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.

 

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Beth Keating is a regular contributor to DisneyBizJournal.

 

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Disney Dropping “Fox” Name: Business of Branding, Not Politics

by Ray Keating

Analysis

DisneyBizJournal.com

January 20, 2020

No one should be surprised that the Walt Disney Company has officially removed the name “Fox” from two movie studios it acquired in the $71.3 billion deal for the Fox entertainment assets. So, 20^thCentury Fox is now 20^thCentury Studios, and Fox Searchlight is Searchlight Pictures.

Disney reportedly has merely confirmed the new names, and said nothing else.

That, of course, doesn’t stop all kinds of speculation regarding this decision, with it being particular popular to peg the name change to the politics of Fox News. The theory goes that since Fox News is so controversial in Hollywood that Disney didn’t want any potential confusion.

In reality, the politics of Fox News doesn’t matter. While I’m sure that few in the Disney Company hierarchy are big Fox News watchers, this was a straightforward branding decision by Disney. 

The name “Fox” continues to exist with Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corporation, which owns Fox News, local Fox stations and other assets. Given that reality, Disney was smart to make sure that no confusion exists from a business and branding perspective. Therefore, “Fox” was destined for elimination with Disney-owned assets. Indeed, this move on the naming of two movie studios follows a decision three months ago to fold 20^thCentury Fox Television into a unit called Disney Television Studios.

While one is free to read politics into Disney’s decision to strip the “Fox” name out of its movie studio names, that doesn’t mean such assertions have merit. Once more, this is about branding, and Disney is very good when it comes to branding.

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