Oscars Recap: Chloe Zhao makes history, but 'Wolfwalkers' team miss out

On Sunday, April 25, The 93rd Academy Awards took place in Los Angeles. The awards ceremony was a little different this year, with a socially-distanced red carpet and ceremony, but no less eventful than any other year! Men had a fashion moment, with Best Supporting Actor nominees Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield in Bottega Veneta and custom Saint Laurent, respectively, and sparkles dominated the red carpet. The theme of the evening seemed to be glitter and gold – making up for all that lost time during the pandemic!

Regina King opened the show, explaining the extensive Covid protocols the awards ceremony put in place in order for the show to go ahead. A third of The Academy's budget went to ensuring the safety of the people attending the ceremony.

Right off the bat, Emerald Fennell took home the award for Best Original Screenplay, for her staggering feature film Promising Young Woman. Other big winners included Daniel Kaluuya, who picked up Best Supporting Actor for Judas And The Black Messiah, and Yun-Jung Youn, who picked up Best Supporting Actress for Minari. 

Chloé Zhao made history, becoming the first woman of colour to win in the Best Directing category – and only the second woman ever to win the award (it was first won by Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker). It was a stunning win for the Asian-Amerian writer/director, in a year that contained the most racially diverse set of nominees the 93-year-old Oscars have ever seen.

Elsewhere, in a surprising upset, Nomadland's cinematographer Joshua James Richards lost out on the award for Best Cinematography to Eric Messerschmidt of Mank. Richards was the favourite to win the award, working closely with director Chloé Zhao on Nomadland's crew of just 25 people.

Soul picked up Best Original Score and Best Animated Feature, beating out Irish hopeful Wolfwalkers from Kilkenny animation studio Cartoon Saloon.

The three biggest awards of the evening were awarded near the end of the ceremony. Nomadland won its third award of the night for Best Picture, while the Best Actor and Actress in a Leading Role categories were both surprises – Frances McDormand won her third Oscar for Nomadland, although the favourite was Andra Day for her role in The United States Vs. Billie Holiday, and Anthony Hopkins snagged his award for The Father – though it was widely believed that Chadwick Boseman would pick up a posthumous award for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. 

Take a look at the full list of winners and nominees below.

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

RIZ AHMED
Sound of Metal

CHADWICK BOSEMAN
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

ANTHONY HOPKINS (WINNER) 
The Father

GARY OLDMAN
Mank

STEVEN YEUN
Minari

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

SACHA BARON COHEN
The Trial of the Chicago 7

DANIEL KALUUYA (WINNER)
Judas and the Black Messiah

LESLIE ODOM, JR.
One Night in Miami...

PAUL RACI
Sound of Metal

LAKEITH STANFIELD
Judas and the Black Messiah

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

VIOLA DAVIS
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

ANDRA DAY
The United States vs. Billie Holiday

VANESSA KIRBY
Pieces of a Woman

FRANCES MCDORMAND (WINNER)
Nomadland

CAREY MULLIGAN
Promising Young Woman

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

MARIA BAKALOVA
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious
Nation of Kazakhstan

GLENN CLOSE
Hillbilly Elegy

OLIVIA COLMAN
The Father

AMANDA SEYFRIED
Mank

YUH-JUNG YOUN (WINNER)
Minari

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

ONWARD
Dan Scanlon and Kori Rae

OVER THE MOON
Glen Keane, Gennie Rim and Peilin Chou

A SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE: FARMAGEDDON
Richard Phelan, Will Becher and Paul Kewley

SOUL (WINNER)
Pete Docter and Dana Murray

WOLFWALKERS
Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart, Paul Young and Stéphan Roelants

CINEMATOGRAPHY

JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH
Sean Bobbitt

MANK (WINNER)
Erik Messerschmidt

NEWS OF THE WORLD
Dariusz Wolski

NOMADLAND
Joshua James Richards

THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7
Phedon Papamichael

COSTUME DESIGN

EMMA
Alexandra Byrne

MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM (WINNER)
Ann Roth

MANK
Trish Summerville

MULAN
Bina Daigeler

PINOCCHIO
Massimo Cantini Parrini

DIRECTING

ANOTHER ROUND
Thomas Vinterberg

MANK
David Fincher

MINARI
Lee Isaac Chung

NOMADLAND (WINNER)
Chloé Zhao

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
Emerald Fennell

DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)

COLLECTIVE
Alexander Nanau and Bianca Oana

CRIP CAMP
Nicole Newnham, Jim LeBrecht and Sara Bolder

THE MOLE AGENT
Maite Alberdi and Marcela Santibáñez

MY OCTOPUS TEACHER (WINNER)
Pippa Ehrlich, James Reed and Craig Foster

TIME
Garrett Bradley, Lauren Domino and Kellen Quinn

DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)

COLETTE (WINNER)
Anthony Giacchino and Alice Doyard

A CONCERTO IS A CONVERSATION
Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers

DO NOT SPLIT
Anders Hammer and Charlotte Cook

HUNGER WARD
Skye Fitzgerald and Michael Scheuerman

A LOVE SONG FOR LATASHA
Sophia Nahli Allison and Janice Duncan

FILM EDITING

THE FATHER
Yorgos Lamprinos

NOMADLAND
Chloé Zhao

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
Frédéric Thoraval

SOUND OF METAL (WINNER) 
Mikkel E. G. Nielsen

THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7
Alan Baumgarten

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM

ANOTHER ROUND (WINNER)
Denmark

BETTER DAYS
Hong Kong

COLLECTIVE
Romania

THE MAN WHO SOLD HIS SKIN
Tunisia

QUO VADIS, AIDA?
Bosnia and Herzegovina

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

EMMA
Marese Langan, Laura Allen and Claudia Stolze

HILLBILLY ELEGY
Eryn Krueger Mekash, Matthew Mungle and Patricia Dehaney

MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM (WINNER)
Sergio Lopez-Rivera, Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson

