Throughout the pandemic, few industries were impacted like the world of theater, live music and performance, and film. Sets were closed, release dates pushed out far into the future, award ceremonies shifted to digital celebrations, and theatrical releases traded for streaming debuts. Yet despite all of the setbacks, delays, and shutdowns that left directors, actors, and crews struggling to complete their films and bring their artistic vision to life, all of the perseverance, patience, and dedication has paid off. It's indisputable: 2021 was a great year for movies. From the blockbuster megahits that dominated the box office (yes, I am still recovering from Spider-Man: No Way Home) to the gentler indie and experimental arthouse flicks that further expanded our notion of cinema to the documentaries and investigative pieces that sought to amplify issues around the globe, there was no shortage of laudable filmmaking this past year.
And now, it's time to honor and celebrate the achievements of the artists who brought these treasures to the big screen. No matter who you're rooting for when the ceremony begins, these listens are all worthy of a golden statuette in our books. Here are the audiobooks that directly inspired the nominees and a few others to check out based on your own personal frontrunners.
There was perhaps no 2021 page-to-screen adaptation more highly anticipated than Dune, Denis Villeneuve's visually arresting sci-fi masterpiece. Get a deeper look at the Atreides family and life on Arrakis in this classic series opener by the legendary Frank Herbert.
Guillermo del Toro's twisty psychological thriller of the same name has its roots in this sinister crime fiction work. First published in 1946, Nightmare Alley follows a con man-carny through the seedy underbelly of the circus circuit.
Audiences worldwide were left talking about Jane Campion's latest masterpiece, The Power of the Dog, for weeks after its Netflix release. Now, hear the story that her Western was based on in this staggering tale of two brothers at odds and the lasting impact of brute masculinity.
Maggie Gyllenhaal made her feature directorial debut with a critically acclaimed adaptation of Elena Ferrante's exploration of motherhood, identity, loneliness, and the inner lives we keep secret and sacred. If you loved the eeriness of the film, listen in to the equally haunting novel.
While Steven Spielberg's 2021 rendition of West Side Story is technically an adaptation of the 1957 stage musical from Bernstein and Sondheim, both have their origins in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Inspired by the tale and set against the backdrop of racial tensions in New York City, the film focuses on star-crossed lovers Tony and Maria as they try to find happiness, somewhere.
For a more on-the-nose Shakespearean adaptation, there's Joel Coen's totally gorgeous black-and-white rendition of the tragedy of Macbeth. Starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand as the titular Lord and Lady, the film is alive with the same chilling choices and all the consequences that follow.
We may not talk about Bruno (no, no, no) but nearly everyone on the planet has been talking about Disney's joy-filled, delightful gem called Encanto. If your little listener can't get enough of the Madrigal clan and the whimsy, heart, magic, and music that flow through their home, this novelization should fill a bit of the void.
Fans of Adam McKay's sharply satirical, star-studded end-of-the-world black comedy Don't Look Up will surely find something to love in celebrated English novelist Ian McEwan's cli-fi send-up, Solar. With a scorching sense of humor, McEwan follows a formerly renowned academic seeking renewed fame on the coattails of the climate crisis.
Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi's brilliant Drive My Car has its roots in Haruki Murakami's short story collection, Men Without Women. Drawing not only from the story that shares the film's title but also a variety of other tales housed in the book, Hamaguchi crafts a portrait of love, grief, and art.
If you fell in love with Will Smith's portrayal of Richard Williams—father of tennis greats Venus and Serena—you'll want to hear from the man himself. Williams's memoir Black and White covers his impoverished upbringing, his mother's inspiring influence, and his dedication as both a businessman and a dad to two world-class athletes.
The chronicle of powerhouse comedy couple Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz unspooled in Aaron Sorkin's Being the Ricardos gets a personal touch in Ball's memoir, Love, Lucy. In a tone that's singularly Lucy, the esteemed television star details a storybook romance that crumbled into discord, the dawn of an entertainment empire, and all the laughter found along the way.
If one of your 2021 favorites was Pedro Almodóvar's drama Parallel Mothers, you should give Jacqueline Woodson's Red at the Bone a listen, as both examine pregnancy and womanhood through a fascinating, empathetic perspective. A master of her craft, Woodson unravels generations worth of family history, navigating the decisions and dilemmas that we all must face along the way.
