Sacha Baron Cohen, Nomadland and Mank dominate the Oscar nominations

David Fincher’s Hollywood epic Mank was always going to score with Academy Awards voters – a group of love to celebrate home-town stories, no matter how acidic – and so it has proved. Mank scored ten Oscar nominations at the grand unveiling, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress nods for Gary Oldman and Amanda Seyfried respectively.

Also up for gongs when the Oscars airs on Sunday, April 25 are Olivia Colman (Best Actress for The Father), Viola Davis (Best Actress for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), and Lee Isaac Chung, Emerald Fennell and Chloé Zhao in a fascinating-looking Best Director category. 

As expected, Chadwick Boseman is nominated posthumously for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and is an overwhelmingly popular choice to win.

What else to look out for on the list? It’s rare for a film to win Best Picture without a Best Editing nomination, so if precedent is anything to go by, the big award is a race between The Father, Nomadland, Promising Young Woman, Sound of Metal, The Trial of the Chicago 7. 

Nomadland is the hot favourite, but this would seem to reduce Minari’s once red-hot buzz to a glowing ember.

Unusually, Judas and the Black Messiah’s LaKeith Stanfield and Daniel Kaluuya go head-to-head in the Best Supporting Actor category. It’s the kind of category-finessing that takes place every year, but it does beg the question of who the film’s actual lead is.

Among the relatively few major surprises was a Best Director nomination for Thomas Vinterberg for Another Round, the omission of the much-fancied Tahar Rahim for The Mauritanian, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom missing out on a Best Picture nod.

Here are the nominations in full:

Best Picture
The Father
Judas the Black Messiah
Mank
Minari
Nomadland
Promising Young Woman
Sound of Metal
The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best Director
Lee Isaac Chung, Minari
Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman
David Fincher, Mank
Chloé Zhao, Nomadland
Thomas Vinterberg, Another Round

Best Actor
Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal
Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Anthony Hopkins, The Father
Steven Yeun, Minari
Gary Oldman, Mank

Best Actress
Andra Day, The United States vs. Billie Holiday
Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman
Frances McDormand, Nomadland
Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman

Best Supporting Actor
Sacha Baron Cohen, The Trial of the Chicago 7
Daniel Kaluuya, Judas and the Black Messiah
Leslie Odom Jr., One Night in Miami...
Paul Raci, Sound of Metal
LaKeith Stanfield, Judas and the Black Messiah

Best Original Screenplay
Judas and the Black Messiah
Minari
Promising Young Woman
Sound of Metal
The Trial of the Chicago 7 

Best Film Editing
The Father
Nomadland
Promising Young Woman
Sound of Metal
The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best International Feature Film
Quo Vadis, Aida?
Another Round
Better Days
Collective
The Man Who Sold His Skin

Best Production Design
Mank
Tenet
News of the World
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
The Father

Best Visual Effects
Tenet
The Midnight Sky
Love and Monsters
The One and Only Ivan
Mulan

Best Make-up and Hairstyling
Hillbilly Elegy 
Emma.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom 
Mank
Pinocchio 

Best Original Song
Husavik (My Hometown), Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga
Fight for You, Judas and the Black Messiah
Io Se (Seen), The Life Ahead
Speak Now, One Night in Miami…
Hear My Voice, The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best Animation
Soul
Wolfwalkers
Onward
A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
Over the Moon

Best Cinematography
Nomadland, Joshua James Richards
Mank, Erik Messerschmidt
News of the World, Dariusz Wolski
The Trial of the Chicago 7, Phedon Papamichael
Judas and the Black Messiah, Sean Bobbitt

Best Documentary
Collective
Time
The Mole Agent
Crip Camp: a Disability Revolution
My Octopus Teacher

Best Documentary Short 
Colette
A Concerto Is a Conversation
Hunger Ward
A Love Song for Latasha
Do Not Split

Best Short Film
The Present
White Eye
Feeling Through
The Letter Room
Two Distant Strangers

The 93rd Oscars take place at 8pm ET on Sunday, April 25 and will be televised live around the world. Rewatch the grand nominee unveiling below.