93rd Academy Awards. The Winners List.
Sunday, April 25, 2021 at 11:35PM 
We'll have a few days of post-mortems here at TFE to discuss everything about the 93rd Oscar ceremony, but due to second vaccine sickness (we barely made it through the ceremony and not finishing it would have been a first since like 1989 so barrelled through in bathrobe with tylenol and a jug of water close by). How'd you fare on your predictions? I've marked what we got wrong and right below. Nomadland was the big winner but it won just 3 Oscars (Picture, Director, Actress). Trial of the Chicago 7 was the only Best Picture nominee to go home emptyhanded so the mistakes you see in the results are mostly due to pessimistic predictions that it would win two Oscars.
REVIEW OF THE SHOW | NEW RECORDS SET
The winners are after the jump...
Best Picture “Nomadland” ✅
Best Director Chloé Zhao, “Nomadland” ✅
Best Actor Anthony Hopkins, “The Father” ❌
Best Actress Frances McDormand, “Nomadland” ✅
Best Supporting Actor Daniel Kaluuya, “Judas and the Black Messiah”✅
Best Supporting Actress Yuh-Jung Youn, “Minari” ✅
Original Screenplay Emerald Fennell, “Promising Young Woman” ❌
Adapted Screenplay Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller, “The Father” ✅
Animated Feature “Soul” ✅
Production Design “Mank” ✅
Costume Design “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” ✅
Cinematography Erik Messerschmidt, “Mank” ❌
Editing “Sound of Metal” ❌
Makeup and Hairstyling “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” ✅
Sound “Sound of Metal” ✅
Visual Effects “Tenet” ✅
Score Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste, “Soul” ✅
Song “Fight for You” (“Judas and the Black Messiah”) ✅
Documentary Feature “My Octopus Teacher” ✅
International Feature “Another Round,” Denmark ✅
Animated Short “If Anything Happens I Love You” ✅
Documentary Short “Colette” ❌
Live-Action Short “Two Distant Strangers” ✅
Oscar Ceremonies, Oscars (20), Punditry
Reader Comments (98)
The only thing consoling me about Carey losing is that this year has reminded everybody what an actress they’ve been sleeping on for the last ten years. Hoping Carey stays booked and busy with great directors and brilliant challenging roles leading to an inevitable Oscar.
Someone above said they worry that Oscar will be for a lesser performance but Carey rarely gives those, she’ll she magnificent and win a deserving Oscar.
I said it this morning (and I'll probably be saying it again tomorrow morning): if you believe that vote splitting/siphoning is a thing (and I didn't necessarily), then you had to know that McDormand was going to win—she was up against two African American actresses playing music legends and two British actresses playing traumatized blonde Americans.
This was the worst ceremony ever: long, boring, no jokes, almost no movie clips, no good presenters.
The cerimony was sooo ugly, but every prize is so deserved! Very happy!
Early trivia (I'll repost in the Trivia Thread if there is one):
Born in 1997, H.E.R. is now the youngest (as in most recently born) Oscar winner. And by a lot. I've only found three other winners born in the 1990s: actress Jennifer Lawrence (1990), songwriter Sam Smith (1992), and documentarian Rayka Zehtabchi (1993).
Frances McDormand has never lost a Leading Actress nomination (3/3) and never won a Supporting Actress nomination (0/3: Mississippi Burning, Almost Famous, North Country).
Also of note:
Frances McDormand is one of a handful of actors to be nominated for two female-directed performances (North Country, Nomadland). Tom Hanks and Saoirse Ronan are two others, and there may be more.
Frances McDormand is part of a married couple that have won Oscars for producing separate films (Joel Coen, No Country for Old Men. Not sure if there are others.
Joel Coen also has 4 Oscars.
The show felt like it missed a real opportunity to actually highlight the films. The lack of clips and the usual montages was just baffling. And regardless of circumstances (presumed or otherwise), Best Picture should ALWAYS be the last award. Those issues aside, the show was okay. It wasn’t the most glamorous affair (the illusion of a dark theater at night does wonders), but it was far from an embarrassment. A more low key affair felt appropriate for this year, but let’s hope for more of the usual next time. Maybe the return of a host?
Also, still feels unnecessary, but West Side Story looks like it could be a stunner. That teaser got me genuinely excited to see and hear more.
