Oscars 2021: All the winners as history made at the Academy Awards
The Academy Awards brought the drama right until the end with a shock Best Actor result, and Nomadland winning three Oscars.
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It was an Oscars unlike any other.
Instead of a packed Dolby Theatre, Hollywood’s biggest names descended on a small room in Los Angeles’ Union Station for an event more akin to a socially distanced cabaret.
Other nominees appeared virtually, unable to attend because of COVID protocols.
It was slim pickings for Australians this year with our only tenuous link coming through British director Emerald Fennell who won the Best Original Screenplay for Promising Young Woman, her film about date rape, revenge and consent.
The film, produced by Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap Entertainment, was up for five awards but took the chocolates in just one category.
Earlier, Robbie said she felt compelled to make the film because she had a “hell yeah” reaction to Fennell’s script.
“We view it as if you have to spend three years of your life on something, it has to be a ‘hell yes’”,” added Robbie’s producing partner Josey McNamara.
Elsewhere, the ceremony cut an often sombre tone due to the toll the coronavirus pandemic has taken on the US as well as tensions surrounding the recent George Floyd trial.
Presenters Brad Pitt and a rambling Harrison Ford upped the star power while Glenn Close lost out for an eighth time.
Frances McDormand scored her third award for her heartbreaking performance in Nomadland, which is the lowest grossing film at the box office after it made just $2.5 million.
Evergreen Anthony Hopkins also became the oldest person ever to win an acting gong after he got his third gold statue for his mesmerising performance in The Father.
No one expected him to beat actor Chadwick Boseman, who died of colon cancer last year at just 43. Hopkins wasn’t there to accept the award either.
MARGOT’S FILM WINS FIRST OSCAR
Emerald Fennell was first up with her win for Best Original Screenplay for Robbie’s film.
Writer/director Fennell said she didn’t prepare a speech “because I didn’t expect this to happen”.
“He’s very heavy and very cold,” Fennell said of her statuette, while onstage at Union Station in Los Angeles to accept her gong.
“I’m trying very hard not to cry which is difficult as an English person because we don’t cry ever.”
She also thanked “LuckyChap Entertainment” but didn’t mention Robbie specifically.
The film, Promising Young Woman, stars Carey Mulligan as a grieving university dropout who gets her revenge by exposing a litany of sexual predators she meets at bars.
BEST PICTURE GOES TO NOMADLAND
It came as Nomadland won the biggest award of the night: the Oscar for Best Picture.
The favourite beat out Judas and the Black Messiah, The Father, the Margot Robbie-produced Promising Young Woman, Minari, Sound of Metal, The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Mank to the top award.
West Side Story legend Rita Moreno presented the Award to the producers, director Chloe Zhao and star Frances McDormand.
Zhao introduced McDormand as “our Fern”. “No, I’m not Fern, I’m Fran,” the star said.
“Please watch our movie on the largest screen possible and one day soon go into a theatre shoulder to shoulder with people and watch every film presented here today.”
McDormand also paid tribute to the film’s sound mixer Michael Wolf who died last month.
“We give this one to our wolf,” McDormand said before howling on-stage.
MCDORMAND, HOPKINS WIN TOP GONGS
Frances McDormand has won her third acting Oscar for her performance in Nomadland.
“Look they didn’t ask me but if they had, I would have said we do karaoke for this [ceremony],” she said with a laugh.
“I have no words, my voice is in my sword,” McDormand said.
“We know the sword is in our work and I like work. Thank you for knowing that and knowing this,” she said in a brief acceptance speech.
Meantime, Anthony Hopkins has taken home his third Oscar in a shock result over the late Chadwick Boseman who was expected to win for his final performance in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
The Welsh actor won for his performance as a man beset by dementia in The Father. Olivia Colman, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, played his daughter.
Hopkins, who had won previously for his performances in The Silence of the Lambs and the Remains of the Day was not at the ceremony and presenter Joaquin Phoenix accepted the award on his behalf.
The award marked a shock end to the evening, with many believing the award had been saved until last to honour Boseman.
ZHAO MAKES HISTORY
Chloe Zhao has made history as the first Asian woman and the first woman of colour to win Best Director for Nomadland.
Zhao beat out Emerald Fennell, David Fincher, Lee Isaac Chung and Thomas Vinterberg to win the Oscar.
“To my Nomadland family – to Frances McDormand – what a crazy once in a lifetime journey we’ve been on together.”
“I’ve been thinking about how I keep going when things get hard and I try to hold onto the good in people,” she said.
“This is for anyone who has had the courage to hold onto the goodness in themselves and the goodness in other people,” Zhao said in a brief but moving speech.
