The awards are this evening and it's time to look at the order of when the awards will be presented. As of this writing, no official announcement has been made about the order of presentation, but based on last year's order, here is the order I anticipate the awards being handed out. Don't forget to join The Oscar Project on Discord and be a part of the live conversation during the awards this evening.

Actor in a Supporting Sole
Animated Feature Film 
Animated Short Film 
Original Screenplay 
Adapted Screenplay 
Live Action Short Film 
Production Design 
Costume Design 
Documentary Feature 
Documentary Short Subject 
Actress in a Supporting Role 
Sound
Cinematography 
Film Editing 
Visual Effects 
Makeup and Hairstyling 
International Feature Film 
Original Score 
Original Song
Directing 
Actor in a Leading Role
Actress in a Leading Role 
Best Picture

Tomorrow is the big day, and I sat down this morning to make my official predictions for who is going to win at the Oscars tomorrow night. I printed out a free ballot from Vanity Fair that has all the categories on one sheet and have included a copy below. Print out your own ballot from the Vanity Fair website and play along. Leave a comment below with how many you got right.

With the 93rd Oscars just one week away, it's time to do a little Best Picture voting of our own. I have set up a quick poll to gather votes for the 8 films nominated for Best Picture this year.

The Oscars uses a ranked choice voting method to choose the film awarded Best Picture. I would probably do a terrible job of explaining the process of ranked choice voting, so I'll let the website Ballotpedia.com do it. I THINK I know enough to be dangerous in putting this together, but I can probably figure out how to catalog the votes to determine the winner the same way the Academy does it.

So on to the poll below. I have all eight Best Picture nominees listed below, in alphabetical order to avoid any bias. Please rank all eight films with your first choice being 1 and last choice being 8. Don't worry if you haven't seen some (or even all) of them, you can still vote. Many of the Academy members, all busy working on movies of their own, don't watch all of the nominees but are still eligible to vote.

I also included a question below to see if readers would be interested in voting on the rest of the categories. There are a bunch to choose from, and normally only members of each individual branch of the Academy, but since we don't have branches, I would allow everyone to vote in all categories.

​Get your votes in and share this with your friends. I want to get as many votes in here as possible.

Next up in our series this week is the Best International Feature category. Previously known as Best Foreign Language Film, this category got a new name just last year in 2020 with Best Picture winner Parasite winning here as well.

This year, one of the international feature nominees is again nominated for Best Director (as was Bong Joon-ho last year) with Another Round's Thomas Vinterberg being recognized in that category.

As of this writing, I have not had a chance to watch any of these films, though they will be on my list as we approach the Academy Awards ceremony. As I am able to watch them, reviews will be posted on the site.

• Another Round (Druk) (Denmark) - Four friends, all high school teachers, test a theory that they will improve their lives by maintaining a constant level of alcohol in their blood. This is the thirteenth nomination for a film submitted from Denmark. Available on Hulu.
• Better Days (Hong Kong) - A bullied teenage girl forms an unlikely friendship with a mysterious young man who protects her from her assailants, all while she copes with the pressures of her final examinations. This is the third nomination for a film submitted from Hong Kong. Available on VOD.
• Collective (Colectiv) (Romania) - Director Alexander Nanau follows a crack team of investigators at the Romanian newspaper Gazeta Sporturilor as they try to uncover a vast health-care fraud that enriched moguls and politicians and led to the deaths of innocent citizens. This is the first nomination for a film submitted from Romania. Available on VOD.
• The Man Who Sold His Skin (Tunisia) - His own body turned into a living work of art and promptly exhibited in a museum, Sam, a Syrian refugee, will soon realize to have sold away more than just his skin. This is the first nomination for a film submitted from Tunisia.
• Quo Vadis, Aida? (Bosnia and Herzegovina) - Aida is a translator for the UN in the small town of Srebrenica. When the Serbian army takes over the town, her family is among the thousands of citizens looking for shelter in the UN camp.​  This is the second nomination for a film submitted from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Available on VOD.

2021 Short Film Nominees | 2021 Best Documentary Feature Nominees

I am starting off our deeper dive coverage of the films nominated for Oscars this year with a look at the three short film categories, Best Documentary Short Film, Best Animated Short Film, and Best Live Action Short Film.

I personally love these categories because you often get a wide range of stories all packed into small packages. Many of the films, especially in the animated category, are less than ten minutes long, so you can sit down and watch the entire category in less time than it takes to watch a full feature film, if you can find them that is.

