The 93rd Academy Awards makes history with Oscars winners Chloe Zhao, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Daniel Kaluuya.
The delayed ceremony, taking place in Los Angeles, was different this year. The red carpet was unusually sparse, and nominees sat spaced out in one of Union Station’s converted halls.
Most of the nominees and winners attended in person, but many of the UK-based were in a venue in London. Others appeared via satellite from locations including Paris, Prague and Sydney. In addition, there was no single host for this year’s awards, and trophies were handed out in a Covid-safe ceremony.
Making History
Zhao became the first woman of colour to win best director for film drama Nomadland. Before her, the only woman to win the directing prize was Kathryn Bigelow in 2010, for The Hurt Locker.
83 year old Hopkins is the oldest winner of best actor, for his performance in The Father, playing a man with dementia. He won his first Oscar 29 years ago for his iconic role in The Silence of the Lambs.
He wasn’t present and says he didn’t expect to win, so feels “very privileged and honoured”. His victory was the biggest surprise of the night. The award was tipped to go to the late Chadwick Boseman for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
Meanwhile, Kaluuya is the first black British actor to win an Oscar, which he won in the supporting category. The 32 year old Londoner’s winning performance was as Black Panthers leader Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah.
Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson are the first black winners of the best make-up and hairstyling award, for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. The film also won 89 year old Ann Roth best costume design award, making her the oldest woman to win an Oscar.
Veteran actress Yuh-Jung Youn is the first South Korean actress to win an Oscar. She received best supporting actress for her role as the grandmother in family drama Minari, beating Olivia Colman, Amanda Seyfried, Maria Bakalova and Glenn Close to the prize.
Actress-turned-writer/director Emerald Fennell is the first British woman to win the best original screenplay award. She won for Promising Young Woman, a thriller starring Carey Mulligan as a woman avenging the rape of her friend. Fennell is better known for her acting roles as Patsy in BBC drama Call the Midwife and Camilla Parker-Bowles in Netflix’s The Crown.
Other Oscars Winners
Slow burning drama Nomadland was the biggest winner of the night with three awards. It scooped top prize for best film, best director, and won Frances McDormand her third best actress Oscar. In the film, McDormand plays a woman living in her van in the American West after the financial crash. She is one of the only professional performers to feature in the film. Most of the cast is real people playing fictionalised versions of themselves.
Black and white film Mank, which had the highest number of nominations with 10, picked up two awards.
Sound of Metal, Judas and the Black Messiah, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Soul also scored two awards each.
Other UK winners included Sir Christopher Hampton, who shared the best adapted screenplay award with Florian Zeller for The Father.
And Atticus Ross shared the best score prize with Trent Reznor and Jon Batiste for Soul.
Fellow Brits Andrew Jackson and Andrew Lockley won best visual effects for Tenet.
Meanwhile, best documentary feature went to James Reed for My Octopus Teacher.
Whilst Two Distant Strangers, which addresses the police killings of black people in the US, won Martin Desmond Roe the award for best live action short.
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