Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland” won best picture on Sunday at the 93rd Academy Awards, where the China-born Zhao also became just the second woman to win best director, and the first woman of colour.
The “Nomadland” victory, while widely expected, nevertheless capped the extraordinary rise of Zhao, a lyrical filmmaker whose winning film is just her third, and which — with a budget less than $5 million and featuring a cast populated by non-professional actors – ranks as one of the most modest-sized movies to win Hollywood’s top honor.
Only Kathryn Bigelow, 11 years ago for “The Hurt Locker,” had previously won best director.
Soon after, “Nomadland” star Frances McDormand won best actress, too. The win puts McDormand (previously a winner for “Fargo” and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”) in rare company as a three-time acting winner. Only Katherine Hepburn (a four-time winner) has won best actress more times.
In the night’s biggest surprise, best actor went to Anthony Hopkins for 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.” Hopkins was not in attendance.
The most ambitious award show held during the pandemic, the Oscars rolled out a red carpet and restored some glamour to the nearly century-old movie institution, but with a much transformed — and in some ways downsized — telecast. It was a year when, to paraphrase Norma Desmond, the pictures got smaller were overwhelmingly seen in the home, not on the big screen, during a pandemic year that forced theatres close and prompted a radical change in Hollywood.
It was also perhaps the diverse Academy Awards ever, with more women and more actors of colour 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 change for an awards harshly criticized as “OscarsSoWhite” in recent years, leading the film academy to greatly expand membership.
Here are all the Oscar winners this year:
- Best Picture: “Nomadland”
- Best Director: Chloe Zhao, “Nomadland”
- Best Actress: Frances McDormand, “Nomadland”
- Best Actor: Anthony Hopkins, “The Father”
- Best Supporting Actor: Daniel Kaluuya, “Judas and the Black Messiah”
- Best Supporting Actress: Yuh-jung Youn, “Minari”
- Animated Feature Film: “Soul”
- Best Documentary Feature: “My Octopus Teacher”
- Best Original Screenplay: Emerald Fennell for “Promising Young Woman”
- Best Adapted Screenplay: Florian Zeller and Christopher Hampton for “The Father”
- Best International Feature Film: “Another Round,” Denmark
- Best Makeup and Hairstyling: “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” Mia Neal, Jamika Wilson, and Sergio Lopez-Rivera
- Best Costume Design: Ann Roth, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”
- Achievement in Sound: “Sound of Metal,” Nicolas Becker, Jaime Baksht, Michelle Couttolenc, Carlos Cortes, Phillip Bladh
- Live Action Short Film: “Two Distant Strangers,” Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe
- Animated Short Film: “If Anything Happens I Love You”
- Best Documentary Short: “Colette”
- Special Effects: “Tenet”
- Production Design: “Mank”
- Cinematography: “Mank”
- Film Editing: “Sound of Metal”
- Original Score: “Soul”
- Best Song: “Fight For You” from “Judas and the Black Messiah”
