A round up of Academy Award nominated films

In a year that has seen industry wide shutdowns, theatres closed, movie releases pushed back, and exciting festivals like Cannes simply cancelled, it great to be able to celebrate the art of movie making — one of the few pleasures we have been able to enjoy this past year. Here are some of the nominees

Another Round
2 nominations

Synopsis: 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.
Stars: Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen
Director: Thomas Vinterberg

Borat: Subsequent Movie Film
2 nominations

Synopsis: Borat returns from Kazakhstan to America and this time he reveals more about the American culture, the COVID-19 pandemic and the political elections.
Stars: Sacha Baron Cohen, Maria Bakalova
Director: Jason Woliner

Crip Camp

1 nomination

Synopsis: Down the road from Woodstock, a revolution blossomed at a ramshackle summer camp for teenagers with disabilities, transforming their lives and igniting a landmark movement.
Stars: James Lebrecht, Lionel Je'Woodyard, Joseph O'Conor 
Director: James Lebrecht, Nicole Newnham

Hillbilly Elegy
2 nominations

Synopsis: An urgent phone call pulls a Yale Law student back to his Ohio hometown, where he reflects on three generations of family history and his own future.
Stars: Amy Adams, Glenn Close, Gabriel Basso
Director: Ron Howard

Judas and the Black Messiah

6 nominations

Synopsis: Bill O'Neal infiltrates the Black Panther Party per FBI Agent Mitchell and J. Edgar Hoover. As Party Chairman Fred Hampton ascends, falling for a fellow revolutionary en route, a battle wages for O'Neal's soul.
Stars: Daniel Kaluuya, LaKeith Stanfield, Jesse Plemons
Director: Shaka King

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

5 nominations

Synopsis: During a recording session, tensions rise between Ma Rainey, her ambitious horn player and the white management determined to control the uncontrollable "Mother of the Blues".
Stars: Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman
Director: George C. Wolfe

Nomadland
6 nominations

Synopsis: A woman in her sixties who, after losing everything in the Great Recession, embarks on a journey through the American West, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad.
Stars: Frances McDormand, David Strathairn
Director: Chloe Zhao

Pieces of a Woman

1 nomination

Synopsis: When a young mother's home birth ends in unfathomable tragedy, she begins a year-long odyssey of mourning that fractures relationships with loved ones in this deeply personal story of a woman learning to live alongside her loss.
Stars: Vanessa Kirby, Shia LaBeouf
Director: Kornel Mundruzco

The Father
6 nominations

Synopsis: A man refuses all assistance from his daughter as he ages. As he tries to make sense of his changing circumstances, he begins to doubt his loved ones, his own mind and even the fabric of his reality.
Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Oliva Coleman
Director: Florian Zeller

The Trial of the Chicago 7
6 nominations

Synopsis: The story of 7 people on trial stemming from various charges surrounding the uprising at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.
Stars: Eddie Redmayne, Alex Sharp, Sacha Baron Cohen
Director: Aaron Sorkin

The United States vs. Billie Holliday
1 nomination

Synopsis: Follows Holiday during her career as she is targeted by the Federal Department of Narcotics with an undercover sting operation led by black Federal Agent Jimmy Fletcher, with whom she had a tumultuous affair.
Stars: Andra Day, Trevante Roads
Director: Lee Daniels

Mank
10 nominations

Synopsis: 1930's Hollywood is reevaluated through the eyes of scathing social critic and alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he races to finish the screenplay of Citizen Kane (1941).
Stars: Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried
Director: David Fincher

Minari
6 nominations

Synopsis: A Korean family starts a farm in 1980s Arkansas.
Stars: Steven Yeunm Yeri Han, Alan S. Kim
Director: Lee Isaac Chung

 Sound of Metal

6 Nominations

Synopsis: A heavy-metal drummer's life is thrown into freefall when he begins to lose his hearing.
Stars: Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cook, Paul Raci
Director: Darius Marder