Oscars 2021 – live: Winners, acceptance speeches and highlights from the Academy Awards
Chloé Zhao wins Best Director while Frances McDormand earns Best Actress prize
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Your support makes all the difference.Road movie Nomadland won the top prize at the 93rd Academy Awards, which fulfilled many expectations but threw in a couple of surprise wins in an unusual ceremony.
The film’s director Chloe Zhao also made history, becoming the first woman of colour to win the award for directing, and the second woman in history — and the film scooped the Best Actress prize for its star Frances McDormand.
Sir Anthony Hopkins won the Best Actor Oscar — his first since The Silence of the Lambs in 1992 — for his performance in The Father, about a man slipping into dementia, defeating presumptive favourite Chadwick Boseman, who died last year aged 43 following a private four-year battle with colon cancer.
Daniel Kaluuya, who was born in London to Ugandan parents, is the first black British winner of the best Supporting Actor prize for his turn as community organiser and member of the Black Panther Party Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah.
There were a number of surprise wins. David Fincher’s Mank led the pack with 10 nominations, but ultimately won two.
Due to coronavirus, the Oscars moved out of their usual venue, the Dolby Theatre, and were based out of Los Angeles’s Union Station instead. The ceremony’s format was overhauled too, with attendees observing social distancing and some joining via video link from other parts of the world.
Nomadland had been a favourite to win Best Picture; it fulfilled that expectation, beating The Father, Judas and the Black Messiah, Mank, Minari, Promising Young Woman, Sound of Metal, and The Trial of the Chicago 7.
Minari actor Youn Yuh-jung also won over the crowd in her acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actress, which was presented to her by Brad Pitt. “Mr Brad Pitt, finally, nice to meet you!” she told him after making her way onto the stage. She then proceeded to acknowledge the ways in which her name has been mispronounced throughout the awards season, telling the crowd: “Tonight, you are all forgiven.”
With her win, Youn became the first Korean actor to take home an Academy Award.
Follow our liveblog for highlights from the ceremony and the buzz-worthy aftermath.
It’s not always a case of the best film wins. Jacob Stolworthy lists the 23 films that wrongfully missed out on a Best Picture award – and all the movies that beat them.
Between Chloé Zhao and Anthony Hopkins, it’s a year of headline-making victories – but one seems to have slipped through the cracks.
Daniel Kaluuya is the first ever Black British actor to win an acting Oscar. The London-born star picked up the Best Supporting Actor trophy for his part in Judas and the Black Messiah.
While Nomadland is an exceptionally worthy Best Picture winner, take a look at one person’s argument for why Darius Marder’s Sound of Metal should’ve taken home the big prize instead.
Sound of Metal: Why Darius Marder’s revelatory meditation on deafness should win the Oscar
Why Sound of Metal should win Best Picture
There were a number of history making moments last night, but 78 years on and Greer Garson still holds the record for the longest Oscars acceptance speech ever.
In 1943, the English actor took up a grand total of four minutes when she won the Best Actress trophy for her leading part in the romantic war drama Mrs Miniver.
The story behind the longest Oscars acceptance speech of all time
In 1943, English actor Greer Garson won the Academy Award for Best Actress and spoke for an undefeated four minutes. Clémence Michallon revisits this page in Oscars history
And here’s Louis Chilton on why he thinks it should’ve been Judas and the Black Messiah to take home Best Picture this year.
Why Judas and the Black Messiah should win the Oscar for Best Picture
Extraordinary work from Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield means Shaka King’s drama, about the betrayal of Black Panthers activist Fred Hampton, is hotly tipped for an acting trophy. But there’s much more to this film than just great performances, writes Louis Chilton
Promising Young Woman director and writer Emerald Fennell was feted with the award for Best Original Screenplay – but Netflix subscribers may recognise her from elsewhere.
The multi-hyphenate talent is best known for her portrayal of Camilla Parker-Bowles in the streaming giant’s hit period drama The Crown.
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