Oscars 2021: A Recap of All the Winners

Zeo Rotondo Mancini

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If you missed the 93rd ceremony of the Academy Awards –or if you want to go over the results again– we have summarized all the winners for you! The categories and their winners appear in order of appearance in the ceremony along with a brief description of the films mentioned.

Without further ado, the Oscars go to…

Best Original Screenplay

Promising Young Woman

Written by the film’s director herself, Emerald Fennell, who was nominated as well for Best Director also for Promising Young Woman. The film is a must-watch due to its impactful, blunt, and incisive political significance and relevance in a world where being a woman is still unfairly dangerous and difficult.

Best Adapted Screenplay

The Father

Adapted by Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller, from the French theatre play ‘Le Père’. The film stars Anthony Hopkins as Anthony (‘The Father’), whose daughter has the harrowing task to take care of him as he struggles with dementia.

Best International Feature Film

Another Round

(Denmark). Directed by Thomas Vinterberg, the film follows a high-school history teacher (Mads Mikkelsen) who experiments along with his colleagues to assess a theory on the positive effects alcohol can have on one’s life. Said theory claims alcohol can help to liberate our minds in such a way to diminish our problems and increase our creativity. Thus, the teachers put this to the test.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Daniel Kaluuya

Kaluyaa wins his very first Oscar for his role in Judas and the Black Messiah, where he plays Fred Hampton, the leader of a group of revolutionaries named the Black Panther Party. The film is inspired by the real-life events leading up to the assassination of Fred Hampton, chairman of the Black Panther Party, a political organization born out of the need and will to rise against police brutality targeted at African American citizens.

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Makeup and hairstyling by Sergio Lopez-Rivera, Mia Neal, and Jamika Wilson. Starring Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman, the film narrates the life story of Ma Rainey, known as ‘the Mother of Blues’.

Best Costume Design

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Costume design by Ann Roth.

Best Director

Chloé Zhao

For Nomadland. Zhao becomes the first woman of color to win this category and the second woman ever to do so. Nomadland, starring Frances McDormand, is based on a book by Jessica Bruder that follows the story of a successful businesswoman who –after losing everything in the Great Recession– changes the direction of her life to travel through the American West, living as a ‘van-dwelling modern-day nomad’ (IMDb).

Best Sound

Sound of Metal

Sound design by Nicolas Becker, Jaime Baksht, Michellee Couttolenc, Carlos Cortés and Phillip Bladh. Riz Ahmed plays Ruben, the drummer of a heavy-metal band whose life comes to a halt when he starts to lose his hearing, and hence everything changes for him.

Best Short Film (Live Action)

Two Distant Strangers

Directed and created by Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe. The short film features a Black man who faces police brutality after accidentally running into a white man on the street and is forced to relive this day on a loop. The film reinforces the unfair reality Black people face all over the US and the world, where they seem to be persecuted because of even unnecessary and unlawful reasons that might not even be caused by them.

Best Short Film (Animated)

If Anything Happens I Love You

Directed and written by Will McCormack and Michael Govier. The short film follows the story of two grieving parents who reminisce their times with their late daughter.

Best Animated Feature Film

Soul

Soul

By Pete Docter and Dana Murray. Pixar’s fan-favorite Soul follows the story of a New York jazz pianist who finds himself stuck in a curious and mysterious land between Earth and the afterlife. Thus, he tries to find his way back with the help of a childlike soul by his side.

Best Documentary (Short Subject)

Colette

Colette

Directed by Anthony Giacchino and produced by Alice Doyard. The biographical story of Colette, who fought the Nazis with her family as they were members of the French Resistance.

Best Documentary (Feature)

My Octopus Teacher

By Pippa Ehrlich, James Reed, and Craig Foster. A filmmaker (Craig) meets and develops a friendship with an octopus in a South African kelp forest and follows it to discover the secrets of its world.

Best Visual Effects

Tenet

Tenet

By Andrew Jackson, David Lee, Andrew Lockley, and Scott Fisher. The film, directed by Christopher Nolan, stars John David Washington on a quest to prevent a Third World War, involving international espionage, time travel, and evolution.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Yuh-Jung Youn

Minari

For Minari, directed by Lee Isaac Chung and produced by A24. Minari sees the immigration and assimilation of a Korean family to an Arkansas farm in the 1980s. Youn plays the ‘sly, foul-mouthed, but incredibly loving grandmother’ (A24) who has been dubbed the favorite character by fans, alongside the young Alan S. Kim.

Best Production Design

Mank

Mank

By Donald Graham Burt (Production Design) and Jan Pascale (Set Decoration). Mank is the biopic of Herman Mankiewicz, the scriptwriter of Citizen Kane. The film was originally written by the director David Fincher’s father, Jack Fincher before passing away in 2003. The film features Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton.