LOS ANGELES (REUTERS) - South Korean drama Minari secured six nods in the Oscar nominations on Monday (March 15), including for best actor.

Minari's male lead Steven Yeun made history as the first Asian American to be nominated in the best actor category for his performance as Jacob, a South Korean father who moves his family to a rural Arkansas farm in the 1980s, Los Angeles Times reported.

Director Lee Isaac Chung was nominated for best director.

Veteran actress Yuh-Jung Youn - a household name in South Korea - scored her first Oscar nomination for her supporting role as a foul-mouthed grandmother.

Minari was Youn's American film debut and she is the first South Korean performer to be nominated for the Oscars in any acting category, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The three other nominations for Minari were for best picture, best original screenplay and best musical score.

Netflix's 1930s Hollywood drama Mank led the Oscar nominations with 10 nods, including for best picture, director, actor and supporting actress.

Netflix landed 35 nominations for 16 of its films, including The Trial of the Chicago 7and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.

Walt Disney scored 15 nods, including six for Nomadland, which is playing in theatres and streaming on Hulu, and three for animated Pixar movie Soul on Disney+.

Amazon.com's Amazon Studios earned a spot in the best picture race with Sound of Metal and 12 nominations overall, a record for the company.

Many of this year's Oscar contenders played on streaming services as movie theatres closed due to the global coronavirus pandemic.

Other best picture nominations for the Oscars also went to dementia drama The Father, Judas and the Black Messiah, Nomadland, #MeToo revenge tale Promising Young Woman, Sound of Metal, and The Trial of the Chicago 7.

Director Chloe Zhao, who was born in China, nabbed one of the five best director nods for Nomadland, the Searchlight Pictures release about modern van dwellers in the United States.

Ms Zhao was the first Asian woman to win a Golden Globe for best director for Nomadland.

British director Emerald Fennell was also nominated for Promising Young Woman. Only one woman, Kathryn Bigelow, has ever won a best director Oscar.

Lead actors picking up nominations included a first Oscar nod for the late Chadwick Boseman, previous winners Frances McDormand and Viola Davis and Britons Carey Mulligan, Vanessa Kirby, Riz Ahmed and Gary Oldman.

The Oscars, the highest honours in the movie industry, will be handed out at a ceremony on April 25.

Here are the main nominees:

Best picture: The Father, Judas and the Black Messiah, Mank, Minari, Nomadland, Promising Young Woman, Sound of Metal, The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best director: Thomas Vinterberg, Another Round; David Fincher, Mank; Lee Isaac Chung, Minari, Chloe Zhao, Nomadland; Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman

Best actress: Viola Davis, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom; Andra Day, The United States vs Billie Holiday; Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman; Frances McDormand, Nomadland; Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman

Best actor: Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal; Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom; Sir Anthony Hopkins, The Father; Gary Oldman, Mank; Steven Yeun, Minari

Best supporting actress: Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm; Glenn Close, Hillbilly Elegy; Olivia Colman, The Father; Amanda Seyfried, Mank; Yuh-Jung Youn, Minari ;

Best supporting actor: Sacha Baron Cohen - The Trial of the Chicago 7; Daniel Kaluuya, Judas and the Black Messiah; Leslie Odom Jr, One Night in Miami; Paul Raci, Sound of Metal; Lakeith Stanfield - Judas and the Black Messiah