Oscars 2021: Behind the scenes of the winners

Last night’s Oscar’s ceremony, which took place at Los Angeles’ Union Station, honoured the actors and creative and craft talent responsible for the year’s most critically acclaimed films.

The biggest winners were Nomadland, with three awards, while The Father, Judas and the Black Messiah, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Mank, Soul and Sound of Metal each won two awards. Scroll to the bottom of this article for the full list of winners.

Nomadland

Nomadland was the big winner at last night’s Oscars, scooping gongs in three different categories: best picture, best director and best actress.

Director Chloé Zhao and director of photography Joshua James Richards spoke about their naturalistic approach to stories about American life in the margins in an earlier IBC365 article.

“I am not a documentary maker,” Zhao said of her filmmaking philosophy. 

“I think [documentary makers] are so incredibly brave to get know a subject as if what [they] are filming is what is real. I don’t know how to do that. [But] I think audiences want authenticity in their viewing experience and I find that having authenticity in fictional filmmaking really helps to keep their attention.” 

The verité style was shot handheld on Alexa Mini cameras by Joshua James Richards. “Something people need to understand about Chloé Zhao is that she is a really conceptual filmmaker,” the DP said. “She comes at things looking at how she can tell the story in a new and innovative way.  

Read the full Nomadland behind the scenes article here  

Mank

Mank won the best cinematography Oscar, with director of photography Erik Messerschmidt honoured for his work shooting the David Fincher-directed, digitally dexterous emulation of Hollywood’s classic era. It also won the award for best production design (Donald Graham Burt and Jan Pascale). 

It tells the story of Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, played by Gary Oldman, as he races to finish the Kane screenplay for Orson Welles.

“For this movie we wanted to shoot very deep focus photography for most of the film and then be very specific about where we used shallow focus,” said Messerschmidt. “Shooting on film would have significantly limited our creative choices, particularly with focus and depth of field.” 

Aside from black and white, deep focus is the principal aesthetic in Mank, which was shot with a Red Ranger Helium Monochrome.

Read the full Mank behind the scenes article here

Judas and the Black Messiah

Daniel Kaluuya picked up the award for best supporting actor for his role in Judas and the Black Messiah, the story of Fred Hampton, the firebrand leader of the Black Panther Party who was killed in 1969. The film also won best original song. 

The story weaves the rise of Hampton (played by Daniel Kaluuya - pictured below) with that of petty thief turned FBI informant William O’Neal (Lakeith Stanfield). In doing so, the film is structured a little like Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, with two lead protagonists.

“This is not a documentary or a docudrama,” Sprague said. “Even if we know far more about Hampton’s life from documentary footage, stills and newspaper articles than anyone does about O’Neal, our story is very much a balance between these two.”

Sprague also explained why they made multiple cuts of the story.

Read the full Judas and the Black Messiah behind the scenes article here

Promising Young Woman

Promising Young Woman was nominated in a host of categories, including best director (Emerald Fennell) and best actress (Carey Mulligan, for her portrayal of ‘Cassie’), but triumphed in the best original screenplay category with Emerald Fennell picking up the award.

Editor Frédéric Thoraval spoke with IBC365 about how he cut the feature. “Normally with a revenge movie you have a trauma at the very beginning and the revenge is motivated from that,” he said.

“In this case, you discover gradually that there was a trauma in Cassie’s past at the same time as you see her try to make other people aware of what happened and the impact of what they’ve done. What I loved about the script was that Emerald keeps a lot of question marks so you don’t know what to expect next.”

Read the full Promising Young Woman behind the scenes article here 

Tenet

Tenet, which won the best visual effects award, required 300 VFX shots but maestro Christopher Nolan’s desire was to film as much in-camera as possible.

“He wanted everything to feel grounded in the real world and not appear magic,” explained Dneg VFX supervisor Andrew Jackson.

Wrapping their heads around a story that works forwards and backwards often in the same scene was the first problem.

“After the fourth script reading, I’d got to point where I thought I understood but trying to explain it to someone else was another matter,” Jackson says.

Read about the making of Tenet and the other films shortlisted int he VFX category here

The winners in full:

Best picture

• Winner: Nomadland
• The Father
• Judas and the Black Messiah
• Mank
• Minari
• Promising Young Woman
• Sound of Metal
• The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best actress

• Winner: Frances McDormand - Nomadland
• Viola Davis - Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
• Andra Day - The United States vs Billie Holiday
• Vanessa Kirby - Pieces of a Woman
• Carey Mulligan - Promising Young Woman

Best actor

• Winner: Anthony Hopkins - The Father
• Riz Ahmed - Sound of Metal
• Chadwick Boseman - Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
• Gary Oldman - Mank
• Steven Yeun - Minari

Best supporting actress

• Winner: Yuh-Jung Youn - Minari
• Maria Bakalova - Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
• Glenn Close - Hillbilly Elegy
• Olivia Colman - The Father
• Amanda Seyfried - Mank

Best supporting actor

• Winner: Daniel Kaluuya - Judas and the Black Messiah
• Sacha Baron Cohen - The Trial of the Chicago 7
• Leslie Odom Jr - One Night in Miami
• Paul Raci - Sound of Metal
• Lakeith Stanfield - Judas and the Black Messiah

Best director

• Winner: Nomadland - Chloe Zhao
• Another Round - Thomas Vinterberg
• Mank - David Fincher
• Minari - Lee Isaac Chung
• Promising Young Woman - Emerald Fennell

