Here is our official Oscars Open Post for 2021, the Academy Awards ceremony no one wanted and everyone forgot about. This year’s Oscars kept getting pushed back because of the pandemic, and it’s some kind of cruel irony that in the pandemic year, the Oscar nominations are some of the most diverse and inclusive in history. We’ll likely see a Chinese woman win Best Director, and there are a historic number of Black and Asian nominees. You can see the list of this year’s nominees here.
We’re doing things a little bit differently this year on this site. This Open Post will be updated throughout the evening when the major award winners are announced, as opposed to doing stand-alone posts for the major winners (which is how we usually do it for the Oscars). While you guys are free to talk about Oscar fashion in the comments, our full Oscar fashion coverage begins bright and early Monday morning. You can follow me on Twitter here at KaiseratCB, follow CB at Celebitchy, follow Hecate at HecateAtCB and follow Oya at Tanisha_Ev.
Best Supporting Actor: Daniel Kaluuya for Judas and Black Messiah.
Daniel had won several of the big awards before this so his won wasn’t a big shock. Still, I think he was suprised by the emotion he felt in the moment. In his speech, he honored his family, his coworkers, his co-nominees and the man he played in the film, Black Panther Chairman Fred Hampton, who found a way to feed children, inspire generations of Black leaders and more. He also embarrassed his mum by saying “My mom, my dad, they had sex, that’s amazing.” He was fighting back tears but he managed to admit that he was going to party tonight and Monday and then the work would continue on Tuesday. (by Kaiser)
#Oscars Moment: Daniel Kaluuya wins Best Supporting Actor for Judas and the Black Messiah (@JATBMFilm). pic.twitter.com/rKRvKxWdGr
— The Academy (@TheAcademy) April 26, 2021
Best Director: Chloe Zhao for Nomadland.
The category was announced by last year’s winner, Bong Joon-Ho, very early in the night. Chloe is only the second woman to win Best Director in history, after Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) in 2009, and she’s the first woman of color to win. This was also the first year that two women were nominated in this category. Chloe was widely expected to win this year, having taken home the Golden Globe, BAFTA and Director’s Guild awards. In her acceptance speech Chloe thanked the other nominees and her company. She dedicated her Oscar to her dad and recited a line from a Chinese poem about how “people at birth are inherently good,” saying she believes in the good in people. Congratulations to Chloe! (By Celebitchy)
#Oscars Moment: Chloé Zhao accepts the Oscar for Best Directing for @nomadlandfilm. pic.twitter.com/1W1zPSxEWS
— The Academy (@TheAcademy) April 26, 2021
Best Supporting Actress: Youn Yuh-jung for Minari.
South Korean actress Youn Yuh-jung has won Best Supporting actress for her performance as grandmother Soonja in Minari. Yuh-jung was expected to win this category, having won the Golden Globe, SAG and BAFTA. This is her first Academy Award nomination and first win. Her speech was so charming and funny. She joked that she was happy to meet Brad Pitt, who presented this category, and said that people often mispronounce her name. She also thanked her co-stars, said that they became a family and thanked her director, Lee Isaac Chung. She asked “how can I win over Glenn Close?” and said she didn’t believe in competition because they were all playing different roles. She then attributed her win to luck and thanked her boys for making her go out to work. I love her! (By Celebitchy)
Best Picture: Nomadland
Nomadland has won Best Picture at the 93rd Academy Awards. The awards were wildly out of order this year, with Best Picture coming before the lead acting categories. Chloe Zhao’s also won Best Director much earlier in the night. Nomadland was a triumph of quiet filmmaking, and had the feel of a documentary as Chloe used real people who lived as nomads in secondary roles. Two of those actresses, Charlene Swankie and Linda May, were on stage as she accepted the award. She thanked them, Bob Wells, and the nomadic community. Frances McDormand came on and encouraged everyone to watch the nominated movies in a theater. She ended with “we give this one to our wolf,” howling loudly. She was referring to sound mixer Michael Wolf Snyder, who passed in March.
Best Actress. Frances McDormand for Nomadland.
Frances literally seemed disgruntled that she won her THIRD Best Actress Oscar. It wasn’t some big surprise – her performance was widely praised and well-loved, and she suggested that she and the other actress nominees should have just done karaoke. She kept her speech pithy too. Love her. (by Kaiser)
Best Actor: Anthony Hopkins for The Father
Anthony Hopkins has won Best Actor for his work as man suffering from dementia in The Father. This category was expected to go to Chadwick Boseman as he swept this awards season. Hopkins gave an incredible and moving performance. He wasn’t in LA or at any of the hubs and so presenter Joaquin Phoenix accepted on his behalf. This is Hopkins’ second Oscar and sixth nomination and he is the oldest Best Actor winner and nominee at 83. Note by Kaiser: Chadwick Boseman was the odds-on favorite, but Hopkins made a late surge, winning the BAFTA and doing a couple of promotional interviews to support the Oscar campaign for the studio. It feels like a vote-splitting issue, honestly.