Nomadland tells the story of an itinerant worker (Frances McDormand) who travels the US in her car, just trying to make ends meet. It has won every major gong of the awards season.
‘IT’S BEEN A YEAR’
Regina King used the opening monologue of the 93rd Oscars to talk about Black Lives Matter. King started the show by strutting down the blue carpet of the Oscars’ art deco-looking venue, Union Station, clutching an Oscar in hand.
The venue resembled the cocktail party vibe of the Oscars of the 1920s, rather than the recent stuffy affairs.
“Jesus, I made it. It’s been a year,” King laughed. “If things had gone differently last week in Minneapolis I’d have swapped my heels for marching boots,” King said alluding to the Derek Chauvin trial
But King said the Oscars were a “time to celebrate”, saying the past year, cinema made us feel “less isolated, connected us when we were apart”.
‘MR BRAD PITT, FINALLY’
Glenn Close lost out at the Oscars for a record eighth time, after Youn Yuh-jung won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in Minari, the story of an immigrant Korean family trying to make a life in the US.
The award was presented by Brad Pitt who provided a bit of real star-power to the at-times flat ceremony.
“Mr Brad Pitt, finally! Nice to meet you. Very honoured to meet you,” Youn said to laughs throughout the room.
The actress also took the time to address the luckless Close who still hasn’t taken home an Academy Award despite her eight nominations.
“How can I win over Glenn Close? I’ve watched all her performances,” the charming Youn said. “I had a little bit of luck – I’m luckier than you. It’s American hospitality for the Korean actor,” Youn said.
She also had the room in stitches when she thanked her two sons.
“I’d like to thank my two boys who made me go out and work. This is the result because mummy worked so hard.”
HARRISON FORD’S SURPRISE CAMEO
Meantime, Harrison Ford made a rare Oscars appearance by presenting the Oscar for Best Editing. To make his point about the importance of editors, the superstar started by “sharing some editorial suggestions of a movie I was in”.
“He sounds drugged – were they all on drugs?”
“What is even happening?”
“This movie gets worse every screening,” Ford said, pausing. “That movie was called Blade Runner.”
Ultimately, the Margot Robbie-produced Promising Young Woman lost out to Sound of Metal in the category.
VIOLA DAVIS’ STIRRING SPEECH
Viola Davis has presented her “great friend” Tyler Perry with the second Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award of the night.
The billionaire mogul has long been known as Hollywood’s most giving and philanthropic stars.
Introduced via video message by another good friend, Whoopi Goldberg, Perry paid tribute to his late mother who he said “didn’t have much” but would let people stay in their house “because they had nowhere to go”.
He also spoke about “refusing hate” in a country that has been so recently divided.
“I refuse to hate someone because they’re Mexican, because they’re black, because they’re police officers, because they’re LGBTQ,” Perry said.
“So anyone who wants to meet me in the middle and refuse hate, this one is for you.”
‘WE’RE GOING TO CELEBRATE TONIGHT’
Daniel Kaluuya has won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance in Judas and the Black Messiah, which tells the story of assassinated Black Panther leader Fred Hampton.
The British star was up against co-star LaKeith Stanfield, Leslie Odom Jr for his performance as the legendry Sam Cooke in One Night in Miami, Paul Raci in Sound of Metal and Sacha Baron Cohen – who appeared alongside wife Isla Fisher from Sydney – in The Chicago Seven.
Kaluuya, who was nominated in 2018 for his star-making performance in the Jordan Peele horror Get Out, thanked his mum and sister “for giving me everything”.
“So hard to make a film like this about a man like this but we did it.”
“There’s so much work to do, you guys. This isn’t a single man job.
“We’ve got to work and I’m going back to work on Tuesday but I’m celebrating tonight because I’m walking and breathing. We’re going to celebrate tonight.”
‘TIME HAS CALLED A PAUSE’
Bryan Cranston has spoken from an empty Dolby Theatre, the usual home of the Oscars. “Time has called for a pause,” Cranston said, adding the Academy Awards will be back “home” next year.
He presented the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to the Motion Picture and Television Fund on its 100th anniversary. The MPTF cares for members of the entertainment industry in front of or behind the camera who have fallen on hard times or those who have aged and need medical care, housing or food. During thew pandemic, they’ve been needed more than ever before.
“They are our superheroes.”
AWARDS MAKE HISTORY
Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson have won the Oscar for make-up and hairstyling for
their work on Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. The film, about blues legend Ma Rainey, also scored a gong for Anne Roth for her Costume Design. Neal and Wilson made history as the first women of colour to ever win in the category.
