However, the results for Best Picture also cast doubt on the very idea of anointing a single winner as the very best movie of 2020. The top vote-getters in that category resulted in a tie, with official frontrunner “Nomadland” splitting the prize with “Minari.” Both movies are quiet, lyrical American dramas about marginalized characters that generated some of the best reviews of the past year, and while the possibility of a tie on Oscar night might be unthinkable, the critics have spoken.
“Nomadland” topped IndieWire’s year-end critics poll in 2020, and that support has remained intact in the months since then. While the movie has been an awards season favorite ever since it won the Golden Lion in Venice, “Minari” started its journey much earlier, when it won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2020. Together, the movies provide a thematic bookend to a year of soul-searching and alienation, which is complimented by the title in third place — Darius Marder’s “Sound of Metal.” In several other major categories, critics picked winners that correspond to the current frontrunners, but the runners-up provide a broader view of support within each category: “Nomadland” director Chloe Zhao topped Best Director, but she’s followed close behind by Danish auteur Thomas Vinterberg with his bittersweet midlife crisis dramedy “Another Round,” and while the late Chadwick Boseman wins Best Actor for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” there was plenty of support for second-place finisher Riz Ahmed in “Sound of Metal.” The Best Actress category has proven to be one of the harder ones to call for this year’s pundits, with some thinking that Viola Davis has the edge for “Ma Rainey” and others seeing more potential for Carey Mulligan. The “Promising Young Woman” star pleased more critics in this category, landing in first place ahead of “Nomadland” star Frances McDormand; Davis wound up in third. The supporting actor finalists follow conventional wisdom — Daniel Kaluuya for “Judas and the Black Messiah” and Yuh-Jung Youn for “Minari” — but the results diverge from the punditry from there. “Minari” also tops Original Screenplay, ahead of popular favorite “Promising Young Woman,” while Florian Zeller’s single-set treatment of his own play “The Father” tops Best Adapted Screenplay ahead of Zhao’s own work on “Nomadland.” And while most assessments see “Soul” winning Best Animated Feature, critics are even more enthusiastic about Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart’s 2D Irish folktale “Wolfwalkers.” Vinterberg’s “Another Round” gels with popular assessments as the best of the international features category, but Best Documentary frontrunner “My Octopus Teacher” actually ranked last — while Garrett Bradley’s vivid black-and-white social justice saga “Time” handily won the category.
Check out the full rankings below. The 93rd Academy Awards will air on ABC this Sunday at 8pm ET.
Best Picture
A24
Best Director
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best Original Screenplay
Best Adapted Screenplay
Sony Pictures Classics
Best Animated Feature
Best International Feature
Samuel Goldwyn Films /Courtesy Everett Collection
Best Documentary
Best Documentary — Short Subject
Best Live Action Short
Best Animated Short
Courtesy of ShortsTV
Best Original Score
Best Original Song
Best Sound
Best Production Design
Best Cinematography
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Netflix
Best Costume Design
Best Editing
Best Visual Effects
Warner Bros.
