Nomadland, a film drama, won three Oscars, including best picture, while British actors Sir Anthony Hopkins and Daniel Kaluuya were nominated for acting awards.
Chloé Zhao of Nomadland made history by becoming the first woman of color and the second woman to win the best director. Sir Anthony, who is 83 years old, is the oldest best actor nominee, and Kaluuya is the first black British actor to win an Oscar in the supporting category.
Sir Anthony, who was unable to attend the ceremony, explained his absentia was because he didn’t foresee his victory. Meanwhile, the likes of Emerald Fennell, a British actress-turned-writer/director, were honored with a screenplay award. The star who stars as Camilla Parker Bowles in The Crown, which she also directed, won the best original screenplay.
For her role in Nomadland, Frances McDormand won the best actress, and veteran South Korean actress Yuh-Jung Youn won best supporting actress for Minari.
To make for a Covid-safe ceremony, the trophies were presented in one of the grand halls at Los Angeles’s stylish Union Station, while several UK-based nominees were at a venue in London – while Sir Anthony was not there.
Late Boseman Loses to Sir Anthony
Sir Anthony Hopkins won the best actor for his masterful work in The Father as a man suffering from dementia, 29 years after winning his first Oscars for The Silence of the Lambs. His win came as the biggest shock of the evening. The late Chadwick Boseman, who died in August at the age of 43, was widely expected to win the award for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
However, Sir Anthony was unable to attend the ceremony because he was not in LA or at the British Film Institute in London, the UK location. Instead, he posted a message on Instagram on Monday morning.
“I didn’t intend to get this award at 83 years old, I didn’t,” he said in a video shot in his “homeland” of Wales. “I owe the Academy a debt of gratitude, and I thank you.”
Sir Anthony went on to pay tribute to Boseman, saying he felt “very grateful and honored” to have met him and that he had been taken from them too soon. The Father also won best-adapted screenplay for Sir Christopher Hampton and director Florian Zeller, who called Sir Anthony “the greatest living actor.” The film will be released in the UK on June 11th.
Nomadland’s McDormand Celebrates
The story of the slow-burning drama, featuring a woman staying in her van in West America after a financial crash, had emerged as the best film, with the best director and actress. McDormand, who has now won three Academy Awards for best actress, is one of the film’s few experienced actors. The majority of the remaining cast members are actual people portraying fictionalized versions of themselves.
“One day very, very soon, take everyone you know into a theater, shoulder to shoulder in that dark room, and see every film that’s represented here tonight,” McDormand said, as she hoped for the rebirth of big-screen cinema.
Victorious Kaluuya Ecstatic About Life
The 32-year-old Londoner won the best supporting actor for his explosive role as Black Panthers chief Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah. Kaluuya also stated that he was humbled to be nominated for portraying a man whose principles he deeply respected. He also paid tribute to his mother for giving him his factory settings to stand at his fullest height.
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