93rd Oscars like no other.
The most prominent evening in Hollywood, to be followed on Canal + from two in the morning this Sunday, had to be postponed by two months due to the pandemic and ended an extraordinary price season by its length and its suspense.
This evening is also an attempt to rediscover the pre-covid glamor and to show that these celebrations still have a meaning after long months of closure of the rooms where the public has been discovered, online from their sofa, the films in the running, either royally ignores its content or, even worse, its existence.
A reinvented scenography
The Oscars will attempt what no one has dared to do before: a physical ceremony without the use of videoconferencing.
The disastrous audiences of the Golden Globes and the Emmy Awards did not encourage prolonging the distancing experience, even if discovering the nominees in their best pajamas could have its charm.
It is in the Union Station train station in downtown Los Angeles, which allows greater social distancing, that most of this edition will take place, the traditional Dolby Theater being content to play a secondary role with Honorary Oscars and musical performances.
Steven Soderbergh is the director of the Oscars 2021 Kevork Djansezian / REUTERS
The red carpet will be reduced to its simplest expression but the artists who will tread it will have to respect a formal dress code. This year, the guests will be handpicked. No picnic or large spawns. The nominees and the remitters are invited. Which will have to be satisfied with an accompanying person. Those who will be in Los Angeles for the big night will have to comply with a draconian health protocol: three tests during the day on Sunday. Despite the very strict quarantine in force in California, several contenders for the statuettes crossed the Atlantic or the Pacific to be present and therefore endured ten days of isolation and several tests. This is the case of the "South Korean Meryl Streep" Youn Yuh-jung, mischievous and boorish grandmother of
Minari
. Bosnian director Jasmila Zbanica (
Quo Vadis Aida
) was able to obtain a visa in extremis thanks to the American ambassador. Present in London for the Bafta, the entire
Promising Young Woman team
, from Emerald Fennell to Carey Mulligan, have also embarked on the journey to Hollywood.
For those who cannot, studios will welcome the nominees who have stayed in Paris, London or Rome.
The team
The Father
will be divided between the French capital (the playwright Florian Zeller) and UK (Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Coleman).
Elements of the decor of these “European safehouses” should recall those of Union Station and the Dolby Theater and ensure visual continuity.
The palm of gold for inventiveness goes to Swedish composers Savan Kotecha and Fatmax Gsus.
The duo behind
Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga
have installed a satellite truck in the garden of their country house.
READ ALSO -
Húsavik, the Icelandic village of the film
Eurovision Song Contest
fishing for the Oscar
Oscar winner for
Trafic
filmmaker Steven Soderbergh, who worked with the scientists who had advised him on
Contagion
, is the conductor of this ceremony. He sees it as a total reinvention: a tribute to the seventh art and a great moment in cinema. Among the announced presenters: Joaquin Phoenix, Brad Pitt, Harrison Ford or Halle Berry
"will either play a version of themselves, or will be natural"
. Soderbergh added that
"masks would play a crucial role in Sunday's live, but those on stage would not be required to wear them
.
"
The winners will have carte blanche in their thank you speech which is no longer limited to 45 seconds.
Nomadland
big favorite
Crowned with the Golden Lion for Best Film in Venice and the Audience Award at the Toronto Film Festival,
Nomadland
has been in pole position for this award season from the start.
In the running for six Academy Awards, Chloe Zhao's Elegiac Odyssey celebrates freedom, the great outdoors, and those who choose a nomadic existence.
It should in all probability win the queen statuettes for best film and best director.
And thus enter Hollywood history: Chloe Zhao would be the second director to be thus distinguished after Kathryn Bigelow in 2010 for
Minesweepers
. The Chinese would also be the first filmmaker from diversity to break this glass ceiling. Her heroine Frances McDormand could receive two Oscars this Sunday, one as a producer and one as a performer. If so, she will join the very closed club to which Meryl Streep belongs three award-winning actresses.
Between road-trip and documentary against the backdrop of the economic crisis,
Nomadland
offers a touching portrait of a woman and has real nomad retirees play around Frances McDormand.
A film that resonates particularly with our world marked by long months of confinement.
Auspicious for his future Sunday triumph,
Nomadland
and Chloe Zhao emerged winners of the Golden Globes, the British Caesars, the Bafta, the guild of directors yet formidable boy club and the guild of producers which uses the same voting system. preferential than the Oscars.
