This year we celebrated the 93rd Oscars with a socially-distanced mayhem of an awards show. Famed director Steven Soderbergh was in charge of this year's Oscars, which was no easy task while following COVID-19 restrictions and still managing to entertain in the face of the record-low viewership that many awards shows have received during the pandemic.
This year had a more diverse set of nominees than in years past. The biggest historical moment was of course the fact that two women were nominated for best director, which has been a historically male-dominated category.
Photo is from nytimes.com
The actual show itself has been met with mixed reviews. The event started off strong with Regina King handling the opening with grace and beauty. King’s directorial debut “One Night in Miami” was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor (thanks to the talents of Leslie Odom Jr.), and Best Original Song (for “Speak Now”). But, despite great reviews and a stellar performance, “One Night in Miami” did not win any awards.
We need to talk about how Chloé Zhao made history. Zhao is the second woman in the history of the Oscars to win Best Director. If anyone deserves it (and the win for best picture) it is Zhao. She adapted “Nomadland” (based on Jessica Bruder’s 2017 book) into a screenplay herself, and directed and produced the film, making her a true triple threat. Not only is Zhao the second woman to win an Oscar, she is the first woman of color to ever win, ensuring her name will go down in history as one of the greats.
Zhao’s acceptance speech was also touching to hear, so do yourself a favor and go watch it. In her speech she reminisced on an ancient Chinese proverb that she and her dad memorized, which means ‘People at birth are inherently good.’ Zhao dedicated her award “for anyone who had the faith, and the courage to hold on to the goodness in themselves, and to hold on to the goodness in each other, no matter how difficult it is to do that.”
Youn Yuh-Jung made history as the first Korean actress to win Best Supporting Actress (despite the fact that her presenter, Brad Pitt, botched the pronunciation of her name) for her role in “Minari.” The 73-year-old won after a 50-year long career starting in 1971, according to the Hollywood Reporter, a career she originally turned to out of necessity.
Photo is from nytimes.com
Daniel Kaluuya won Best Supporting Actor for “Judas and the Black Messiah” and had the oddest speech of the night. Kaluuya praised the man who he portrayed on screen, Fred Hampton, and all that he accomplished, before awkwardly acknowledging life as a whole and then saying that he was thankful that his parents had sex and gave birth to him. His mom and sister’s reactions to this speech were golden and have inspired some memes.
Frances McDormand won for Best Leading Actress for “Nomadland.” This is McDormand’s third Oscar award, after winning in 2018 for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing,” “Missouri” and in 1997 for “Fargo.” “Nomadland” also won Best Picture, with McDormand rounding off the speeches by announcing that this one was “to our Wolf” and then howling. According to the New York Times, McDormand was referencing Michael Wolf Snyder, who was a sound mixer on “Nomadland” and took his life in March.
Photo is from Variety.com
While this year’s Oscars did contain delightful moments like Zhao’s win, Glenn Close dancing to the song “Da Butt,” and Emerald Fennell winning Best Original Screenplay for “Promising Young Woman” and declaring that the statue was “so heavy and so cold,” it still had awkward or just plain weird moments. The “In Memoriam” segment felt incredibly rushed and did not take any real time to honor the men and women who died in 2020, including legends like Chadwick Boseman and Christopher Plummer.
The show also had an odd ending. The Best Actress and Actor awards were presented at the end of the show, instead of Best Picture. Many fans and viewers thought producers decided on this because Chadwick Boseman was strongly expected to win posthumously for his performance in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”
Soderberg told the Los Angeles Times that switching up the order “was something we were going to do well before the nominations came out — we talked about that in January.” He said producers made this choice based not on the assumption that Boseman would win, but on the idea “that actors’ speeches tend to be more dramatic than producers’ speeches.”
Instead of Boseman winning as many expected, 83-year-old acting veteran Athony Hopkins took the award for his performance in “The Father.” Since Hopkins did not attend the awards ceremony, his presenter Joaquin Phoenix accepted on his behalf, after which the credits abruptly rolled. The sudden ending left a sour taste at the end of the ceremony.
Even though the ending felt odd, the 93rd Oscars was a great night to celebrate movies and art. History was made again and again with awards like Best Costume and Best Makeup/Hairstyling, which went to Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson from “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” the first black women to win in these categories. We can revel in the diversity that the Oscars finally represented and the wins of the people who deserved it.
Thumbnail is from the elle.com.