That's the true struggle with these films. They rarely get released to theaters outside of film festivals, but with the rise of online streaming services and sites like Vimeo and YouTube, many of these are more accessible than ever. Out of the 15 nominees across the three short film categories, seven are readily available on YouTube, Netflix and Disney+. The remaining eight do not currently have distribution as of this writing, but may be released publicly prior to the Academy Award ceremony.

With four of these five films available online, I was able to sit down and watch them back to back. I wish I could say these documentaries were uplifting and lighthearted, but with subjects ranging from anti-government protests in Hong Kong to the murder of a young girl to a WWII French Resistance fighter visiting the concentration camp where her brother died, you won't find much levity here. About the closest you'll come is the conversation between a grandfather and grandson on the eve of the younger man's concerto debut in concert.

These films are all fantastic. As I have some more time to digest them and think about them, I'm sure one or two may rise to the surface as my favorite to win the award, but right now they are all too fresh in my mind to make a pick.
​

• "Colette" - Nazi occupied France. Resistance took courage. Seventy-five years later, Facing one's ghosts may take even more. Available on YouTube.
• "A Concerto Is a Conversation" - A virtuoso jazz pianist and film composer tracks his family's lineage through his 91-year-old grandfather from Jim Crow Florida to the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Available on YouTube.
• "Do Not Split" - In 2019 Hong Kong was rocked by the largest protests since Britain handed back the area to China in 1997. This is the story of the protests, told through a series of demonstrations by local protesters that escalate into conflict when highly armed police appear on the scene. Available on YouTube.
• ​"Hunger Ward" - Filmed from inside two of the most active therapeutic feeding centers in Yemen, the film documents two female health care workers fighting to thwart the spread of starvation against the backdrop of a forgotten war.
• "A Love Song for Latasha" - The injustice surrounding the shooting death of 15-year-old Latasha Harlins at a South Central Los Angeles store became a flashpoint for the city’s 1992 civil uprising. Available on Netflix.

The animated short film category is one that has been owned by Pixar shorts off and on for some time. However, as cute as "Burrow" is, I don't think it is strong enough to take home the prize this year. I say this having only seen that and "If Anything Happens I Love You," but already that film has my vote for the award. Fair warning, don't read anything about it before you watch, not even my summary below. The best way to watch that short is to go in blind.

I am hoping to get a chance to see the other three films, especially "Opera" which brings a very intriguing premise. As I am able to view them, I will update here with my thoughts as well as short reviews of each.
​

• "Burrow" - A young rabbit tries to build the burrow of her dreams, becoming embarrassed each time she accidentally digs into a neighbor's home. Available on Disney+.
• "Genius Loci" - One night, Reine, a young loner, sees the urban chaos as a mystical oneness that seems alive, like some sort of guide.
• "If Anything Happens I Love You" - Two parents struggle to overcome their pain following a tragic event that changes their family forever. Available on Netflix.
• "Opera" - Our society and history, which is filled with beauty and absurdity.
• ​"Yes-People" - One morning, an eclectic mix of people face everyday battles of work, school, and dish-washing.

As of this writing, I've only seen one film from this group but it is fantastic. The premise of "Feeling Through" is truly unique and once again, I went in knowing very little of what it was about.

I am also intrigued to see "The Letter Room" which stars Hollywood actor Oscar Isaac (Ex Machina, Star Wars, Inside Llewyn Davis) He has been seen in a number of big budget films over the last decade or so, that I look forward to seeing what he is able to do in a short film format.

Finally, I recently heard an interview with Lawrence Bender, the producer of "Two Distant Strangers" as well as Joey Bada$$ who stars in the film. The story sounds like an intriguing look at police brutality in America mixed with a concept familiar to anyone who has seen Palm Springs (review) or Groundhog Day. 
​

• "Feeling Through" - A late-night encounter on a New York City street leads to a profound connection between a teen-in-need and a deaf blind man. Available at feelingthrough.com or YouTube.
• "The Letter Room" - When a corrections officer is transferred to the letter room, he soon finds himself enmeshed in a prisoner's deeply private life.
• "The Present" - On his wedding anniversary, Yusef and his young daughter set out in the West Bank to buy his wife a gift. Between soldiers, segregated roads, and checkpoints, how easy would it be to go shopping?
• "Two Distant Strangers" - Cartoonist Carter James' repeated attempts to get home to his dog are thwarted by a recurring deadly encounter that forces him to re-live the same awful day over and over again.
• "White Eye" - A man finds his stolen bicycle, which now belongs to a stranger. While attempting to retrieve it, he struggles to remain human.​​

2021 Oscar Facts and Trivia | Best International Feature

After yesterday's announcement of the nominations for the 93rd Academy Awards next month, there weren't too many surprises. Many of the categories looked similar to what they had been for the Golden Globes a few weeks back, albeit with fewer actual nominees since there are only single categories and no splits between drama and comedy/musical.

