Chadwick Boseman Nominated for Best Actor Oscar

As announced by the always-delightful Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas on GMA this morning, it's a fun list reflecting an unusual past year at the movies. One bittersweet highlight? The late Chadwick Boseman was honored with his first ever Academy Award nomination, in the Best Actor category for his final film, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.

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Boseman tragically passed away last year after a private battle with colon cancer. This might be his first nomination, but the actor delivered memorable and acclaimed performances for his entire career, in movies like 42 and Black Panther.

The nominations list is being praised for an overall improvement in diversity compared to previous years. Women and people of color are represented across the major categories, with Chloe Zhao the first woman of color to ever be nominated in the Best Director bracket, for Nomadland. Which is depressing! Really, really depressing! But she deserves.

Black women directors Garrett Bradley and Sophia Nahli were also honored, Bradley in the Best Documentary category for Time and Nahli in the Best Documentary Short Subject category for A Love Song for Latasha.

Boseman's fellow Best Actor nominees include Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal; he's the first Muslim actor to ever be nominated in this category), Anthony Hopkins (The Father), Gary Oldman (Mank) and Steven Yeun (Minari, the first Asian American actor nominated in the category). On the Best Actress list: Viola Davis (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom), Andra Day (The United States vs. Billie Holiday), Vanessa Kirby (Pieces of a Woman), Frances McDormand (Nomadland) and Carey Mulligan (Promising Young Woman).

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In the Best Supporting Actress category we've got Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm) Glenn Close (Hillbilly Elegy) (which is random, because she was also nominated for a Razzie for the same role), Olivia Colman (The Father), Amanda Seyfried (Mank) and Youn Yuh-jung (Minari).

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) and Lakeith Stanfield (Judas and the Black Messiah).

As for Best Picture, we've got The Father, Judas and the Black Messiah, Mank, Minari, Nomadland, Promising Young Woman, Sound of Metal and The Trial of the Chicago 7. It's notable that Minari, which was stupidly relegated to the Best Foreign Film category at the Golden Globes, makes the list. But perfectly logical: it's an American movie.

View the whole nominations list for the 93rd Annual Academy Awards here. The ceremony takes place on Sunday, April 25.

Production still via Netflix