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.
Well, well, well, if it isn’t Best Supporting Actress nominee Glenn Close! She earned her eighth Oscar nomination for her role in Hillbilly Elegy and is up against Maria Bakalova, Olivia Colman, Amanda Seyfried, and Youn Yuh-jung.
Our lifestyle writer Olivia Petter tells me Close’s electric blue tunic is by Armani Prive, is in crystal beads, and took three weeks to make. Close paired the tunic with purple leather gloves and black cigarette trousers.
Close told E! from the red carpet that if she wins tonight, she will display her Oscar to her local library or her local coffee shop “so that people can actually what it’s like” and to bring the Academy Awards into everyday life.
Hard to disagree with this take from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey:
Tonight’s ceremony is being held at Union Station in Los Angeles – a first in Oscars history. The Academy Awards usually take place at the Dolby Theatre, but logistics had to change this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Here’s a look at what the preparations looked like to get Union Station ready for its close-up...
If she wins Best Supporting Actress tonight, Glenn Close has a few ideas on where her trophy will end up... and it’s not a shelf or her fireplace mantel.
Glenn Close reveals she’d take Oscar ‘to her local library’ if she wins
Hillbilly Elegy star has been nominated eight times without any wins
Best Actress nominee Carey Mulligan has arrived (in a two-piece by Valentino Couture)! She’s up against Viola Davis, Andra Day, Vanessa Kirby, and Frances McDormand. She discussed the film along with director Emerald Fennell in an interview with The Independent, which you can read below:
Carey Mulligan and Emerald Fennell interview: ‘The experience of so many victims is that everyone wants you to let it go’
The star and director of ‘Promising Young Woman’ tell Clarisse Loughrey how their film ‘weaponises femininity’, ask why the stuff that girls traditionally like isn’t treated seriously, and discuss how women respond differently when something happens to someone they love
Best Actress nominee Viola Davis paid tribute from the red carpet to her late co-star Chadwick Boseman, who is nominated posthumously for Best Actor for his role in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.
“He was authenticity on steroids,” Davis said of Boseman, who died in August last year at the age of 43 from cancer.
Here’s Glenn Close reflecting on what a win in the Best Supporting Actress category would mean to her. This is her eighth Oscar nomination, and despite being widely regarded as one of our most gifted performers, Close has yet to win an Academy Award.
And here’s how Alan Kim, the young star of Minari, stole the 2021 Oscars ceremony before it even began – by being adorable on the red carpet.
Minari star Alan Kim melts hearts with Oscars red carpet dance
Nine-year-old was very excited to arrive
The ceremony is only 25 minutes away – it’s time for a last-minute read on the nominees. Here’s who’s up for Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Actor:
Best Picture
The Father
Judas and the Black Messiah
Mank
Minari
Nomadland
Promising Young Woman
Sound of Metal
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Viola Davis – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Andra Day – The United States vs Billie Holiday
Vanessa Kirby – Pieces of a Woman
Frances McDormand – Nomadland
Carey Mulligan – Promising Young Woman
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Riz Ahmed – Sound of Metal
Chadwick Boseman – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Anthony Hopkins – The Father
Gary Oldman – Mank
Steven Yeun – Minari
And here are the supporting categories as well as Best Director:
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Sacha Baron Cohen – The Trial of the Chicago 7
Daniel Kaluuya - Judas and the Black Messiah
Leslie Odom Jr – One Night in Miami…
Paul Raci – Sound of Metal
Lakeith Stanfield – Judas and the Black Messiah
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Maria Bakalova – Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Glenn Close – Hillbilly Elegy
Olivia Colman – The Father
Amanda Seyfried – Mank
Youn Yuh-jung – Minari
Best Director
Thomas Vinterberg – Another Round
David Fincher – Mank
Lee Isaac Chung – Minari
Chloé Zhao – Nomadland
Emerald Fennell – Promising Young Woman
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