That was the dirtiest shit I've ever seen them pull on Chadwick Boseman. Disgusting telecast and as disrespectful as it's ever been. The warp speed In Memoriam, no hosts, arbitrary clips, NO ACTING CLIPS, songs in the pre-show, the overlong acceptance speeches, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. These producers RUINED THE OSCARS!!! The ratings are going to tank like crazy. Twitter is livid, as they should be.
Happy about Mank's cinematograpy's win, Hopkins, McDormand as well, but sad about Glenn Close's 8/0. Dear Academy, pls give a Honorary Oscar for her.
Overall these oscars were surprisingly balanced given the obvious slant put on them. However, Am I alone in not liking Judas and the Black Messiah? My biggest shock was that film winning in the best song category when it was obviously the worst song on the list. Lo Si (Seen) should have won this, but songs from Eurovision and One Night in Miami were equally beautiful and deserving. I have to question whether voters actually listen to the songs.
Thrilled for Anthony Hopkins and disappointed for Carey Mulligan. Who, however, doesn't love the talented eccentric force that is Frances McDormand?
I got 18/23, missing Cinematography, Doc Short, Song, and both Actress awards.
Here’s hoping Oceans 9 starring Regina King has been green-light immediately following that powerful strut
The ceremony was like a private party where cocky people just talked about themselves in an impossible way for an occasional guest to understand. “Here are the costume design nominees blablablah blablablah”. Come on, show the clips and montages, cut the endless speeches, just give us some entertainment! And don’t mess with the BP as the last award! No pandemic excuses for all these terrible decisions.
Absolutely overjoyed by the list of winners! I feared the Academy would screw it up GREEN BOOK-style. I only missed two predictions--- Cinematography and Song.
Loved NOMADLAND, Hopkins, McDormand (!!!), and Yuh-Jung's wins especially.
Only downsides of the evening were the random 8 minute speeches and the insane decision to announce Best Picture before Actor and Actress.
How was this ceremony 3 plus hours with no acting clips, no clips for most films. How can you talk about cinematography without a visual, and no nominated music in the ceremony? And as other best film is always last for a reason. I saw most of the nominated films but I cannot see this attracting others to check them out.
Got Frances right but missed big ones.
Who else both loved and cringed that they showed the coffee spitting/swallowing seen for Promising Young Woman’s Best Picture clip. Lol
Man, I whiffed on a lot of awards, incl Actor & Actress, only got 14 right. Have to laugh at the comment above about Twitter being "livid!" over the show. When is Twitter not livid over whatever with Oscars? I agree w/ others: always save BP for last, show clips from the nominees. One thing I did love is when they showed clips for BP they showed *actual scenes* from the nominees instead of those awful snippets from trailers. The Minari clip in particular was perfect.
It's so nice to actually see that this time they went ... with their hearts - and actually despite winning before - these two veteran actors delivered the most mesmerising performances this year ...
I love Boseman (and I really liked his performance ...but not all of it - parts sometimes felt it was really played for the back of the room to be honest... -and he could not shake off the theatrical material ... which is a choice - but I think it doesn't work in this movie adaptation).
Yes I am a bit disappointed as well for Carey - as she would have been the one artist who felt so deserving and so perfect to be crowned for her career as well as for her fine work this year - but as someone else mentioned already - this is a great opportunity to shift the focus back on her - I know it won't be her last nomination.
The strange thing is ... I think in a way these 2 acting giants who won for best actor/actress couldn't care less ...
The oscars always start good but then end up disappointing in the end.
I was really feeling the ceremony for the first fifteen minutes, but i don't understand why they barely showed clips for anything. Aren't the Oscars free advertising?!
And leave it to Frances (her win and speech) to kill the most exciting Best Actress race in decades. Would have loved to see the vote tally. I'm glad Hopkins won - I agree with some of the people in the comments - they sort of used his image/legacy for ratings. Leaving the lead acting races for the very end just doesn't make sense.
Glenn Close and Oscar Winner Yuh-Jung Youn are the big winners of the night. GET THEM A BUDDY ROAD TRIP MOVIE STAT
I really boring ceremony, just awful, but the prizes were interesting and surprising. The music trivia moment felt so improvised and bless Glenn Close for the only real fun part of the show. Also, I felt it very disrespectful how fast they show the In Memoriam clip and how they invited a deaf actress to present an award but didn't consider to show her sign language while showing the nominees. What was the point to invite her??
