It was a big night for Chloé Zhao and Nomadland at the Oscars. She became the first woman of colour to win Best Director and only the second female filmmaker to win the award after Kathryn Bigelow, while her pastoral drama also won Best Picture.
Nomadland claimed a third Oscar with Frances McDormand winning her fourth Oscar and her third Best Actress gong.
Best Actor was the shock of the night: The Father’s Anthony Hopkins took home an award that had been long-tipped to be a posthumous win for Chadwick Boseman.
Daniel Kaluuya won Best Supporting Actor for Judas and the Black Messiah, and Minari’s Yuh-jung Youn followed up her Bafta with another Best Supporting Actress win.
Mank’s win for Best Cinematography over Nomadland counted as a mild surprise, as did Sound of Metal’s Best Editing. There were expected wins for Soul (Best Score), Another Round (Best International Film), and My Octopus Teacher (Best Documentary).
Arguably, the biggest surprise of the night was the low-key, intimate and relaxed nature of the ceremony itself, held in LA’s Union Station. Producer Steven Soderbergh was clearly intent on bringing a slick informality to a ceremony notably short on the usual skits, performances and lengthy clip reels. Instead, Questlove did a music quiz, there was trippy art everywhere, and the sense that half the audience might dash off for a train at any moment. At one point, Glenn Close twerked.
Maybe it was the novelty factor – and the TV ratings may yet turn out to be cataclysmic – but it made for a zippy enough watch, with its stars’ own love stories with the movies providing grace notes throughout the night.
The award winners in full:
Best Picture
The Father
Judas the Black Messiah
Mank
Minari
Nomadland
Promising Young Woman
Sound of Metal
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Best Director
Lee Isaac Chung, Minari
Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman
David Fincher, Mank
Chloé Zhao, Nomadland
Thomas Vinterberg, Another Round
Best Actor
Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal
Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Anthony Hopkins, The Father
Steven Yeun, Minari
Gary Oldman, Mank
Best Actress
Andra Day, The United States vs. Billie Holiday
Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman
Frances McDormand, Nomadland
Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman
Best Supporting Actor
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 Supporting Actress
Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Glenn Close, Hillbilly Elegy
Olivia Colman, The Father
Youn Yuh-jung, Minari
Amanda Seyfried, Mank
Best Costume Design
Emma.
Mank
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Mulan
Pinocchio
Best Score
Mank
Soul
Da 5 Bloods
Minari
News of the World
Best Sound
Greyhound
Sound of Metal
Mank
Sound of Metal
Soul
Best Adapted Screenplay
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Nomadland
One Night in Miami…
The Father
The White Tiger
Best Original Screenplay
Judas and the Black Messiah
Minari
Promising Young Woman
Sound of Metal
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Best Film Editing
The Father
Nomadland
Promising Young Woman
Sound of Metal
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Best International Feature Film
Quo Vadis, Aida?
Another Round
Better Days
Collective
The Man Who Sold His Skin
Best Production Design
Mank
Tenet
News of the World
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
The Father
Best Visual Effects
Tenet
The Midnight Sky
Love and Monsters
The One and Only Ivan
Mulan
Best Make-up and Hairstyling
Hillbilly Elegy
Emma.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Mank
Pinocchio
Best Original Song
Husavik (My Hometown), Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga
Fight for You, Judas and the Black Messiah
Io Se (Seen), The Life Ahead
Speak Now, One Night in Miami…
Hear My Voice, The Trial of the Chicago 7
Best Animation
Soul
Wolfwalkers
Onward
A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
Over the Moon
Best Cinematography
Nomadland, Joshua James Richards
Mank, Erik Messerschmidt
News of the World, Dariusz Wolski
The Trial of the Chicago 7, Phedon Papamichael
Judas and the Black Messiah, Sean Bobbitt
Best Documentary
Collective
Time
The Mole Agent
Crip Camp: a Disability Revolution
My Octopus Teacher
Best Documentary Short
Colette
A Concerto Is a Conversation
Hunger Ward
A Love Song for Latasha
Do Not Split
Animated Short Film
Burrow
Genius Loci
If Anything Happens I Love You
Opera
Yes-People
Best Short Film
The Present
White Eye
Feeling Through
The Letter Room
Two Distant Strangers