By John Corrado

The 93rd Academy Awards have officially come to a close, with Nomadland triumphing for Best Picture. Chloe Zhao also won Best Director for the film, becoming only the second female filmmaker to win the award.

Rounding out a trio of much deserved wins for Nomadland was Frances McDormand, who triumphed in the incredibly hard to predict Best Actress category for her role in the film. She now has three Best Actress trophies to her name, the second most of anyone.

Rounding out the acting categories, Anthony Hopkins won Best Actor for his emotionally devastating performance in The Father, in what was essentially a two-way race between him and the late Chadwick Boseman. Daniel Kaluuya took home Best Supporting Actor for his electrifying performance in Judas and the Black Messiah, and Yuh-jung Youn very deservingly won Best Supporting Actress for Minari, with her acceptance speech providing the most delightful moment of the night.

The first award of the night was for Best Original Screenplay, which went to Emerald Fennell for Promising Young Woman, followed by Best Adapted Screenplay, which was awarded to Florian Zeller and Christopher Hampton for The Father. Needless to say, these are both very deserving winners, and the expected ones as well. But there were also some surprises throughout the night, with the biggest upset being in the category of Best Cinematography, which went to Mank instead of Nomadland, which seemed like it had cinematography in the bag.

David Fincher’s Mank, which led the pack with ten nominations, won Production Design as well. So, in an ironic twist of fate, it now has exactly twice as many Oscars as Citizen Kane, which only won one for Herman J. Mankiewicz’s screenplay. The Best Editing category also provided chance for a surprise win, with the award going to Sound of Metal, which won Best Sound as well. Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7, once thought to be a Best Picture frontrunner, ultimately went home empty-handed, with the editing category being its best hope for gold.

Another upset happened in the Original Song category, with H.E.R. taking home the award for her end credits song from Judas and the Black Messiah. I was expecting Diane Warren to finally triumph on her twelfth nomination for “Io Sì (Seen)” from The Life Ahead, and the winner should have been “Husavik (My Hometown)” from Eurovision Song Contest. We were treated to pre-recorded performances of all five nominated songs during the Oscars pre-show, including a soaring performance of “Husavik” from Husavik, Iceland, complete with fireworks.

But the actual show itself, which was held at Union Station in Los Angeles instead of the Dolby Theatre to better accommodate social distancing regulations, was easily the messiest and most chaotic ceremony I’ve ever seen. The pacing of the show was all over the place, and they didn’t even show film clips for most of the categories, which kind of defeated the point of a show meant to celebrate these works. We really needed more film clips, because without them, the show felt overlong and dry. The In Memoriam segment was also pretty weird, with upbeat music that felt like an odd choice and names that went by way too fast to even really read them.

The Best Picture award, which was presented by Rita Moreno, wasn’t even saved until the end, and was handed out before the two main acting categories instead, a break with tradition that never should have happened. Best Actor was the final award of the night, but without Hopkins there to accept it in person, it made for a very anti-climactic ending. Moving the Best Picture announcement away from the end of the show was a crucial mistake, and it kept Nomadland from having the big moment it deserved. The Best Director award was also presented randomly in the middle of the show, and should have been pushed closer to the end as well.

With that said, I am very happy with some of the winners. Anthony Hopkins, Frances McDormand, Daniel Kaluuya and Yuh-jung Youn were not only the winners I was predicting in the acting categories, but my own personal choices as well. In the other film categories, Thomas Vinterberg’s Danish dramedy Another Round won International Feature, with the filmmaker, who was up for Best Director as well, delivering a heartfelt speech that allowed him to talk about his daughter who was tragically killed in a car accident while he was shooting the film.

Meanwhile, Documentary Feature went to the Netflix crowdpleaser My Octopus Teacher, which beat out a slate of heavier contenders. Finally, Best Animated Feature went to Pete Docter for Soul, which I am very happy about. With three Oscars under his belt, Docter is also now the most awarded filmmaker in the category’s history. Additionally, Best Original Score went to Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste for their amazing musical contributions to the film.