Sound of Metal also secured a win, taking home the Achievement in Sound award. The film is about a rock drummer (played Riz Ahmed) losing his hearing and learning to recover and reenter the world. The film is nominated acros several categories, including Best Actor for Ahmed.
The Best Live Action Short film Oscar has been won by hot favourite Two Distant Strangers with director Travon Free making history as the first Black filmmaker to win the Academy Award for live-action short film.
Free also wrote the screenplay about a Black graphic artist (rapper Joey Badass) who gets stuck in a “Groundhog Day”-esque time loop that always ends in his killing by a white police officer (Andrew Howard).
SOUL WINS
The Best Animated Feature Film has gone to hot favourite, Soul, the story of a jazz pianist who has a near-death experience and gets stuck in the afterlife, contemplating his choices and regretting the existence that he mostly took for granted.
The film, which is voiced by Tina Fey and Jamie Foxx, was one of the year’s big hits.
“It started as a love letter to jazz,” co-director Peter Docter said. “But I never knew how much jazz would teach us about life.”
The Pixar film beat out Onward, Over The Moon, A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon and Wolfwalkers.
The Best Animated Short Film category was won by If Anything Happens I Love You.
This wasn’t Soul’s only Oscar. Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Finch, along with Jon Batiste, won the Oscar for Best Original Score for the animated hit, Soul.
Meantime, Best Song was won by H.E.R. for Fight For You from Judas and the Black Messiah.
The Best Documentary Oscar was been won by the tearjerker, My Octopus Teacher.
This utterly gorgeous film told the story of an unlikely friendship between producer-narrator Craig Foster and an octopus he encountered while diving off of South Africa’s Cape of Storms.
“A tiny personal story that played out at the tip of Africa but showed a different kind of relationship between humans and the natural world,” said co-director director Pippa Erlich.
“If a man can form a friendship with an octopus, it makes you wonder what else is possible,” added co-director James Reed.
Elsewhere the truly lovely Soul is a shoe-in to take out Best Animated Feature, My Octopus Teacher should take out Best Documentary and original Hamilton star Leslie Odom’s “Speak Now” from One Night in Miami will take out this year’s Best Song.
OSCAR WINNERS AND NOMINATIONS
BEST PICTURE
The Father
Judas and the Black Messiah
Mank
Minari
Nomadland – WINNER
Promising Young Woman
Sound of Metal
The Trial of the Chicago 7
BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal
Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Anthony Hopkins, The Father - WINNER
Gary Oldman, Mank
Steven Yeun, Minari
BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Andra Day, The United States vs. Billie Holiday
Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman
Frances McDormand, Nomadland – WINNER
Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman
BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Glenn Close, Hillbilly Elegy
Olivia Colman, The Father
Amanda Seyfried, Mank
Yuh-Jung Youn, Minari – WINNER
BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Sacha Baron Cohen, The Trial of the Chicago 7
Daniel Kaluuya, Judas and the Black Messiah – WINNER
Leslie Odom, Jr., One Night in Miami
Paul Raci, Sound of Metal
LaKeith Stanfield, Judas and the Black Messiah
BEST DIRECTOR
Thomas Vinterberg, Another Round
Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman
David Fincher, Mank
Lee Isaac Chung, Minari
Chloé Zhao, Nomadland – WINNER
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Onward
Over the Moon
A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
Soul – WINNER
Wolfwalkers
BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
Burrow
Genius Loci
If Anything Happens I Love You –WINNER
Opera
Yes-People
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Collective
Crip Camp
The Mole Agent
My Octopus Teacher – WINNER
Time
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Judas and the Black Messiah
Mank
News of the World
Nomadland
The Trial of the Chicago 7
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm Peter Baynham, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jena Friedman, Anthony Hines, Lee Kern, Dan Mazer, Erica Rivinoja & Dan Swimer
The Father Christopher Hampton & Florian Zeller
Nomadland Chloé Zhao
One Night in Miami Kemp Powers
The White Tiger Ramin Bahrani
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Judas and the Black Messiah Will Berson, Shaka King, Keith Lucas & Kenny Lucas
Minari Lee Isaac Chung
Promising Young Woman Emerald Fennell – WINNER
Sound of Metal Derek Cianfrance, Abraham Marder & Darius Marder
The Trial of the Chicago 7 Aaron Sorkin
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Emma
Mank
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom – WINNER
Mulan
Pinocchio
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
“Husavik” from Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga
“Fight For You” from Judas and the Black Messiah – WINNER
“lo Sì (Seen)” from The Life Ahead (La Vita Davanti a Se)
“Speak Now” from One Night in Miami
“Hear My Voice” from The Trial of the Chicago 7
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Da 5 Bloods
Mank
Minari
News of the World
Soul – WINNER
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