Oscars 2021: Highlights from last night’s Academy Awards

"Nomadland," Frances McDormand and Anthony Hopkins win the ceremony's final categories.

6 mins read

The 93rd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2020 and early 2021.

It took place in Los Angeles, at both Union Station and the Dolby Theatre, on April 25, 2021 – two months later than originally planned, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cinema. The nominees for the 93rd Academy Awards were announced live on March 15, 2021, in a global livestream on the official website by Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas.

Fans of Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman, who died last year after a battle with colon cancer, were angered after the Academy invited the late actors family to the ceremony, used his likeness in gifts and announced the winner of Best Actor in a Leading Role last, giving the illusion of Boseman’s potential win in the title.

“Nomadland” won three awards, the most of the night, including Best Picture. Other winners included “The Father,” “Judas and the Black Messiah,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “Mank,” “Soul” and “Sound of Metal” with two awards, and “Another Round,” “Colette,” “If Anything Happens I Love You,” “Minari,” “My Octopus Teacher,” “Promising Young Woman,” “Tenet” and “Two Distant Strangers” with one.

This ceremony marked the first time since the 78th Academy Awards in 2006 that no film won more than three awards, and the first time since the 44th Academy Awards in 1972 (when the show ended with an honorary award to Charlie Chaplin) that the ceremony did not end with the award for Best Picture (ending with the awards for Best Actress and Actor respectively). The ceremony viewership was 9.85 million viewers, being the least viewed Oscar telecast.

At 83 years old, Anthony Hopkins became the oldest winner in any acting category. Frances McDormand became the seventh person to win a third acting Oscar with her Best Actress win for “Nomadland,” and the second to win Best Actress three times. The film also won Best Director; Chloé Zhao, who is Chinese, became the first woman of color to be awarded Best Director, and only the second woman after Kathryn Bigelow in 2010 for “The Hurt Locker.”

The entire winning bracket and list of nominees are listed below.


ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

WINNER

ANTHONY HOPKINS

The Father

NOMINEES

RIZ AHMED

Sound of Metal

CHADWICK BOSEMAN

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

GARY OLDMAN

Mank

STEVEN YEUN

Minari


ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

WINNER

DANIEL KALUUYA

Judas and the Black Messiah

NOMINEES

SACHA BARON COHEN

The Trial of the Chicago 7

LESLIE ODOM, JR.

One Night in Miami…

PAUL RACI

Sound of Metal

LAKEITH STANFIELD

Judas and the Black Messiah


ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

WINNER

FRANCES MCDORMAND

Nomadland

NOMINEES

VIOLA DAVIS

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

ANDRA DAY

The United States vs. Billie Holiday

VANESSA KIRBY

Pieces of a Woman

CAREY MULLIGAN

Promising Young Woman


ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

WINNER

YUH-JUNG YOUN

Minari

NOMINEES

MARIA BAKALOVA

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

GLENN CLOSE

Hillbilly Elegy

OLIVIA COLMAN

The Father

AMANDA SEYFRIED

Mank


ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

WINNER

SOUL

Pete Docter and Dana Murray

NOMINEES

ONWARD

Dan Scanlon and Kori Rae

OVER THE MOON

Glen Keane, Gennie Rim and Peilin Chou

A SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE: FARMAGEDDON

Richard Phelan, Will Becher and Paul Kewley

WOLFWALKERS

Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart, Paul Young and Stéphan Roelants


CINEMATOGRAPHY

WINNER

MANK

Erik Messerschmidt

NOMINEES

JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH

Sean Bobbitt

NEWS OF THE WORLD

Dariusz Wolski

NOMADLAND

Joshua James Richards

THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7

Phedon Papamichael


COSTUME DESIGN

WINNER

MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM

Ann Roth

NOMINEES

EMMA

Alexandra Byrne

MANK

Trish Summerville

MULAN

Bina Daigeler

PINOCCHIO

Massimo Cantini Parrini


DIRECTING

WINNER

NOMADLAND

Chloé Zhao

NOMINEES

ANOTHER ROUND

Thomas Vinterberg

MANK

David Fincher

MINARI

Lee Isaac Chung

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN

Emerald Fennell


DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)

WINNER

MY OCTOPUS TEACHER

Pippa Ehrlich, James Reed and Craig Foster

NOMINEES

COLLECTIVE

Alexander Nanau and Bianca Oana

CRIP CAMP

Nicole Newnham, Jim LeBrecht and Sara Bolder

THE MOLE AGENT

Maite Alberdi and Marcela Santibáñez

TIME

Garrett Bradley, Lauren Domino and Kellen Quinn


DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)

WINNER

COLETTE

Anthony Giacchino and Alice Doyard

NOMINEES

A CONCERTO IS A CONVERSATION

Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers

DO NOT SPLIT

Anders Hammer and Charlotte Cook

HUNGER WARD

Skye Fitzgerald and Michael Scheuerman

A LOVE SONG FOR LATASHA

Sophia Nahli Allison and Janice Duncan


FILM EDITING

WINNER

SOUND OF METAL

Mikkel E. G. Nielsen

NOMINEES

THE FATHER

Yorgos Lamprinos

NOMADLAND

Chloé Zhao

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN

Frédéric Thoraval

THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7

Alan Baumgarten


INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM

WINNER

ANOTHER ROUND

Denmark

NOMINEES

BETTER DAYS

Hong Kong

COLLECTIVE

Romania

THE MAN WHO SOLD HIS SKIN

Tunisia

QUO VADIS, AIDA?

