With the wistful portrayal of itinerant lives on open roads across the American West, Chloe Zhao’s "Nomadland" won best picture Sunday at the 93rd Academy Awards, where the China-born Zhao became the first woman of color to win best director and a historically diverse group of winners took home awards.
In the biggest surprise of a socially distanced Oscar ceremony held during the pandemic, best actor went to Anthony Hopkins for his performance in the dementia drama "The Father." The award had been widely expected to go to Chadwick Boseman for his final performance in "Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom." The night’s last award, it ended the ceremony on a down note, particularly since Hopkins wasn’t in attendance.
A plain-spoken meditation on solitude, grief and grit, "Nomadland" stuck a chord in a pandemic-ravaged year. It made for an unlikely Oscar champ: A film about people who gravitate to the margins took center stage.
"I have always found goodness in the people I’ve met everywhere I went in the world," said Zhao when accepting best director, which Kathryn Bigelow ("The Hurt Locker") was the only previous woman to win. "This is for anyone who has the faith and the courage to hold on to the goodness in themselves and to hold on the goodness in other no matter how difficult it is to do that."
With a howl, "Nomadland" star Frances McDormand implored people to seek out her film and others on the big screen. Released by the Disney-owned Searchlight Pictures, "Nomadland" premiered at a drive-in and debuted in theaters, but found its largest audience on Hulu.
Soon after, McDormand won best actress, too – her third such win. Only Katharine Hepburn, a four-time winner, has won best actress more times.
The most ambitious award show held during the pandemic, the Oscars rolled out a red carpet and tried to restore some glamour to a grim year. For the first time ever, this year's nominees were overwhelmingly seen in the home during a pandemic year that forced theaters to close and prompted radical change in Hollywood.
More women and more actors of color were nominated than ever before, and Sunday brought a litany of records and firsts across many categories, spanning everything from hairstyling to composing to acting. It was, some observers said, a sea of change for awards harshly criticized as "OscarsSoWhite" in recent years, leading the film academy to greatly expand membership.
"It has been quite a year and we are still smack dab in the middle of it," King said.
Daniel Kaluuya won best supporting actor for "Judas and the Black Messiah." The win for the 32-year-old British actor who was previously nominated for "Get Out" was widely expected. Kaluuya won for his fiery performance as the Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, whom Kaluuya thanked for showing him "how to love myself."
"You’ve got to celebrate life, man. We’re breathing. We’re walking. It’s incredible. My mum met my dad, they had sex. It’s amazing. I’m here. I’m so happy to be alive," Kaluuya said, while cameras caught his mother's confused reaction.
With the awards cappin
Travon Free, co-director of the live-action short winner "Two Perfect Strangers," wore a suit jacket lined with the names of those killed by police. His film dramatizes police brutality as an inescapable time loop like a tragic "Groundhog’s Day" for Black Americans.
Best supporting actress went to Yuh-Jung Youn for the matriarch of Lee Isaac Chung’s tender Korean-American family drama "Minari." The 73-year-old Youn, a well-known actress in her native South Korea, is the first Asian actress to win an Oscar since 1957 and the second in history. She accepted the award from Brad Pitt, an executive producer on "Minari." "Mr. Brad Pitt, finally," said Youn. "Nice to meet you."
Hairstylists Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson of "Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom" became the first black women to win in makeup and hairstyling. Ann Roth, at 89 one of the oldest Oscar winners ever, also won for the film’s costume design.
The telecast, produced by a team led by filmmaker Steven Soderbergh, moved out of the awards' usual home, the Dolby Theatre, for Union Station. With Zoom ruled out for nominees, the telecast included satellite feeds from around the world. Performances of the song nominees were pre-taped and aired during the preshow.
Pixar notched its 11th best-animated feature Oscar with "Soul," the studio’s first feature with a black protagonist. Pete Docter’s film, about a middle-school music teacher (Jamie Foxx), was one of the few big-budget movies in the running at the Academy Awards. (It also won best score, making Jon Batiste the second black composer win the award, which he shared with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.) Another was Christopher Nolan's "Tenet," which last September attempted to resuscitate moviegoing during the pandemic. It took best visual effects.
"My Octopus Teacher," a film that found a passionate following on Netflix, won best documentary. Danish director Thomas Vinterberg’s "Another Round" won best international film, an award he dedicated to his daughter, Ida, who in 2019 was killed in a car crash at age 19.
The red carpet was back Sunday, minus the throngs of onlookers and with socially distanced interviews. Casual wear, the academy warned nominees early on, was a no-no. Stars, limited to a plus-one, went without their usual battalions of publicists.
Sunday's pandemic-delayed Oscars bring to a close the longest awards season ever – one that turned the season's industrial complex of cocktail parties and screenings virtual. Eligibility was extended into February of this year, and for the first time, a theatrical run wasn't a requirement of nominees. Some films – like "Sound of Metal" – premiered all the way back in September 2019. The biggest ticket-seller of the best picture nominees was "Promising Young Woman," with $6.4 million in box office.