“Mank” leads the pack of best picture nominees for the 2021 Academy Awards with 10 total nominations, but that doesn’t mean it will take home the Oscar.
Here’s where you can watch all of the best picture nominees before awards show on April 24.
“Mank”
Nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Cinematography, Production Design, Sound, Costume Design, Hair and Makeup, Original Score
Where to watch: Netflix
Our review: Like Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma” or Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood,” director David Fincher’s “Mank” relishes the pleasures of swank, alluring period re-creation. Read the full review.
“Promising Young Woman”
Nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Original Screenplay, Film Editing
Where to watch: VOD
Our review: Is it a #MeToo-era revenge thriller? A 21st-century “Fatal Attraction”? A candy-colored feminist polemic, to strains of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears? A black comedy? A comic tragedy?
None of the above — and all of the above. Which is to say: a film as bracingly original as Emerald Fennell’s “Promising Young Woman” defies labels. Read the full review.
“Nomadland”
Nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Cinematography, Film Editing, Adapted Screenplay
Where to watch: Theaters, Hulu
Our review: Here’s a beaut. Writer-director Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland” offers a remarkable experience anytime but especially now, when it can be so weirdly difficult to recall life in America a few years ago. The economic straits depicted here are like bulletins to the future. Read the full review.
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“Judas and the Black Messiah”
Nominations: Best Picture, Two Best Supporting Actor nods, Cinematography, Original Song, Original Screenplay
Where to watch: Theaters
Our review: “Judas and the Black Messiah” is my kind of dramatized Chicago history, writes Tribune film critic Michael Phillips. It’s a real movie, for one thing — brash, narratively risky, full of life and sneaky wit (even if the dominant tone is one of foreboding) and brimming with terrific actors. Read the full review.
“Sound of Metal”
Nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Film Editing, Sound, Original Screenplay
Where to watch: Amazon Prime
Our review: Robbed of a full theatrical release, like hundreds of films this year, Amazon bought distribution rights to this bracing, beautifully acted drama more than a year ago, after co-writer and director Darius Marder’s narrative feature debuted as part of the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. Read the full review.
“Minari”
Nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Director, Original Score, Original Screenplay
Where to watch: VOD
Our review: Quiet images of a landscape untouched by suburban sprawl glide by in the opening moments of “Minari,” as the Yi family drives down an empty road. Eventually they pull up to a mobile home that sits on acres and acres of land ready to be tilled and farmed. Read the full review.
“The Father”
Nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Film Editing, Production Design, Adapted Screenplay
Where to watch: Theaters, VOD on March 26
Our review: In “The Father’s” house are many rooms, all of them beautifully appointed with details so sharp and precise that you might be startled to find them vanishing a few moments later: Didn’t those backsplash tiles look different a minute ago? Wasn’t there a lamp on that side table? The French writer-director Florian Zeller, adapting his internationally acclaimed play for the screen, has a meticulous eye and a keen sense of mischief, which doesn’t lighten so much as heighten the implacable tragedy at the heart of this story. The moment-to-moment pleasures of trying to decipher the plot give way to crushing futility; you’re left sifting through the pieces of a puzzle that’s almost too painful to solve. Read the full review.
“The Trial of the Chicago 7?
Nominations: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Cinematography, Film Editing, Original Screenplay
Where to watch: Netflix
Our review: Brilliantly cast, full of juicy verbal confrontations and only slightly undermined by its director, “The Trial of the Chicago 7” hits the righteous indignation spot. The writer is Aaron Sorkin. The director is also Aaron Sorkin. Read the full review.
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