ReelBob: My 2021 Academy Award picks
By Bob Bloom
I have been debating for a couple of weeks now whether or not I wanted to do my annual Academy Award predictions column.
For most of the past year, I have been forcing myself to watch many movies; their importance to me continued to diminish as the pandemic grew worse and more and more people died.
Plus, watching movies alone — either on my flat-screen or my computer screen — simply was unappealing.
I enjoy the community aspect of watching a movie in a theater with other people, gauging their reactions and — if necessary — reminding them — in very coarse language — about silence and theater etiquette.
But I believe it is my duty and what my readers would expect, so without going into detail about my choices, here are my picks for the winners at Sunday night’s Oscar ceremony.
I will, as usual, list what I believe will win as opposed to what I wish would win:
Picture
Will win & should win: “Nomadland”
Director
Will win & should win: Chloe Zhao
Actor
Will win: Chadwick Boseman, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”
Should win: Anthony Hopkins, “The Father”
Actress
Will win: Viola Davis, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”
Should win: Frances McDormand, “Nomadland”
Supporting actor
Will win & should win: Daniel Kaluuya, “Judas and the Black Messiah”
Supporting actress
Will win: Yuh-Jung Youn, “Minari”
Should win: Maria Bakalova, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”
Animated feature
Will win & should win: “Soul”
Writing (adapted screenplay)
Will win: Chloe Zhao, “Nomadland”
Should win: Kemp Powers, “One Night in Miami”
Writing (original screenplay)
Will win & should win: Emerald Fennell, “Promising Young Woman”
Cinematography
Will win & should win: Joshua James Richards, “Nomadland”
Costume design
Will win & should win: Ann Roth, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”
Documentary feature
Will win: “Collective”
Should win: “Crip Camp”
Documentary short subject
Will win & should win: “Colette”
Film editing
Will win: Mikkel E. G. Nielsen, “Sound of Metal”
Should win: Yorgos Lamprinos, “The Father”
International feature film
Will win & should win: “Another Round,” Denmark
Makeup & hair styling
Will win & should win: Sergio Lopez-Rivera, Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”
Music (original score)
Will win & should win: Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste, “Soul”
Music (original song)
Will win & should win: Leslie Odom Jr. and Sam Ashworth, “Speak Now” from “One Night in Miami”
Production design
Will win & should win: Production design, Donald Graham Burt; set decoration, Jan Pascale, “Mank”
Short film (animated)
Will win & should win: Will McCormack and Michael Govier, “If Anything Should Happen to You”
Short film (live action)
Will win & should win: Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe, “Two Distant Strangers”
Sound
Will win & should win: Nicolas Becker, Jaime Baksht, Michellee Couttolenc, Carlos Cortés and Phillip Bladh, “Sound of Metal”
Visual effects
Will win & should win: Andrew Jackson, David Lee, Andrew Lockley and Scott Fisher, “Tenet”
I am a founding member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. I review movies, 4K UHD, Blu-rays and DVDs for ReelBob (ReelBob.com), The Film Yap and other print and online publications. I can be reached by email at bobbloomjc@gmail.com. You also can follow me on Twitter @ReelBobBloom and on Facebook at ReelBob.com or the Indiana Film Journalists Association. My movie reviews also can be found at Rotten Tomatoes: www.rottentomatoes.com