Bosnia and Herzegovina


MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

WINNER

MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM

Sergio Lopez-Rivera, Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson

NOMINEES

EMMA

Marese Langan, Laura Allen and Claudia Stolze

HILLBILLY ELEGY

Eryn Krueger Mekash, Matthew Mungle and Patricia Dehaney

MANK

Gigi Williams, Kimberley Spiteri and Colleen LaBaff

PINOCCHIO

Mark Coulier, Dalia Colli and Francesco Pegoretti


MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)

WINNER

SOUL

Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste

NOMINEES

DA 5 BLOODS

Terence Blanchard

MANK

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

MINARI

Emile Mosseri

NEWS OF THE WORLD

James Newton Howard


MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)

WINNER

FIGHT FOR YOU

from Judas and the Black Messiah; Music by H.E.R. and Dernst Emile II; Lyric by H.E.R. and Tiara Thomas

NOMINEES

HEAR MY VOICE

from The Trial of the Chicago 7; Music by Daniel Pemberton; Lyric by Daniel Pemberton and Celeste Waite

HUSAVIK

from Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga; Music and Lyric by Savan Kotecha, Fat Max Gsus and Rickard Göransson

IO SÌ (SEEN)

from The Life Ahead (La Vita Davanti a Se); Music by Diane Warren; Lyric by Diane Warren and Laura Pausini

SPEAK NOW

from One Night in Miami…; Music and Lyric by Leslie Odom, Jr. and Sam Ashworth


BEST PICTURE

WINNER

NOMADLAND

Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey and Chloé Zhao, Producers

NOMINEES

THE FATHER

David Parfitt, Jean-Louis Livi and Philippe Carcassonne, Producers

JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH

Shaka King, Charles D. King and Ryan Coogler, Producers

MANK

Ceán Chaffin, Eric Roth and Douglas Urbanski, Producers

MINARI

Christina Oh, Producer

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN

Ben Browning, Ashley Fox, Emerald Fennell and Josey McNamara, Producers

SOUND OF METAL

Bert Hamelinck and Sacha Ben Harroche, Producers

THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7

Marc Platt and Stuart Besser, Producers


PRODUCTION DESIGN

WINNER

MANK

Production Design: Donald Graham Burt; Set Decoration: Jan Pascale

NOMINEES

THE FATHER

Production Design: Peter Francis; Set Decoration: Cathy Featherstone

MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM

Production Design: Mark Ricker; Set Decoration: Karen O’Hara and Diana Stoughton

NEWS OF THE WORLD

Production Design: David Crank; Set Decoration: Elizabeth Keenan

TENET

Production Design: Nathan Crowley; Set Decoration: Kathy Lucas


SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)

WINNER

IF ANYTHING HAPPENS I LOVE YOU

Will McCormack and Michael Govier

NOMINEES

BURROW

Madeline Sharafian and Michael Capbarat

GENIUS LOCI

Adrien Mérigeau and Amaury Ovise

OPERA

Erick Oh

YES-PEOPLE

Gísli Darri Halldórsson and Arnar Gunnarsson


SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)

WINNER

TWO DISTANT STRANGERS

Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe

NOMINEES

FEELING THROUGH

Doug Roland and Susan Ruzenski

THE LETTER ROOM

Elvira Lind and Sofia Sondervan

THE PRESENT

Farah Nabulsi and Ossama Bawardi

WHITE EYE

Tomer Shushan and Shira Hochman


SOUND

WINNER

SOUND OF METAL

Nicolas Becker, Jaime Baksht, Michellee Couttolenc, Carlos Cortés and Phillip Bladh

NOMINEES

GREYHOUND

Warren Shaw, Michael Minkler, Beau Borders and David Wyman

MANK

Ren Klyce, Jeremy Molod, David Parker, Nathan Nance and Drew Kunin

NEWS OF THE WORLD

Oliver Tarney, Mike Prestwood Smith, William Miller and John Pritchett

SOUL

Ren Klyce, Coya Elliott and David Parker


VISUAL EFFECTS

WINNER

TENET

Andrew Jackson, David Lee, Andrew Lockley and Scott Fisher

NOMINEES

LOVE AND MONSTERS

Matt Sloan, Genevieve Camilleri, Matt Everitt and Brian Cox

THE MIDNIGHT SKY

Matthew Kasmir, Christopher Lawrence, Max Solomon and David Watkins

MULAN

Sean Faden, Anders Langlands, Seth Maury and Steve Ingram

THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN

Nick Davis, Greg Fisher, Ben Jones and Santiago Colomo Martinez


WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)

WINNER

THE FATHER

Screenplay by Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller

NOMINEES

BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM: DELIVERY OF PRODIGIOUS BRIBE TO AMERICAN REGIME FOR MAKE BENEFIT ONCE GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN

Screenplay by Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines & Dan Swimer & Peter Baynham & Erica Rivinoja & Dan Mazer & Jena Friedman & Lee Kern; Story by Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines & Dan Swimer & Nina Pedrad

NOMADLAND

Written for the screen by Chloé Zhao

ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI…

Screenplay by Kemp Powers

THE WHITE TIGER

Written for the screen by Ramin Bahrani


WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)

WINNER

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN

Written by Emerald Fennell

NOMINEES

JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH

Screenplay by Will Berson & Shaka King; Story by Will Berson & Shaka King and Kenny Lucas & Keith Lucas

MINARI

Written by Lee Isaac Chung

SOUND OF METAL

Screenplay by Darius Marder & Abraham Marder; Story by Darius Marder & Derek Cianfrance

THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7

Written by Aaron Sorkin

Cat Grant

Catherine (Cat) Grant was a business-savvy media mogul who got her start working as a gossip columnist for the Daily Planet. Cat later became a gossip blogger and eventually the CEO of her own company, CatCo Worldwide Media, a multimedia entertainment and news conglomerate based out of National City. Years after her departure from CatCo, Cat has decided to take a cathartic journey back to her roots. Welcome back to Cat’s Corner.

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