A look at the historic 2021 Oscar nominations

After a year of new films, it is now revealed that the 93rd Oscars ceremony features many historic nominations and will be held April 25 at both L.A.’s Union Station and the Dolby Theatre.

Monday morning, we heard how David Fincher’s “Mank” swooped 10 nominations. From best picture to Gary Oldman’s best actor nomination for his performance as alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, the 1930s-set film is leading the pack with the most nominations.

After years of aggressive efforts by members of the Academy to diversify its membership, this year sets a record of the most diverse list yet with nine actors of color earning their nominations. The 2015-2016 ceremonies helped to spark this effort as the categories consisted of all-white acting nominees.

Overlooked for his performance in “Get On Up” during an awards season, the late Chadwick Boseman not earning a nomination for best actor spawned the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag. After the efforts of many and his phenomenal performance, Chadwick Boseman is posthumously nominated for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” a Netflix film with five nominations this year.

Boseman, who died at 43, would become the second actor to posthumously win best actor after “Network’s Peter Finch.” The late Heath Ledger also posthumously won an Oscar for best-supporting actor for his performance as the Joker in “The Dark Knight.”

The first Asian-American performer to ever be recognized in the lead actor category, Steven Yeun earned a nomination for his performance in the newly released film “Minari.” Prior to his historic nomination and work in this new film, Yeun had a six-year run on “The Walking Dead.” He later revealed the professional frustration he experienced during this run.

With Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland” and Emerald Fennell’s “Promising Young Women,” the two female directors made history by both being included with nominations in the best director category — being only the sixth and seventh women to do so.

Chloé Zhao is the first woman of color to be nominated for best director.

In this category, “Minari” director Isaac Chung and “Nomadland” director Chloé Zhao will be the first two Asian directors that will be competing at the same time for this statue in the same year.

This year, Netflix picked up a leading 35 nominations, beating its own record of 24 in 2020.

With David Fincher’s “Mank,” the streaming service has 10 nominations from just this film. Netflix’s other best picture contender, “The Trial of Chicago 7,” picked up six nominations this year.

Other films picking up six nominations include Sony Picture Classics “The Father,” A24’s “Minari,” Warner Bros.’ “Judas and the Black Messiah,” Amazon’s “Sound of Metal” and Netflix’s “The Trial of Chicago 7.”