Viola Davis as Ma Rainey in Ma Rainey s Black Bottom. (David Lee/Netflix)
Viola Davis made history as the 2021 Oscar nominations were announced, breaking her own record as the Academy’s most-nominated Black actress.
Davis said she was “absolutely thrilled” to be nominated for Best Actress for her turn as bisexual blues singer Gertrude ‘Ma’ Rainey in
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. She becomes the first Black woman to achieve four nominations, an achievement she says reflects more on Hollywood’s shortcomings than anything else.
“For me, it’s a reflection of the lack of opportunities and access to opportunities people of colour have had in this business,” Davis told
S. Korean Youn Yuh-jung of ‘Minari’ nominated for best supporting actress at Academy Awards March 15, 2021
Youn Yuh-jung was nominated for best supporting actress at this year’s Academy Awards for her role in “Minari,” becoming the first South Korean actress to achieve the feat.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Monday unveiled its final list of nominations for the 2021 Oscars Awards. The awards ceremony will take place next month.
Youn, who plays an eccentric grandmother in “Minari,” will vie for the prize of best actress in a supporting role with Maria Bakalova for “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” Glenn Close for “Hillbilly Elegy,” Olivia Colman for “The Father” and Amanda Seyfried for “Mank.”
"Mank," David Fincher's movie about "Citizen Kane" co-writer Herman Mankiewicz, led the Oscar nominations with 10 nods, including best picture, actor and director.
(Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP, File)
The pandemic has brought a variety of challenges for The Oscars and also provided more opportunities.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has been grappling with a couple of challenges over the past years. One has involved getting more inclusiveness and diversity in both its membership and the recognition at The Oscars, and the other has been how to deal with the mounting challenge brought by the streaming services. The crater-inducing impact the pandemic created in the entertainment industry meant that one issue was essentially solved for the organization, and this led to it seeing a solution for the other.