Photos courtesy of IMDB, Netflix.
My outlet sent me to LA to cover the 2012 Oscars. It was the worst week of my life. This is my cue for an early night in. I wish all of you Oscar lovers a grand time with this but I’ll be sheltering in the happiest country on earth trying not to have flashbacks of losing all of my Hollywood heroes in a single week.
ugh, that sucks!
any tea you’d care to share?
I will spill sad and haunted tea because the royal threads are too addicting tonight and I’m still here.
I adored Phillip Seymour Hoffman as an actor. I heard he would be there and I wanted to see if I could snag an interview. I won’t go into too much detail out of respect. He was messed up on something. It was horrible. I got a quick interview about the movie The Master that had recently released and left it at that. He died two years later around AA time and that still haunts me.
***hugs*** PSH was an amazing talent. Such a loss.
thanks, Taylor. I was sad about PSH too. he was incredibly talented. it’s really unfortunate that he never managed to get past addiction. (addiction is a MFer.)
I’m really sorry you had a tough time. 🙁 He was a terrific actor who could play practically anyone. I think it was Julia Phillips who said “Never meet your idols,” and that is sadly true more often than not.
Love an Oscars celebitchy open post!
I only watch the red carpet, which is boring as hell this year except for Viola Davis looking fabulous as usual.
I Have been waiting for the open post!
Regina King looks great !!!
I love everything but the wings. Then again, that’s *one* way to insure social distancing where no one is wearing masks! 😄
Yes! She looks amazing!
The color of the dress is heavenly. The silver trim is perfect.
Oh god. Riz and his wife are couple goals
Angela Bassett looks amazing.
Glad they finally scrapped the dubious “Best Foreign Language” category and changed the title to the less subjective title of “Best International Feature Film.” Although ultimately I’d prefer it if they just scrapped this form of cultural apartheid and included all the best films, regardless of language, in the “Best Picture” category.
I can’t believe ABC still hasn’t figured out how to live stream from their own platform for people without cable. I’ve had to subscribe to Hulu Live just to watch this, and before this year I couldn’t even do that outside of LA or New York (and I live an hour from LA). Literally every other network has figured out live streaming. Every year people lament the low Oscars rating and it’s not because people don’t want to watch the Oscars, it’s because ABC is still in the 20th century.
That being said, these people look so happy to be at an event and I’m loving it. Even though Laura Dern came dressed as an ostrich.
Try this: https://ustvgo.tv/abc-live-streaming-free/
Thanks, I’ve got it on Hulu. It just bugs me that ABC is so behind everyone else and then have the nerve to complain about ratings.
Nice intro.
Yessss REGINA !!!!!
Wow EMERALD!
Good start. Awards for two worthy winners.
I’m actually liking it in the train station. The way the tables are set up is giving it a nightclub vibe. More “intimate” than an aud with them stuffed in like sardines.
Another Round wins. Never in doubt really.
And they showed a clip of part of Mads’s dance.
I expected Another Round to win but I thought Quo Vadis, Aida? was the better film. so riveting and haunting.
Omg Denmark
I want to see a clip of the acting, I don’t want to hear Laura Dern’s description. This is kind of awkward.
(I am just tuning in).
Same, just tuned in and hoping each person in each category doesn’t have an intro that long!
I actually like this because it actually informs people who haven’t seen these films why these performances are worth watching. It is hard to watch performances without knowing the context. Actually both styles combined would be better. It may lengthen the show. But Oscars shows include so much stupid stuff that should never air. At least this would be not meaningful content.
Yeah I would like a combo – “Daniel Kaluuya nominated for his performance as a XYZ, bring ing to vivid life the story of x.” Then play clip (I haven’t seen most of these movies hence the generics lol). They have so much other filler to cut out, they can certainly still do that. I think they used to and switched it to just a clip a while back.
I also don’t mind the longer speeches, they’re boring for us lol but for the winners this is the pinnacle of their career. Let them thank as many people as they want, you know? (I mean maybe with SOME time limit but loner than 30 seconds or whatever it is now lol)
This is the best Oscars. It’s Black contributor content is so meaningful and joyous.
