by Nathaniel R
3 of West Side Story's Oscar wins: SUPPORTING ACTOR (Chakiris), DIRECTOR (Robbins & Wise), SUPPORTING ACTRESS (Moreno)
The original West Side Story, which premiered on October 18th, 1961, and which we've discussed in great detail here, was a true four-quadrant blockbuster. It was not only the top-grossing film of its year but an all out Oscar smash. By the spring of 1962 West Side Story was so popular that it did a near complete sweep at the 34th annual Academy Awards ceremony, losing in only one of its categories: Best Adapted Screenplay (which went to the Holocaust courtroom drama Judgment at Nuremberg). But that wasn't all in terms of West Side Story mania. The very next month it competed for "Album of the Year" at the 4th Annual Grammys Awards (it had to settle for winning Best Soundtrack Album since "Judy at Carnegie Hall" took the top prize) and stayed at #1 on the Billboard album charts for almost an entire year (no joke).
How well will the new West Side Story fare? That's a difficult question because a lot of things have changed since West Side Story's initial movie run 60 years ago, including the popularity of musicals within mainstream culture, the number of Oscar categories, the nature of both Oscar campaigns and moviegoing, and even one role within the famous musical...
There were more Oscar categories in the 1960s than there are now (due to visual categories being doubled up to separate black & white from color movies), but in total the 1961 musical was eligible in 13 categories. Given that the film had two major male supporting roles (Riff & Bernardo), it could theoretically have secured 14 nominations at the 1961 Oscars. The Academy ignored three of its possible nominees: Lead Actor (Richard Beymer), Lead Actress (previously nominated Natalie Wood), and Supporting Actor (previously nominated Russ Tamblyn) but otherwise nominated the film everywhere it could have been honored for a total of 11 nominations.
The 2021 film is also eligible in 13 categories, albeit slightly different ones.
| CATEGORY | 1961 FILM | 2021 FILM |
| . |  |
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| Picture | WINNER | TBA |
| Director | WINNER | TBA |
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| Actress | Nominated for Best Actress but for a different movie - Natalie Wood | TBA - Rachel Zegler |
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| Actor | Not Nominated - Richard Beymer | TBA - Ansel Elgort |
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| Supp Actress | WINNER - Rita Moreno | TBA - Ariana DeBose |
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| Supp Actress x 2 | n/a - There was no other large supporting female role | TBA - Rita Moreno |
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| Supp Actor | WINNER -George Chakiris | TBA - David Alvarez |
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| Supp Actor x 2 | Not Nominated - Russ Tamblyn | TBA - Mike Faist |
| Adapted Screenplay | NOMINEE | TBA |
| Cinematography | WINNER | TBA |
| Production Design | WINNER | TBA |
| Costumes | WINNER | TBA |
| Film Editing | WINNER | TBA |
| Sound | WINNER | TBA |
| Musical Score | WINNER | n/a -category does not exist |
| Makeup and Hair | n/a - category did not exist | TBA |
The category of "Best Scoring of a Musical" which West Side Story won doesn't exist anymore but "Makeup and Hair" which was not a category in the 1960s is a place the new film could be honored.
Finally, given the gender-flipped and bulked up role of 'Doc' --- now Doc's widow, Valentina (Rita Moreno) -- the new West Side Story could theoretically max out at 15 nominations (13 categories plus an extra supporting actress and an extra supporting actor). The new West Side Story won't manage this of course -- no film ever has* -- but it theoretically could.
What do you think is the 2021 West Side Story's Best and Worst case scenario this season in terms of nominations? I personally think we're landing at 8-11 nominations... I'm currently guessing 10 (everywhere it's eligible exceptMakeup and Hair and all acting categories except Supporting Actress) but if it does tie or exceed the original in terms of nominations, it's quite doubtful that it could get anywhere close to the same amount of wins for more multiple reasons... not least of which that AMPAS is no longer as fond of "sweeps" as they once were.
* The record for most nominations for a single film is 14, a record shared by All About Eve (1950), Titanic (1997), and La La Land (2016).