I felt really bad for Carey Mulligan lose.
I guess my (unpopular?) opinion is that not only did the best two performances win best actor and best actress, but I think they’re two of the best performances to EVER win.
Chloé Zhao's Best Director speech was amazing. This whole award season was worth the wait.
Some Soderbergh projects work out really well. Others don’t. This is the latter.
Soderbergh went with the theme “when I first loved the movies/got my start in them.” I think that sort of works, but it fell flat because they didn’t the other thing the Oscars do so well - making us excited to see and watch the movies. The lack of clips or pictures of the craft categories felt odd. It’s fun to see the costumes and the acting clips to whet the audiences appetite when we haven’t seen everything.
Also, assuming Chadwick had won, the decision to end with Joaquin Phoenix as the final presenter was still a very bad idea. His refusal to do his homework was really disappointing - I have no idea why Hollywood men are okay with accepting awards and money, but still act too cool to do the bare minimum in return.
Those lead wins felt...not great especially because of where they were in the night. Anthony is great in his film, but I thought Chadwick was mesmerizing. Fran, too, was quite good but a third Oscar feels like a bit much given her performance.
The BP placement really robbed Rita Moreno of her big moment which I find upsetting. She’s a legend and it’s rare we get BP presenters of color, much less Latino presenters of any category.
Also, much like Glenn’s last Oscar campaign got her the Hillbilly role, let’s hope this campaign plus her reminding us that she’s really funny and game for anything gets her another great film role (not sunset). Would love to see her in a fun comedy that gets a real release.
Her moment was the best of the night. Second place would be Vinterbeg’s emotional speech and maybe Chloe Zhao’s, even if hers seemed a bit naive.
I wish the Academy would let the diversity of these winners (a wonderful thing to see!) speak for itself, save the handwringing and political neuroses for their board meetings.
We really didn't need a Twitter thread from Laura Dern introducing the BSA nominees—and other moments in the show felt so preoccupied with talking about diversity that it detracted from the *actual* diversity in the envelopes. They did it—they created a more inclusive Oscars! Show, don't tell.
Combining Sound and Sound Effects Editing is insulting. They are two outright different categories.
Totally weird to see Best Director so early. Totally ridiculous to have the actor categories last. Overly awkward to have everyone write all of this trivia about nominees, or explain all so dispassionately. When Joaquin is Joaquin and he's way less awkward than that, the point is clear.
Also I'm tired of people presenting in categories where their films are nominated. Stop that.
I agree that the best two winners won in actor and actress. I would have been equally pleased if Carey won, but I do think Fran gave a better performance. They aren't my favorite winning performances ever (though they are my favorite winning performances in a long while), but I do think last night was the happiest I've ever been with the actual awarded Oscars.
It's exciting to see strong work triumph over narrative/campaigns, which is what has slowly occurred over the past few years.
The media is largely to blame for behaving as though Boseman were a shoo-in and creating an environment where everyone - even the producers of the Oscar show - couldn't conceive of a world where he wouldn't win, even though signs were pointing toward Hopkins. The worst offenders are the Little Gold Men crew and, especially, Kyle Buchanan. Every year, he makes some insanely early prediction, just so he can claim to be "FIRST!" like an internet troll. This year, his prediction was that Boseman would win Best Actor (even as logic dictated it was probably going to Hopkins). And everyone follows him. His early predictions are wrong more often than they're right, and yet they're treated as gospel. Why?
RITA MORENO.
Best Picture was presented by a woman of color for the first time ever, and she was fantastic. I'm so glad the Oscars have finally decided to spread the wealth of BP presenting duties.
JF
The whole ceremony was actually, tell, don't show, which is the opposite of what movies are supposed to do.
Hopkins won because with a legendary history like his you couldn't see his final few moments in The Father and not be moved at what he achieved.
I know people are disappointed Viola didn't win but it's coming down the road for her soon,Boseman although a nice film prescence and a good actor had so much legacy/legend talk and people inc me just didn't buy it plus they didn't like his film but loved The Father.
Did anyone notice the new Viola trivia,she's now lost twice to an actress winning her 3rd.