As a longtime theater geek and Andrew Garfield fan, it goes without saying that tick, tick...BOOM!, Lin-Manuel Miranda's loving portrait of the late Jonathan Larson, was one of my favorite films of the past year. If you'd like to hear tales of working with Larson on his next venture (the incomparable rock musical RENT), Anthony Rapp's memoir offers another look into life on the stage—and the tragic loss of a young, eccentric genius.
One of the most beautiful films nominated this year is Sian Heder's stunning CODA, the title of which nods to both the acronym for "Child of Deaf Adults" and the concluding section of an orchestral movement. If you found your heartstrings tugged by aspiring musician Emilia and her family of fisherfolk, you may enjoy Lou Ann Walker's touching memoir A Loss for Words, which details the realities of balancing personal growth with the responsibilities of kinship.
If one of your favorite films of the year was Best Picture nominee Licorice Pizza, you'll love this bright and sentimental coming-of-age novel similarly set in the 1970s. Like Paul Thomas Anderson's California dream, Mary Jane captures the push-and-pull of the dawning progressive era and all the nostalgic yearning you can dream of.
While Ridley Scott's adaptation of nonfic epic The House of Gucci didn't garner quite as many noms as many had hoped, the film shined for its outstanding makeup and styling, as well as the character work crafted by its cast. For a more detailed look at the fashion house, its secrets, and the murder at the story's center, be sure to check out Sara Gay Forden's original.
Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier's The Worst Person in the World introduced us to Julie, a med student in Oslo flailing about as she navigates sex and relationships while trying to determine what she wants out of life. Fans of that more realistic style of rom-com will find true love with Eleanor Oliphant, a character who similarly struggles with feelings of alienation, anxiety, and depression—but winds up finding moments of joy and humor in spite of it all.
Kristen Stewart again proved to be an actor in a class all her own with her heartrending study of the People's Princess in Pablo Larraín's Spencer. Diana shares the same emphasis on her inner emotional life and the stressors of the crown, unearthing candid insights and revelatory details about her unhappy marriage to (and divorce from) Prince Charles and all the hopes and fears generated amidst the House of Windsor.
Questlove is a rarity, a jack-of-all-trades who's managed to master them all. So when he combined his unparalleled musical acuity with his visionary style as an artist, writer, and cultural critic in Summer of Soul, his directorial debut, it was bound to be a smash. Hear more of his thoughts on the significance of song and the intersection of art and identity in Music Is History, his analysis of the past 50 years of pop.
Belfast, Kenneth Branagh's intimate look at the notoriously tumultuous landscape of Ireland in the early 1970s, sets a soaring tribute to family against the backdrop of the early days of The Troubles. Seeking a different lens? For a starker look at the violent conflict that tore apart Northern Ireland in the latter half of the 20th century, give Patrick Radden Keefe's chilling true crime account Say Nothing a listen.
Who says animated films are just for kids? As many can attest, there's something special about a heartfelt narrative centered in universal themes, no matter your age. For slightly older fans of Pixar's shore-set, sea creature-centered Luca, TJ Klune's The House in the Cerulean Sea offers up a quirky and colorful fantasy following an extraordinary group of children, the man who will risk everything to keep his charges safe, and the hope of found family.
Jessica Chastain's performance in The Eyes of Tammy Faye is a major standout in award circuit conversation and with good reason: her portrayal of the wife of televangelist Jim Bakker brought depth and nuance to the flamboyance of the late 70s and early 80s. But as the film demonstrated, there was something much larger at stake than ratings. As Frances FitzGerald lays out here, the Evangelical movement had sociopolitical repercussions beyond comprehension.
Stanley Nelson Jr. and Traci Curry afforded a deeply human lens to the infamous 1971 uprising in New York State's Attica Prison in their devastating 2021 documentary, Attica. For further listening on the history of the riot and the uphill fight for justice that followed, Heather Ann Thompson's Pulitzer-winning Blood in the Water affords a look into the happenings at Attica that led to the tumult—and the egregious use of state-ordered force that left dozens dead and protestors further prosecuted.
Another unanimously acclaimed 2021 docudrama, Jonas Poher Rasmussen's Flee follows Amin as he recounts the pain of his past—most notably, his journey from Afghanistan to Denmark as a refugee—to his soon-to-be husband. What makes Flee truly special is its emphasis on re-centering the refugee narrative so it is told not from the perspective of pundits or bystanders but by those who lived it. In Those We Throw Away Are Diamonds, refugee ambassador and genocide survivor Mondiant Dogon shares his own story, offering another vital perspective on an ongoing humanitarian crisis.