READ ALSO -
Why Nomadland, an ode to wandering and asphalt, is among the big favorites of the Oscars
With this method, the film that came first in the votes does not necessarily win but the one that was most often put in the top tier of the ballots.
Each voter must list the eight films in the running for the Oscar for best feature film in descending order of preference.
The winner is sometimes the one who has managed to reach a consensus.
If
Nomadland
couldn't get all voters to agree,
perhaps
the more political and classic court drama
The Chicago Seven
would stand to gain.
Aaron Sorkin's story victory would give Netflix the queen statuette it has always coveted.
READ ALSO -
Nomadland
,
Minari
,
The Father
… Discover the films competing for the 2021 Oscars
Hopkins heels Boseman
If
Nomadland
is unanimous, making predictions in categories celebrating the best actors and best actresses should be reserved for those who like the risk.
We can still start betting on supporting roles.
Fiery leader of the
Black Panther
in
Judas and the Black Messiah,
Briton Daniel Kaluuya won all the statuettes in the intermediate prizes.
Among women,
Minari's
terrible grandmother
, Youn Yuh-jung, has taken over the Bafta and the Actor's Guild.
However, the actors constitute the largest contingent of voters at the Oscars.
Anthony Hopkins, Chadwick Boseman, Riz Ahmed, Steven Yeun and Gary Oldman are the five actors in the running for the precious statuette for best actor. Shooting Star / SPUS / ABACA / Shooting Star / Everett / Bridgeman images / Elizabeth Goodenough / Everett / Bridgeman images / / Everett / Bridgeman images / Dee Cercone / PA Photos / ABACA / PA Photos
Welshman Anthony Hopkins' victory at the Bafta, senile father in
The Father
, shuffled the waters in the best actor category which seemed acquired to a posthumous triumph to the incandescent Chadwick Boseman in
The Blues of My Rainey
. According to
Variety, The Father would
experience a spectacular rise in the votes which could also benefit Olivia Coleman in the running for best supporting role and Florian Zeller in the best adaptation section. His story would be very popular with European voters who swelled the ranks of the Academy.
Viola Davis, Andra Day, Vanessa Kirby, Carey Mulligan and Frances McDormand are in the running for the best actress statuette AFF / ABACA / AFF / Hahn Lionel / ABACA / Hahn Lionel / Marechal Aurore / ABACA / Marechal Aurore / AFP / FREDERIC J . BROWN
Predicting the winner of the Best Actress category is a mission impossible.
None of the intermediary ceremonies chose the same winner: Andra Day (Golden Globe), Frances McDormand (Bafta), Viola Davis (Sag awards), Carey Mulligan (Critic Choice awards and Spirit award).
In all probability, the duel would nevertheless be played out between Frances McDormand or Viola Davis.
For one or the other, it would be a historic victory.
Diversity Oscars
Actors of color present in force in the nominations, two directors (Zhao and Fennell), two filmmakers of Asian origin in the running (Zhao and Lee Isaac Chung) for the award for best director ... The Oscars are breaking this year's records for diversity, and not only thanks to the pandemic which has forced the studios to sideline their blockbusters, leaving a boulevard to independent cinema.
In the running for the Oscar for Best Director: David Fincher, Thomas Vinterberg, Lee Isaac Chung, Chloé Zhao and Emerald Fennell.
Nippon News / ABACA / Nippon News / Provvisionato Marco / IPA / ABACA / Provvisionato Marco / Getty Images via AFP / CINDY ORD / Reynaud Julien / APS-Medias / ABACA / Reynaud Julien / JPA / AFF / ABACA / JPA
One of the factors of this change has undoubtedly been the reform initiated by the Academy of Oscars to broaden the recruitment of its members and make them more reflective of society.
From 6,000 in 2016, the electorate has grown to nearly 10,000 members, younger, more international, more female, less white and American.
Under the pressure of two years of controversy "OscarssoWhite" where no actor of color had been named, the Academy had indeed recognized that its 6,000 members at the time were 93% white and 76% male.
Now its ranks are 33% women and 19% members from “under-represented minorities” (ie 1,787 people).
Britain's Daniel Kaluuya and the late Chadwick Boseman could clinch Oscars this Sunday REUTERS FILE PHOTO / REUTERS
If the Oscars followed the list of the actors' guild in every way - which has often happened to it in the past - the four acting awards could go to actors from a variety of backgrounds: Boseman, Davis, Kaluuya and Yuh- jung.