In terms of my predictions, which I posted earlier in the day, I ended up getting 18 out of 23 right, which isn’t too bad, especially considering that I ended up correctly predicting the hard to predict Best Actor and Best Actress categories. While the ceremony itself was a chaotic mess, at least I can safely that the awards themselves mostly went to the right people and films.

Below is a list of all the nominees and winners, in the somewhat random order that they were presented in throughout the show.

Best Original Screenplay:

Judas and the Black Messiah

Minari

Promising Young Woman

Sound Of Metal

The Trial Of The Chicago 7

Best Adapted Screenplay:

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

The Father

Nomadland

One Night In Miami

The White Tiger

Best International Feature:

Another Round

Better Days

Collective

The Man Who Sold His Skin

Quo Vadis, Aida?

Best Supporting Actor:

Sacha Baron Cohen – The Trial Of The Chicago 7

Daniel Kaluuya – Judas and the Black Messiah

Leslie Odom Jr. – One Night In Miami

Paul Raci – Sound of Metal

LaKeith Stanfield –  Judas and the Black Messiah

Best Makeup & Hairstyling:

Emma.

Hillbilly Elegy

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Mank

Pinocchio

Best Costume Design:

Emma.

Mank

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Mulan

Pinocchio

Best Director:

Thomas Vinterberg – Another Round

David Fincher – Mank

Lee Isaac Chung – Minari

Chloé Zhao – Nomadland

Emerald Fennell – Promising Young Woman

Best Sound:

Greyhound

Mank

News of the World

Soul

Sound of Metal

Best Live Action Short:

Feeling Through

The Letter Room

The Present

Two Distant Strangers

White Eye

Best Animated Short:

Burrow

Genius Loci

If Anything Happens I Love You

Opera

Yes-People

Best Animated Feature:

Onward

Over the Moon

A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon

Soul

Wolfwalkers

Best Documentary Short:

Colette

A Concerto Is a Conversation

Do Not Split

Hunger Ward

A Love Song for Latasha

Best Documentary Feature:

Collective

Crip Camp

The Mole Agent

My Octopus Teacher

Time

Best Visual Effects:

Love And Monsters

Mulan

The Midnight Sky

The One And Only Ivan

Tenet

Best Supporting Actress:

Maria Bakalova – Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

Glenn Close – Hillbilly Elegy

Olivia Colman – The Father

Amanda Seyfried – Mank

Yuh-jung Youn – Minari

Best Production Design:

The Father

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Mank

News of the World

Tenet

Best Cinematography:

Judas and the Black Messiah – Sean Bobbitt

Mank – Erik Messerschmidt

News of the World – Dariusz Wolski

Nomadland – Joshua James Richards

The Trial of the Chicago 7 – Phedon Papamichael

Best Film Editing:

The Father

Nomadland

Promising Young Woman

Sound Of Metal

The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best Original Score:

Da 5 Bloods – Terrence Blanchard

Mank – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Minari – Emile Mosseri

News of the World – James Newton Howard

Soul – Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste

Best Original Song:

“Fight for You” – Judas and the Black Messiah

“Hear My Voice” – The Trial of the Chicago 7

“Husavik (My Hometown)” – Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga

“Io Sì (Seen)” – The Life Ahead

“Speak Now” – One Night in Miami

Best Picture:

The Father

Judas and the Black Messiah

Mank

Minari

Nomadland

Promising Young Woman

Sound of Metal

The Trial Of The Chicago 7

Best Actress:

Viola Davis – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Andra Day – The United States vs. Billie Holiday

Vanessa Kirby – Pieces Of A Woman

Frances McDormand – Nomadland

Carey Mulligan – Promising Young Woman

Best Actor:

Riz Ahmed – Sound Of Metal

Chadwick Boseman – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Anthony Hopkins – The Father

Gary Oldman – Mank

Steven Yeun – Minari