Disney’s Big Oscar Night: “Soul” and “Nomadland” Honored at 2021 Academy Awards

 by Beth Keating

News

DisneyBizJournal.com

April 26, 2021

 

The 93rd Academy Awards have come and gone, and Disney’s Soul and Nomadland were the company’s big winners this year under its Pixar and Searchlight brands.  

Held at Union Station Los Angeles and the Dolby Theatre at the Hollywood & Highland Center, with appearances by winners videoed in from points around the globe, the Oscar ceremonies took place last night, April 25, 2021, honoring movies released in 2020. 

 

Aired on the Disney-owned ABC network, the company also snuck in a lavishly done new trailer for the upcoming Disney and Steven Spielberg film remake of West Side Story. 

Given the repercussions of this year’s pandemic, it is no surprise that Disney and Netflix, the two streaming powerhouses, were the big winners this year.

 

The Oscars for Disney under its Pixar partnership both belonged to Soul. Soul was released on Disney+.

 

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM WINNER:

SOUL

Pete Docter and Dana Murray

 

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE) WINNER:

SOUL

Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste

 

And if you include the Searchlight film Nomadland among the Disney family of properties (Disney acquired Searchlight in 2019), you can chalk up a few more wins in the Disney column.

Chloé Zhao, who took home her statue for Nomadland,  became the second woman to win the category, as well as the first woman of color and the first woman of Asian descent to win for Best Director. Nomadland was released on Disney’s Hulu platform, as well as in theaters.

 

BEST PICTURE WINNER:

NOMADLAND

Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey and Chloé Zhao, Producers

 

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE WINNER:

Frances McDormand

NOMADLAND

 

DIRECTING WINNER:

NOMADLAND

Chloé Zhao

 

Best picture and best animated feature film – it can’t get much better than that for Disney and its movie studios.

 

__________

 

Beth Keating is a regular contributor to DisneyBizJournal.

 

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DisneyBizJournal.com on the Oscars

by Ray Keating

Analysis

DisneyBizJournal.com

February 9, 2020

The Oscars air tonight on ABC, and Disney has an impressive 23 nominations. Here are a few items from DisneyBizJournal to read and get you in the right frame of mind...

• “Will Fox Finally Bring Disney a Best Picture Oscar?” by Ray Keating– DisneyBizJournal.com– It’s surprising given its many successes over 90-plus years, but Disney has never won a Best Picture Oscar. In fact, it’s even more striking that coming into the 2020 Academy Awards ceremony, Disney previously had only five films nominated for Best Picture. Read at  

https://disneybizjournal.blogspot.com/2020/02/will-fox-finally-bring-disney-best.html

• “Animated Disney at the Oscars: The List of Winners and More” by Ray Keating – DisneyBizJournal.com – The first animated movie to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards was Disney’s 1991 Beauty and the Beast. A decade later came the Best Animated Feature Oscar, and domination by Disney. Read at  

https://disneybizjournal.blogspot.com/2020/02/animated-disney-at-oscars-list-of.html

• “Disney’s All-Time Oscar Count Heading Into the 92^ndAcademy Awards” by Ray Keating – DisneyBizJournal.com – Heading into Sunday night’s Oscars, Disney already has a staggering number of Oscar wins under its belt. Read at  

https://disneybizjournal.blogspot.com/2020/02/disneys-all-time-oscar-count-heading.html

• “Joker” vs. “Avengers: Endgame” by Ray Keating– DisneyBizJournal.com– “Joker” is the Oscars’ kind of superhero movie. How so? Well, it’s not really a superhero film. Meanwhile, “Avengers: Endgame” gets ignored. Read at 

https://disneybizjournal.blogspot.com/2020/01/joker-vs-avengers-endgame.html

• “Disney Cashes in on Fox Acquisition at Oscars” by Ray Keating - DisneyBizJournal.com –The Walt Disney Company’s Fox acquisition paid off quite nicely in terms of Oscar nominations. Get the rundown. Read at  

https://disneybizjournal.blogspot.com/2020/01/disney-cashes-in-on-fox-acquisition-at.html

• “Will the Oscars Finally Recognize Superhero Films? The Lord of the Rings Example” by Ray Keating – DisneyBizJournal.com – Can Avengers: Endgame lay waste to Hollywood’s Oscar bias against superheroes? The recent announcement regarding telecast dates of the Oscars got me thinking about whether or not Avengers: Endgame might finally have the power to break through the Academy’s opposition to superheroes. If there’s hope on this front, it can be found in The Lord of the Rings movies. Read at  

https://disneybizjournal.blogspot.com/2019/06/will-oscars-finally-recognize-superhero.html

Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com, and author of The Disney Planner 2020: The TO DO List Solution and the Pastor Stephen Grant novels. He can be contacted at  raykeating@keatingreports.com.