I liked the ceremony when it started but it did go downhill as it went on. I prefer a straightforward announcement of the nominees. I didn't like the Supporting Actress presentation. Random fawning over the actresses and the names of their films weren't even mentioned! I also prefer seeing clips, however brief, of the design categories. If anyone had never heard of any of the nominated films, they sure didn't learn much about them last night.
I do also think that Chloe Zhao's wins were treated as afterthoughts. Sure the director win was locked, but why present it so early? And Nomadland's win for Best Picture seemed less significant because it didn't close the show. I agree 100% with a poster here or elsewhere... that Moonlight and Nomadland were the best Best Pictures in ages and the presentation of both was horribly botched.
I am glad though that we had an in-person ceremony and hope for better next year! Thanks Nathaniel and crew for always making the season so much fun. I will always love the Oscars, no matter what. :-)
I'm confused that people are confused about why the ceremony was the way it was. Did everyone forget about COVID? It's obvious Soderbergh and the producers decided to emphasize the human, actually in-the-room factor here, hence the lingering focus on people being, well, in the same room! They clearly wanted to go in the complete opposite direction of all the previous Zoomed-in ceremonies, hence scarcity of clips, which would have just been akin to us staring at more screens, which we've been doing all pandemic-long.
I didn't love the approach myself. But it's as clear as day what the logic was. Back to normal next year.
I got my 2nd shot yesterday (Moderna), woke up sick at 2am, but feeling better now (almost 2pm).
The show started out good, then got dull. I read on and off while watching. The song quiz didn't work.
I disagreed w/ a lot of the winners, but Hopkins was deserving. The Father is excellent.
They did a good job of pulling it all together, considering people were all over the world.
NATHANIEL - sorry to hear you're not feeling well. Get well soon!
Sad to think that Anthony Hopkins was really the best actor this year but he gets dissed because he is white, elderly, and because of sentiment. Aren't the Oscars supposed to be about merit? Merit won out over political correctness and sentiment. Nice to see actually. And as for Viola Davis, love her, but she was miscast in Ma Rainey, and the movie was a tedious Broadway show of people yelling all the time, and we're supposed to feel sympathy for a man who kills another for stepping on his shoe. Sorry, can't go there. Viola is a cerebral person, modern, not old school and certainly not rough around the edges. She'll be around for a long time, doing wonderful things. Count on it. We will be seeing Viola again. Can't wait. And Carrey Mulligan (should have won) and Vanessa Kirby. Not so much Andra Day. Kind of a jerk in my opinion. Shouldn't have been nominated. Fade away.
Well, I think if anyone remembers my comments, I didn't think Nomadland was special. So I'm not happy for its wins. And I figured out what bothers me about Frances McDormand - she doesn't wear makeup. I am Woman, hear me roar, etc. That aside, I was very happy for Anthony Hopkins. I adored that film, and he was very good in it. Also very cheered by Daniel Kaluuya's win, as I thought he was the glue that held Judas and the Black Messiah together - wonderful film and quite educational without being preachy. Very happy for Emerald Fennell's win for Best Original Screenplay - deserved. That is all.
The producers gambled everything on a Boseman win and lost big. There were things that worked and didn't work, like literally every Oscar night, but swapping Best Picture with the main acting categories was doomed from the beginning and literally became a worse-case scenario for the producers; the favorite (and the emotional acceptance speech that would have gone with) not winning, a winner not even being there and a presenter who, although a fine actor, has never been comfortable as a presenter or award accepter and thus unable to save the moment. Was there even a reason to have Renee present Actress and Joaquin Actor when they didn't make that swap in Supporting? Imagine not having had the joy of watching Youn Yuh-Jung crushing on Brad Pitt! A resounding thud to end on.
Pet peeves:
I already hate the use of the word "snub" on nomination morning but using that word in connection with the event itself is an insult to everyone involved. The nominees made the cut, only one can win. Bozeman wasn't snubbed, he just lost and to a fine performance more than deserving. Nobody voted against anyone, they voted for. Ban the word "snub"!
Anyone faulting an 83-year old person (never mind someone not expecting to win) for not wanting or perhaps being physically unable to fly halfway across the world in a pandemic or stay up until around 4 AM their local time and further saying they "couldn't even be bothered to show up', should really just shut up.