Didn’t know Daniel was British.
Haha check out his opening monologue from SNL a few weeks ago! He talks about being black and British and says something like “basically I’m what the royal family worried the baby would look like”
They’re still scared the little girl will come out looking like Doria.
West Side Story looks SO good; even with Angel elgort LOL. Love that it seems so in tune with the original.
Ok even my husband is complaining now. Show me the makeup and hair! Show me the costumes!
Ditto! I’ve seen most of the movies, but my friends have not. Clips of the work help them remember who did what.
I agree, it’s a shame to not have clips of the performances.
This is awful. They’ve seriously done nothing but talk in a dimly lit room for almost an hour so far, without showing us a single example of any of the work they’re honoring. This is the most tedious thing I’ve ever seen.
I’m so happy for Daniel Kaluuya!!
haha his mom’s face though during his speech
CHLOE ZHAO FTW!!! So awesome
It took me over an hour to realize they weren’t showing any clips of the performances, but how dumb. Is this how they’re making it shorter? Stupid. People who don’t want to watch the Oscars won’t start watching it because it’s shorter and less interesting. They could have scrapped that indulgent humanitarian award business and shown clips. I wish another network would get the rights to the Oscars. ABC has bungled it for years.
Kaiser’s Nemesis just won another Oscar for Animated Short, despite wearing an ostrich.
I watched Sound of Metal last night. Riz and the whole cast gives an amazing performance.
I can’t wait to watch this. I’ve been waiting until my daughter got home from college, because she’s studying ASL interpreting and I want to watch it with her.
SOUL!!! Loved that movie. It’s one of the few new movies we’ve seen in the past year that my boys have requested to watch on their own multiple times. It also got my husband to buy Jon Batiste’s new album on vinyl even though we’re not really jazz fans and…..it’s good. Recommend it.
I’m so happy for the woman who won but i was really hoping Glenn would take it… Glenn is amazing and I rly want her to win one day!! The actress who won is so funny loved her speech she’s been acting forever well deserved. Also my man Steven yeun there love him
Youn Yuh-jung cracks me up, she really speaks her mind, it’s so refreshing. (And she made that comment about British people during her BAFTAs. acceptance speech.)
Best dresses: Viola, Regina and Amanda Seyfried. Worst: Carey Mulligan and Laura Dern.
Halle’s hair?
I was just telling my daughter it looks like Halle finally started aging.
Loving Questlove’s music for the transitions!
he’s so talented, and has so much musical knowledge. plus he’s a total sweetheart.
& those golden crocs! not gonna lie, I want a pair.
Jon Batiste really has the light. I didn’t know who he was before Colbert and I’ve been seeing him everywhere in the past 2 years.
I love him. What a great way to say it, “he has the light.”
Could they do this In Memoriam any faster? Geez. Kind of insulting to the honorees how fast they’re going.
Seriously, that was right disrespectful. IM is generally regarded as a downer segment that kills the show’s momentum/vibe, but come on. Honor these folks.
GD! They could have made that In Memoriam 30 seconds longer so we could actually read the names. That was stressful.
Agreed. It started out so good and so promising and ended with a whimper. I love Frances but her speech was just flat. And ending the show with best actor?? “Oscars so black” ended with honoring an old white man.
At least Nomadland won the big ones! It was really fun to see Linda May and Swankie up there on stage all gussied up. Believe me nomad life ain’t like that!
Questlove was awesome.
I think best foot forward was the broadcast’s goal, but I think
the producers of the Oscars thought that the show would end with ending on the high note of Chadwick’s win.
That’s what I was thinking too!
Holy. Crap. Anthony Hopkins?! I thought Chadwick was a sure thing and if not him then Riz Ahmed surely. Wow. Yikes.
Did you see all the films? IMHO Anthony Hopkins deserved to win, and if not him, then Riz. Chadwick was a great actor but his role/performance in Ma Rainey was not close to theirs. I understand that people wanted him to win because he is gone, but I would have voted for Anthony Hopkins too.
Admittedly, I haven’t, but all the predictions I read said that it would go to Chadwick and if not him then Riz.
Yes, it was unexpected. I think people thought Chadwick had it in the bag but maybe hadn’t seen the film? When I came out of seeing The Father I thought that Sir Anthony absolutely deserved to win and that it was a shame he wouldn’t win…cue the surprise upset!
Until the end I was really thinking Riz was going to win based on all the Sound of Metal awards. I’m not trying to diss Anthony Hopkins – he’s an incredible actor. I think they should have let Nomadland have its glory at the end like they always do with Best Picture but clearly they didn’t clue the producers in about the best actor award.
