tells the story behind the film’ Quarto power by focusing not on director Orson Welles but on social critic and alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz.
“Nomadland” is an altar
Behind ‘Mank’ are six films starting with six nominations each. Between these certainly stands out ‘Nomadland’ by Chloè Zhao who won the Golden Lion in Venice and, above all, triumphed at the Golden Globes. His fresco of America struggling to make it to the end of the month, with a magnificent Frances McDormand (Oscar nominee) nomadic by choice and necessity, penniless for the bankruptcy of the company where he worked is the strongest candidate for the final victory in the best film category or, at least, for the director (it would be the second to a woman in this category 11 years after Kathryn Bigelow who won with ‘The Hurt Locker’).
The other five films competing with six nominations are:
- ‘The Father – Nothing Is As It Seems’ by Florian Zeller (including Best Picture, Best Actor Anthony Hopkins, Best Supporting Actress Olivia Colman)
- ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ by African American director Shaka King, a pupil of Spike Lee (including Best Picture, and two for Best Supporting Actor: Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield)
- Lee Isac Chung’s ‘Minari’ (including Best Picture, Best Director Lee Isaac Chung, Best Supporting Actress Yuh-Jung Youn, Best Actor Steven Yeun, first Asian-American performer in history to receive this nomination)
- ‘Sound of Metal’ by Darius Marder (including Best Picture, Best Actor Riz Ahmed and Supporting Actor Paul Raci
- Aaron Sorkin’s ‘The Chicago 7 Trial’ (including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor Sacha Baron Cohen).
The Oscar-nominated film for Best Picture and Best Director with fewer nominations (five) is also the second directed by a director: ‘A Promising Woman’ by British newcomer Emerald Fennell, dramatic story of a girl seeking revenge after the gang rape suffered years earlier by her closest friend. For this unsettling film, the nomination for Best Actress by Carey Mulligan is worthy of note, who holds the story on her shoulders and appears as a favorite.
Italy cheers for Laura Pausini
Italy is rooting for Matteo Garrone’s ‘Pinocchio’ nominee for best makeup and best costume and of course for Laura Pausini nominated – as favorite – for the best original song. The Emilian singer will be in Los Angeles to interpret ‘Io Sì (Seen)’, the song written by Dianne Warren of which Pausini is also the author of the text in Italian written together with Nicolò Agliardi, already winner of the Golden Globe for Edoardo’s film Ponti, with Sophia Loren, ‘Life ahead of oneself’.
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