Here is a look at some of the main contenders.
Carey Mulligan
Carey Mulligan (Ian West/PA)
Nominated for the best actress prize for her role as a traumatised woman seeking revenge in Promising Young Woman, Mulligan, 35, is no stranger to the Oscars.
She was nominated for her break-out role in Lone Scherfig’s film An Education in 2010, when she was also in the running for the Bafta rising star award.
She made her stage debut in 2004 in the play Forty Winks at the Royal Court Theatre in London and has since starred in films including Never Let Me Go, The Great Gatsby, Drive, Shame and Suffragette.
THE FATHER
Olivia Colman as Anne and Sir Anthony Hopkins as Anthony in The Father (Lionsgate Films/Sean Gleason)
The mind plays tricks on us and the discombobulated title character in Florian Zeller’s classy adaptation of his award-winning stage play, co-written for the screen by Christopher Hampton.
Set in the handsomely furnished London apartment of an octogenarian patriarch (Sir Anthony Hopkins), The Father slowly picks at the seams of his supposed reality and questions the reliability of his muddied memory as Olivia Colman and Olivia Williams both claim to be his concerned daughter.
Ingenious production design ramps up the unease as Sir Anthony delivers an acting masterclass and poses the most serious threat – as the Baftas confirmed – to Chadwick Boseman’s posthumous coronation.
This year’s Academy Awards could deliver some history-making moments, thanks to a slate of nominations that have smashed records for diversity and representation.
A total of nine of the 20 acting nominees are non-white, including three of the five nominees in the categories of best actor and best supporting actor.
This is the most ethnically diverse line-up in the 93-year history of the Oscars, and is a major turnaround from last year when just one of the 20 nominees was non-white.
If either Viola Davis or Andra Day win best actress, it will be only the second time this award has gone to a non-white performer.
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Oscars 2021: Backstage predicts the Academy Awards - the films and stars we think will be taking home the gongs
It s been postponed by months, moved in part to a train station, and might be missing a fair few nominees due to travel restrictions, but the Academy Awards are finally taking place.
And after a year which has seen cinema releases scrapped and rescheduled, film festivals taking place virtually, and the number of voters increased to be more representative, this is actually going to be one of the most interesting