Agreed! They set up a very weird moment at the end, presumably anticipating an emotional Chadwick win. They should have had Best Picture last.
I’d never seen Riz in anything before Sound of Metal, I thought he was incredible, can’t wait to see him in more films. I wish Chadwick had many more roles in front of him too. So sad.
Hopkins won the BAFTA so with a similar voting pool they maybe should have kept best picture for last instead of setting it up for a Boseman win that never happened.
It’s a tough situation because both were excellent and Hopkins was pretty outstanding so it’s not like they gave it to Gary Oldman or anything. But what an anticlimax. It wasn’t even exciting like the mix up over Moonlight and LaLa land. It was just flat.
I think it was deserved, and I am glad he won it!
I agree – I absolutely love Chadwick and was devastated for weeks when he passed. I originally wanted him to win just for the sentimentality too.
But after watching The Father… good god. I’m a woman in my twenties who has not (yet) had to deal with any close family members with dementia, so this is not a close topic to my heart at all. But his performance hurt. I couldn’t sleep that night after watching it.
One review captured my feelings on this film and his performance perfectly: the most quietly upsetting parts of the film were when Hopkins was silent when he found his world shifting as he knew no one would believe him. My heart broke a hundred times during that film and for all the people who have to go through this in real life (and their carers). It was beautifully done and deserved the accolades, as much as I love Chad.
I don’t trust that the producers were in the dark about the winners beforehand. Having Anthony Hopkins win over Chadwick earlier in the show would have tuned everyone out, so they switched up the order to keep baiting people. And of course, keep those expected a Mulligan or Davis win await with bated breath too. They already had a historic moment upcoming with Nomadland winning Best Picture/Director, why would they forego that and tradition for just in the off chance Chadwick will win? As for the debate about whether Chadwick’s performance was even as good as Anthony’s one…….we have seen mediocre performances win umpteen times at the Oscars just because it was a “moment” or “their time”. They couldn’t show the same consideration for a POC I guess. “It’s nice they awarded the two actors who didn’t do any campaigning” blah blah sure…but I’d have been more satisfied to see winners who actually cared. Frances McDormand howling on stage shows how little the Oscars mean to her.
They still could have put best picture last after best actor second to last. If people would tune out or turn off the Oscars program after sitting through the entire thing just because Chadwick Boseman lost, that would be very petty.
But yeah, that’s exactly what producers were thinking: keep people hooked in.
Well I personally don’t think it’s petty when the awards circuit milked his death for all it was worth. And the Oscars kept the narrative that it was going to be a historic night. There were many fans of Chadwick, including Marvel fans, who tuned in just to know he won or to see him being honoured. Only to end with an 80+ old white man who didn’t even delegate someone to collect the Oscar on his behalf being awarded (again). It sure did end on an anticlimactic note. I for one I’m glad Riz Ahmed didn’t win over Chadwick even though he was my favourite. You just know he would have had to apologise for that award for all his life and feel embarrassed about it. No one’s going to be chasing Anthony Hopkins for his perspective on the win.
To be fair to Anthony Hopkins, he’s 83, it was four in the morning his time and there’s a pandemic. And no one thought he was going to win. I think expecting him to delegate someone to collect the award on his behalf beforehand is a bit much (he would have been thought very presumptuous, given the widespread belief that Chadwick Boseman would win).
I’m enjoying Oscars after dark.
I’m so happy for Daniel Kaluuya !! I love him as much as an actor since the Skins.
Frances McDormand is a wonderful actress but I understand that she was unhappy to have won her THIRD Oscar for Best Actress. The Oscars have a real problem concerning the recognition of actors from the ethnic minority, in particular black actresses, the only black actresses to have had the Oscar for best actress is Halle Berry in 2002 since this day any others actresses no one has succeeded in winning this oscar and even being the fact to be nominated is very complicated.
For example Viola Davis for the film Fences was nominated in the supporting actress category while her character carried the plot in the same way as Denzel Washington while on the other side Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling for La la land who have the same structure.
were considered two main actors.
This same year it is exactly the same thing but for the black actors because it is necessary to explain to me like Lakeith Stanfield who plays Billy O’Neal and Daniel Kaluuya who plays Fred Hampton can both be secondary actors in the same film to unless the character of Jesse Plemons is the main character. I watched the movie for my Daniel and Lakeith was the two main characters while Jesse Plemons, Dominique Fishback, Martin Sheen etc were the supporting characters.