Best original screenplay

• Winner: Promising Young Woman - Emerald Fennell
• Judas and the Black Messiah - Will Berson, Shaka King, Will Berson, Kenny Lucas and Keith Lucas
• Minari - Lee Isaac Chung
• Sound of Metal - Darius Marder, Abraham Marder, Derek Cianfrance
• The Trial of the Chicago 7 - Aaron Sorkin

Best adapted screenplay

• Winner: The Father - Christopher Hampton, Florian Zeller
• Borat Subsequent Moviefilm - Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Dan Swimer, Peter Baynham, Erica Rivinoja, Dan Mazer, Jena Friedman and Lee Kern
• Nomadland - Chloé Zhao
• One Night in Miami - Kemp Powers
• The White Tiger - Ramin Bahrani

Best animated feature

• Winner: Soul
• Onward
• Over the Moon
• A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
• Wolfwalkers

Best documentary feature

• Winner: My Octopus Teacher - Pippa Ehrlich, James Reed and Craig Foster
• Collective - Alexander Nanau and Bianca Oana
• Crip Camp - Nicole Newnham, Jim LeBrecht and Sara Bolder
• The Mole Agent - Maite Alberdi and Marcela Santibáñez
• Time - Garrett Bradley, Lauren Domino and Kellen Quinn

Best international feature

• Winner: Another Round (Denmark)
• Better Days (Hong Kong)
• Collective (Romania)
• The Man Who Sold His Skin (Tunisia)
• Quo Vadis, Aida? (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Best original song

• Winner: Fight For You - Judas and the Black Messiah (H.E.R., Dernst Emile II and Tiara Thomas)
• Hear my Voice - The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Daniel Pemberton and Celeste Waite)
• Husavik - Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (Savan Kotecha, Fat Max Gsus and Rickard Göransson)
• Io Si (Seen) - The Life Ahead [La Vita Davanti a Se] (Diane Warren and Laura Pausini)
• Speak Now - One Night in Miami… (Leslie Odom, Jr and Sam Ashworth)

Best original score

• Winner: Soul - Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste
• Da 5 Bloods - Terence Blanchard
• Mank - Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
• Minari - Emile Mosseri
• News of the World - James Newton Howard

Best cinematography

• Winner: Mank - Erik Messerschmidt
• Judas and the Black Messiah - Sean Bobbitt
• News of the World - Dariusz Wolski
• Nomadland - Joshua James Richards
• The Trial of the Chicago 7 - Phedon Papamichael

Best visual effects

• Winner: Tenet - Andrew Jackson, David Lee, Andrew Lockley and Scott Fisher
• Love and Monsters - Matt Sloan, Genevieve Camilleri, Matt Everitt and Brian Cox
• The Midnight Sky - Matthew Kasmir, Christopher Lawrence, Max Solomon and David Watkins
• Mulan - Sean Faden, Anders Langlands, Seth Maury and Steve Ingram
• The One and Only Ivan - Santiago Colomo Martinez, Nick Davis, Greg Fisher

Best film editing

• Winner: Sound of Metal - Mikkel EG Nielsen
• The Father - Yorgos Lamprinos
• Nomadland - Chloé Zhao
• Promising Young Woman - Frédéric Thoraval
• The Trial of the Chicago 7 - Alan Baumgarten

Best costume design

• Winner: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom - Ann Roth
• Emma - Alexandra Byrne
• Mank - Trish Summerville
• Mulan - Bina Daigeler
• Pinocchio - Massimo Cantini Parrini

Best sound

• Winner: Sound of Metal - Nicolas Becker, Jaime Baksht, Michelle Couttolenc, Carlos Cortés and Phillip Bladh
• Greyhound - Warren Shaw, Michael Minkler, Beau Borders and David Wyman
• Mank - Ren Klyce, Jeremy Molod, David Parker, Nathan Nance and Drew Kunin
• News of the World - Oliver Tarney, Mike Prestwood Smith, William Miller and John Pritchett
• Soul - Ren Klyce, Coya Elliott and David Parker

Best production design

• Winner: Mank - Donald Graham Burt and Jan Pascale
• The Father - Peter Francis and Cathy Featherstone
• Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom - Mark Ricker, Karen O’Hara and Diana Stoughton
• News of the World - David Crank and Elizabeth Keenan
• Tenet - Nathan Crowley and Kathy Lucas

Best make-up and hairstyling

• Winner: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom - Sergio Lopez-Rivera, Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson
• Emma - Marese Langan, Laura Allen and Claudia Stolze
• Hillbilly Elegy - Eryn Krueger Mekash, Matthew Mungle and Patricia Dehaney
• Mank - Gigi Williams, Kimberley Spiteri and Colleen LaBaff
• Pinocchio - Mark Coulier, Dalia Colli and Francesco Pegoretti

Best live action short

• Winner: Two Distant Strangers - Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe
• Feeling Through - Doug Roland and Susan Ruzenski
• The Letter Room - Elvira Lind and Sofia Sondervan
• The Present - Farah Nabulsi
• White Eye - Tomer Shushan and Shira Hochman

Best animated short

• Winner: If Anything Happens I Love You - Will McCormack and Michael Govier
• Burrow - Madeline Sharafian and Michael Capbarat
• Genius Loci - Adrien Mérigeau and Amaury Ovise
• Opera - Erick Oh
• Yes-People - Gísli Darri Halldórsson and Arnar Gunnarsson

Best documentary short

• Winner: Colette - Anthony Giacchino and Alice Doyard
• A Concerto is a Conversation - Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers
• Do Not Split - Anders Hammer and Charlotte Cook
• Hunger Ward - Skye Fitzgerald and Michael Scheuerman
• A Love Song for Latasha - Sophia Nahli Allison and Janice Duncan