Oscars winners wrap: Nomadland, Chloé Zhao, Anthony Hopkins, Frances McDormand – and diversity, with records and firsts in many categories
- In perhaps the most diverse Academy Awards ever, the Oscars brought a litany of records and firsts across many categories, from make-up to composing to acting
- But the night’s biggest surprise saw best actor go to Anthony Hopkins, with the award widely expected to go to Chadwick Boseman
The Nomadland victory, while widely expected, nevertheless capped the extraordinary rise of Zhao, a lyrical filmmaker whose winning film is just her third, and which – with a budget less than US$5 million and featuring a cast populated by non-professional actors – ranks as one of the most modest-sized movies to win Hollywood’s top honour. Zhao’s next film, Marvel’s Eternals, has a budget around 40 times that of Nomadland. Only Kathryn Bigelow, 11 years ago for The Hurt Locker, had previously won best director as a woman.
But Nomadland, as a plain-spoken meditation on solitude, grief and grit, struck a chord in a pandemic-ravaged year. It made for an unlikely Oscar champ: a film about people who gravitate to the margins took centre stage.
“I have always found goodness in the people I’ve met everywhere I went in the world,” Zhao said when accepting the best director award. “This is for anyone who has the faith and the courage to hold on to the goodness in themselves and to hold on to the goodness in each other no matter how difficult it is to do that.”
With a howl, Nomadland star Frances McDormand implored people to seek out her film and others on the big screen. Released by the Disney-owned Searchlight Pictures, Nomadland premiered at a drive-in and debuted in theatres, but found its largest audience on Hulu.