The 2021 Oscars Sunday had a different, more relaxed vibe compared with previous years. Play-off music didn’t even interrupt the speeches and history was made, with Chloé Zhao becoming the second ever woman to win best director and the first woman of color to nab that award. Minari’s Youn Yuh-jung won best supporting actress, the first Korean acting win in the show’s 93-year history. Perhaps surprisingly, Anthony Hopkins won best actor for The Father, beating the late Chadwick Boseman, who had been the favorite. On Monday, Hopkins spoke warmly of Boseman in a video posted to Instagram. At 83, Sir Anthony is the oldest ever recipient of best actor; while best supporting actor Kaluuya is the first black British actor to win an Oscar.

 

Anthony Hopkins in a scene from “The Father.”

Nomadland, from Chloé Zhao, won best picture and best actress for Frances McDormand, a whopping fourth Oscar win for the actress. Nomadland won three Oscars overall, the most on the night. Mank, The Father, Tenet, Judas and the Black Messiah, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Soul and Sound of Metal were among those that took two.

Chloé Zhao

Daniel Kaluuya won his first Oscar for best supporting actor early on in the night, giving a memorably unconventional tribute to his parents.  Kaluuya is the first black British actor to win an Oscar. It was a big night for streaming services, too. Netflix won more awards than any other studio, with seven. Disney Plus and Amazon studios both earned two, and even Facebook won its first ever Oscar.

Daniel Kaluuya

The number of people watching the Oscars dropped to an all-time low on Sunday, overnight figures reveal. Just 9.85 million US viewers tuned in to the ceremony, a drop of 58% from the previous low of 23.6 million in 2020. Interest in the event was dealt a double blow by the lack of blockbuster contenders, and audience fatigue with drab Covid-era award ceremonies. And despite historic wins for Anthony Hopkins, Chloé Zhao and Daniel Kaluuya, reviews were overwhelmingly negative.

TV Line deemed the event “a painfully earnest snoozefest“, while IndieWire called it an “insiders’ awards show [that] collapsed under its own weight”. The Arts Desk said it was “dispiriting throughout” and asked why winners were allowed “to yammer on incessantly”. Even Variety’s more upbeat review took issue with its “insistence on upending its own order for the sake of it”.

In a pandemic-necessitated break with tradition, this year’s Oscars were moved from their usual home at Hollywood’s Dolby Theater to Los Angeles’s Union Station. The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg felt it was a fitting location for the ceremony given “it was, in some ways, a trainwreck“.

 

 

By AlizeLaVie  04/ 26/2021