Reinvented Oscars hands Nomadland big win on diversity-packed night

Los Angeles

NOMADLAND, the story of van dwellers in America, won the best picture Oscar and two other Academy Awards on a triumphant night for women that also saw a return to Hollywood glamour after a long pandemic shutdown.

In a major upset, Anthony Hopkins won the best actor trophy for his role as a man battling dementia in The Father. The Oscar had been widely expected to go to the late Chadwick Boseman for his final film, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.

China native Chloe Zhao was named best director for Searchlight Pictures' Nomadland, making her the first Asian woman and only the second woman ever to take home the trophy. Kathryn Bigelow was the first in 2010.

Zhao went into the Oscars ceremony as the front-runner after picking up trophies from the Directors Guild of America, the Golden Globes, Bafta, and multiple film critic groups. She was also nominated for best film editing and best adapted screenplay but did not win.

She thanked the nomadic community for "teaching us the power of resilience and hope and reminding us what true kindness looks like".

"I am extremely lucky to be able to do what I love for a living, and if this means more people get to live their dreams, I'm extremely grateful," she said backstage afterwards.

Zhao was born in China and lived in Beijing until age 14, when she went to boarding school in London and later finished high school in Los Angeles.

But China did not get to see her triumph live on television, as it was not offered.

Chinese media regulators also decided in March not to air the Oscars live on its streaming platforms, the Washington Post reported.

Zhao has become controversial in her native land, where commentators on social media said she has insulted China in some of her past comments.

Frances McDormand, one of the few professionals in Nomadland in which several people played versions of themselves, won her third Oscar.

Social distancing forced a rethink of the ceremony, moving it to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles.

After strict Covid-19 testing and quarantine protocols, nominees and their guests walked the red carpet, mostly maskless. They sat in a cabaret-style room inside the Mission Revival-style rail station or chatted in an outdoor courtyard.

The prospect of all four acting honors going to people of colour for the first time was not realised. But 14 women took home Oscars, including for sound (Sound of Metal), production design (Mank), original screenplay (Promising Young Woman) and documentary feature (My Octopus Teacher).

Youn Yuh-jung, 73, won the best supporting actress Oscar for her role as a cantankerous grandmother in immigrant tale Minari.

Youn is the first South Korean actor or actress to win an Oscar.

The ceremony for the highest honours in the movie business took place after a turbulent year for the industry that shuttered production and movie theatres for months and saw studios delay the release of some blockbusters by more than a year.

"This was indeed a hard year for everyone, but our love for movies helped to get us through it," said presenter Regina King, opening the ceremony, which had no host for the third straight year.

McDormand made a passionate plea for people to return to theaters.

"One day, very soon, take everyone you know into a theatre, shoulder to shoulder in that dark space, and watch every film that's represented here," she said.

Britain's Daniel Kaluuya was named best supporting actor for his role as 1960s Black Panther activist Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah.

The movie Soul, the first from Disney's Pixar to feature a black lead character, won best animated feature, while Denmark's Another Round took the prize for best international feature.

The winners were chosen in a secret ballot by the 9,000 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. REUTERS