Thoughts:
I don't think McDormand expected to win and she literally just used her best lines and wolf call moments before. Once again, another worst case scenario for the producers and I personally hope some sort of karma for choosing to not announce the most important award at the end.
Outside of an awesome entrance by the wonderful Regina King and starting with the screenplay awards, I personally couldn't make out a single connection to the 'make the event feel like a movie' theme the producers seemed to be so intent in promoting.
Overall, how can you really compare this to other Oscar telecasts? It's not an even playing field due to the global circumstances. Let's say congrats to the winners, be a little disappointed if our own personal favorites didn't win and hope that next year we'll be able to go back to celebrating and complaining about what happened at the Kodak Theater the night before.
Was it just me or did I witness a train wreck at the train station? It seems as if I was watching some type of 'Pocketful Of Miracles' dream. Like they hosed down the L.A. street bums/derelicts and tried to pass them off as luxurious aristocrats. Where did That audience come from? Frances as the angry lady who talks to herself, Brad Pitt as the sidewalk stoner, Harrison Ford the lost dementia patient, a collection of street walkers, drug dealers/pimps and Glenn Close/Ado Annie-toss her a quarter for some cheap wine and she do Da Butt. What happened to this show?!?
I see a lot of complaining but I only see two actual travesties tonight...
My Octopus Teacher winning Documentary over its competition. It was clearly the weakest, and the most superficial, and the ending... ugh. I mean, did the AMPAS actually watch Collective? Or were they scared by the subtitles?
Husavik losing song. I mean, really, AMPAS? For once, you got a movie in which songwritting - and not for being a musical per sé - is crucial to the story, there's a writting team developing way different songs to actually properly mimic and spoof at the same time, the glam and ridiculousness of the Eurovision Song Festival, you get to nominate a song that not only makes all that, but is also beautiful and is the climatic closure of several character archs and delivers a powerful message... and you go for another generic end credit song? I could have understood it, if it went to One Night in Miami's Speak Now, but... nah, seriously.
Rant ended. Everything else, I am OK with it. And while I think Hopkins gave the best lead performance of the year... Boseman did the best performance of his career, and equally deserving, while battling with Colon Cancer. Just saying. That was the deciding factor, to me.
Similar case, Youn vs. Bakalova. Youn gave a magnificent, deserving performance, but Bakalova risked life and career at age 24 in the less baity role imaginable... and Tutar is directly one of the most iconic comedic characters I've seen... an instant classic performance. I am happy for Youn, really, but I hope Bakalova is back and wins next time... even if that seems difficult
@Gian
I don't know what would have been funnier... Youn crushing Brad Pitt or Bakalova losing it while winning AND crushing Brad Pitt. I don't forget both of them are completely new to Hollywood and probably are overwhelmed by being surrounded by stars and being treated as such as well. New status... they better adapt quick...
Not sure why people are ragging on the ceremony. Loved the fact that all categories got to be accepted in person on air. Loved that fact that extraneous performance crap was eliminated (more like the SAG awards). Could have done without the strange chat about the nominees by the presenters.
Found myself surprisingly disappointed that Nomadland didn't win for cinematography. Agree, what was up with that strange fast/slow tempo to the In Memoriam. Helen McCrory whizzed by and I'm looking at a sound editor.
Loved Hopkins win, am devastated if it was true Olivia Coleman was supposed to accept.
Count me in Frances McDormand defender. At least her film picls usually brings a full meaning of the team work of the film and has the real opportunity to support from time to time new talent. Also her performances, although not using wigs or accents had a voice.
And yep, evil laugh to Meryl Streep, but hey, since "The Devil Wears Prada" I hadn't seen any other inspired and fully dimentional performance beyond costumes, wigs and fake accents while being lazy in her picks. At least finally groups like the Golden Globes had started to keep the light,
Don't blame the producers, it was all the work of those wily shadowy Glennistas! They're terrorists and child traffickers!
Sure fake leon. Anyway, funny bit
Ha, fake leon nailed leon but with self awareness of delusional anger. Can we keep him instead lol. Nah real leon jk, we'll have you in all your unhinged glory xo
Don't worry Art. My work is done to open the delusional stans. Actually I think those Glenndistas can be so out of the loop.