One thing is for sure, women are here to stay at the top of the Oscars. With a record 70 women being nominated for a total of 76 nominations, there are also two women up for Best Director, after the category being filled with all male nominees last year. It is the first time more than one woman has been nominated for the directing category. Among them Chloé Zhao is the first woman to recieve four nominations in a single year for her work on Nomadland while Promising Young Woman director Emerald Fennell is the third woman to receive three nominations in a single year, following Sofia Coppola and Fran Walsh, both in 2003.

Soul director Pete Docter received his now record fourth nomination in the Best Animated Feature category, which is celebrating its twentieth year as an Oscar category. In the Best International Film category, Tunisia becomes the fifth country from Africa to be nominated with their film The Man Who Sold His Skin.

Hamilton and One Night in Miami star Leslie Odom, Jr. is the fourth person to receive an acting nomination and a song nomination for the same film. This distinction is a fairly recent development with the three previous actors being Mary J. Blige for Mudbound in 2017, Lady Gaga for A Star Is Born in 2018 and Cynthia Erivo for Harriet just last year.

I would be remiss to not mention the posthumous Best Actor nomination for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (and Da 5 Bloods) star Chadwick Boseman. He is only the seventh actor to be nominated following his passing and after winning the Golden Globe, feels like a strong contender to be awarded an Oscar.

Finally, the acting categories are populated by a whole host of newcomers along with a few past winners. A total of 11 acting nominees are first-timers including Riz Ahmed, Maria Bakalova, Chadwick Boseman, Andra Day, Vanessa Kirby, Leslie Odom, Jr., Paul Raci, Amanda Seyfried, Lakeith Stanfield, Steven Yeun, and Yuh-Jung Youn. Among the past winners are Olivia Colman (2018), Viola Davis (2016), Anthony Hopkins (1992), Frances McDormand (1997 & 2018), and Gary Oldman (2018).

For a full breakdown of the nominees, check out yesterday's summary post. And be sure to come back tomorrow for a deeper dive into the three shorts categories including Best Documentary Short Film, Best Animated Short Film, and Best Live Action Short Film.

2021 Oscar Nominations | Best Short Films

The nominations are finally here. After a whirlwind year at the movies when so many films were delayed or even canceled from their original release dates and many more found audiences through streaming platforms and video on demand services, we finally have a list of the nominees for recognition in 23 categories.

Below you'll find a list of all the films, actors, directors, and other filmmakers nominated for Academy Awards this year. Today's post is just a quick summary of the nominees. Throughout the rest of March and into April, I will be providing daily posts about the nominees in each category, wrapping up with individual summaries of the Best Picture nominees in the weeks leading up to the 93rd Academy Award ceremony on April 25th.

Links below in film titles are for trailers. Films available through streaming services are linked with that service's name. Many of these films are available on services you probably already pay for, so get out there and watch some of these incredible films before the awards are handed out next month!

And that's it! If you made it this far, congrats! Click the link for each category for a full breakdown of the category as we get closer to the 93rd Academy Award ceremony on April 25th.

It's time to find out which films have been nominated for Academy ​Awards in this weird year and this year the husband and wife pairing of Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Nick Jonas will be announcing the nominated films.

Recent announcements have been brought to us by people including actors John Cho and Issa Rae last year, Tiffany Haddish and Andy Serkis in 2018, and directors Guillermo del Toro and Ang Lee in 2016.

If you're inclined to watch the nomination announcements, you can do so on YouTube below. They will also be streamed live via Oscars.com, Oscars.org, Twitter, and Facebook.

If you can't watch live on Monday morning, you can watch the nominations after the fact or come back here for the full list of nominees once they are announced. I will also be providing category by category reviews over the course of the next month leading up to the 93rd Academy Awards in April 25th.

The Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards are past and the voting for the Oscars is ongoing this week.

This Sunday will see the Grammys awarded for music before we get into the final stretch of awards for film.

Here's a look at the key dates you need to know as we lead up to the big (virtual) Academy Awards on April 25th.