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Oscars 2021 – live: Winners, acceptance speeches and highlights from the Academy Awards

Chloé Zhao wins Best Director while Frances McDormand earns Best Actress prize

Chloe Zhao first woman of colour to win Best Director

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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.

The 10 worst acceptance speeches of all time, from Matthew McConaughey to Gwyneth Paltrow

10 worst Oscar acceptance speeches of all time

Some are too saccharine, others too long – and the worst are when an actor thinks only of themselves

Roisin O'Connor25 April 2021 15:01

The 10 greatest Best Picture winners ...

The Independent's Geoffrey Macnab chooses the best films to have ever won Hollywood's most prestigious award

The 10 greatest Best Picture winners

The Independent's Geoffrey Macnab chooses the best films to have ever won Hollywood's most prestigious award

Roisin O'Connor25 April 2021 15:21

Snubs, omissions, and a secret publicity race: The thorny diplomacy of the Oscars in memoriam segment...

The in memoriam tribute serves a worthy cause, but the scrutiny is real, and errors don’t go unnoticed. Clémence Michallon takes a closer look at a segment that tends to make headlines for the wrong reasons.

The thorny diplomacy of the Oscars in memoriam segment

The in memoriam tribute serves a worthy cause, but the scrutiny is real, and errors don’t go unnoticed. Clémence Michallon takes a closer look at a segment that tends to make headlines for the wrong reasons

Roisin O'Connor25 April 2021 15:39

The bait is over: Has the pandemic changed the Oscars forever?

The bait is over: Has the pandemic changed the Oscars forever?

As the nominations for this year’s Academy Awards show record-breaking diversity, it’s clear that change is afoot in the film industry. But it could be the sign of progress or just a pandemic-accelerated fluke, says Clarisse Loughrey 

Roisin O'Connor25 April 2021 15:59

As society evolves, moments in films that were once beloved can start to sour in history’s proverbial rear-view mirror. When Sandy (Olivia Newton John) revamps her entire look and personality to please her boyfriend Danny (John Travolta) at the end of Grease (1978), for example. Or when the cartoon crows in Disney’s animated classic Dumbo are literally called “The Jim Crows”.

Even plenty of Academy Award-winning movies have not aged particularly well. As the 93rd Academy Awards approach this month, here are 10 Oscar-winning films that are problematic in 2021.

Read more:

10 Oscar-winning films that are problematic in 2021

As the 93rd Academy Awards approach this month, Rachel Brodsky runs through the 10 Oscar-winning films that haven’t aged well

Roisin O'Connor25 April 2021 16:21

They’re ready! Are you?

Roisin O'Connor25 April 2021 16:41

A reminder of how you can tune in to watch tonight’s ceremony

Roisin O'Connor25 April 2021 17:01

Thoughts from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey:

Roisin O'Connor25 April 2021 17:21

On 4 March 1943, Greer Garson stepped behind a lectern at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub inside the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Garson, 38, was accepting the Academy Award for Best Actress for her work inMrs Miniver, a romantic war drama directed by William Wyle. She was only the 15th actor in the history of Hollywood to take home the trophy. That was an achievement in itself, but Garson made history in another, more unexpected way that night.

Her acceptance speech remains, to this day, the longest in the history of the Academy Awards. While today’s winners are asked to keep to 45 seconds (although they frequently go beyond, at which point a music cue lets them know it’s time to wrap up), Garson spoke for a comparatively generous seven minutes.

Read more:

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

Roisin O'Connor25 April 2021 17:41

!!!

Roisin O'Connor25 April 2021 17:59

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