MANK
Gigi Williams, Kimberley Spiteri and Colleen LaBaff

PINOCCHIO
Mark Coulier, Dalia Colli and Francesco Pegoretti

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)

DA 5 BLOODS
Terence Blanchard

MANK
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

MINARI
Emile Mosseri

NEWS OF THE WORLD
James Newton Howard

SOUL (WINNER) 
Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)

FIGHT FOR YOU (WINNER) 
from Judas and the Black Messiah; Music by H.E.R. and Dernst Emile II; Lyric by H.E.R. and Tiara Thomas

HEAR MY VOICE
from The Trial of the Chicago 7; Music by Daniel Pemberton; Lyric by Daniel Pemberton and Celeste Waite

HUSAVIK
from Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga; Music and Lyric by Savan Kotecha, Fat Max Gsus and Rickard Göransson

IO SÌ (SEEN)
from The Life Ahead (La Vita Davanti a Se); Music by Diane Warren; Lyric by Diane Warren and Laura Pausini

SPEAK NOW
from One Night in Miami...; Music and Lyric by Leslie Odom, Jr. and Sam Ashworth

BEST PICTURE

THE FATHER
David Parfitt, Jean-Louis Livi and Philippe Carcassonne, Producers

JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH
Shaka King, Charles D. King and Ryan Coogler, Producers

MANK
Ceán Chaffin, Eric Roth and Douglas Urbanski, Producers

MINARI
Christina Oh, Producer

NOMADLAND (WINNER) 
Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey and Chloé Zhao, Producers

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
Ben Browning, Ashley Fox, Emerald Fennell and Josey McNamara, Producers

SOUND OF METAL
Bert Hamelinck and Sacha Ben Harroche, Producers

THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7
Marc Platt and Stuart Besser, Producers

PRODUCTION DESIGN

THE FATHER
Production Design: Peter Francis; Set Decoration: Cathy Featherstone

MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM
Production Design: Mark Ricker; Set Decoration: Karen O'Hara and Diana Stoughton

MANK (WINNER)
Production Design: Donald Graham Burt; Set Decoration: Jan Pascale

NEWS OF THE WORLD
Production Design: David Crank; Set Decoration: Elizabeth Keenan

TENET
Production Design: Nathan Crowley; Set Decoration: Kathy Lucas

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)

BURROW
Madeline Sharafian and Michael Capbarat

GENIUS LOCI
Adrien Mérigeau and Amaury Ovise

IF ANYTHING HAPPENS I LOVE YOU (WINNER)
Will McCormack and Michael Govier

OPERA
Erick Oh

YES-PEOPLE
Gísli Darri Halldórsson and Arnar Gunnarsson

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)

FEELING THROUGH
Doug Roland and Susan Ruzenski

THE LETTER ROOM
Elvira Lind and Sofia Sondervan

THE PRESENT
Farah Nabulsi and Ossama Bawardi

TWO DISTANT STRANGERS (WINNER)
Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe

WHITE EYE
Tomer Shushan and Shira Hochman

SOUND

GREYHOUND
Warren Shaw, Michael Minkler, Beau Borders and David Wyman

MANK
Ren Klyce, Jeremy Molod, David Parker, Nathan Nance and Drew Kunin

NEWS OF THE WORLD
Oliver Tarney, Mike Prestwood Smith, William Miller and John Pritchett

SOUL
Ren Klyce, Coya Elliott and David Parker

SOUND OF METAL (WINNER)
Nicolas Becker, Jaime Baksht, Michellee Couttolenc, Carlos Cortés and Phillip Bladh

VISUAL EFFECTS

LOVE AND MONSTERS
Matt Sloan, Genevieve Camilleri, Matt Everitt and Brian Cox

THE MIDNIGHT SKY
Matthew Kasmir, Christopher Lawrence, Max Solomon and David Watkins

MULAN
Sean Faden, Anders Langlands, Seth Maury and Steve Ingram

THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN
Nick Davis, Greg Fisher, Ben Jones and Santiago Colomo Martinez

TENET (WINNER)
Andrew Jackson, David Lee, Andrew Lockley and Scott Fisher

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)

BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM: DELIVERY OF PRODIGIOUS BRIBE TO AMERICAN REGIME FOR MAKE BENEFIT ONCE GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN
Screenplay by Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines & Dan Swimer & Peter Baynham & Erica Rivinoja & Dan Mazer & Jena Friedman & Lee Kern; Story by Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines & Dan Swimer & Nina Pedrad

THE FATHER (WINNER)
Screenplay by Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller

NOMADLAND
Written for the screen by Chloé Zhao

ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI...
Screenplay by Kemp Powers

THE WHITE TIGER
Written for the screen by Ramin Bahrani

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)

JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH
Screenplay by Will Berson & Shaka King; Story by Will Berson & Shaka King and Kenny Lucas & Keith Lucas

MINARI
Written by Lee Isaac Chung

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN (WINNER)
Written by Emerald Fennell

SOUND OF METAL
Screenplay by Darius Marder & Abraham Marder; Story by Darius Marder & Derek Cianfrance

THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7
Written by Aaron Sorkin