Speaking backstage after the ceremony,best original screenplay winner Emerald Fennell said the Oscar felt much heavier in her hand than she had anticipated. “It’s pretty amazing,it’s very heavy but maybe I need to go to the gym,or maybe I can use him as a weight,” she said. “I don’t know what I expected. I think I have only ever held a pretend one. It’s very exciting.”

Winning the Oscar forPromising Young Woman,on a night when a number of high-profile British filmmakers were honoured,was a reflection of the power of the British film industry,she said.

“What an amazing place to come from,it’s so supportive of the arts,there are so many talented people,and it’s so exciting this year to see so many British people in such a huge international forum.”

In makingPromising Young Woman,Fennell said,she set out to make “something that people would want to go and see,even if it’s about something difficult and troubling. That it would be a movie you’d go and see with friends and talk about it after it. That it felt glossy and feminine and poppy but also[had] some disgusting and dark and difficult subject matter.”

If there is one major takeaway from this year’s awards it is that we’ve come a long way in the push for diversity since January 15,2015.

That’s when the #Oscarssowhite campaign was launched by media strategist and diversity campaigner April Reign in response to the fact that all 20 nominees across the four acting categories that year were white. Every. Single. One.

The hashtag trended on Twitter that year,and again in 2016,and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences paid attention,making serious efforts to shift the demographics of its membership (which had been revealed ina famous analysis byThe Los Angeles Times in 2012 to be predominantly old,white and male – to be precise,94 per cent white,77 per cent male,86 per cent aged 50 or older,with a median age of 62).

The membership has grown by more than 60 per cent over the past decade (from just under 6000 members in 2012 to just under 10,000 now),and diversity has been a major criterion in who gets invited to join. And it’s fair to say that what we saw in the awards this year is a direct result of that shift.

There were 23 awards given out today,plus two Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Awards (one of which went to an organisation rather than an individual),and the way they fell gives a fair indication of the seismic shift that is now well underway in Hollywood.

Of the 23 awards,13 went to films whose creative teams or subjects were white;10 went to films whose creative teams or subjects were non-white. This latter group includesSoul,whose directors are white but whose subject matter is significantly (though not exclusively) indebted to African-American jazz musicians. The film’s composers include two white men,Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross,and a black man,Jon Batiste.

It’s worth noting that an Asian-born director has won the best director award two years running now,with Beijing-born Chloe Zhao following South Korean Bong Joon Ho,who won best picture,best director and best original screenplay forParasite last year. Zhao is also just the second woman to win the award for directing too.

This is not to say that diversity is the only factor that matters. It is merely to point to the fact that Hollywood did have a serious problem with a lack of diversity when it came to its biggest awards nights,it was called out on it,and it responded. Tyler Perry has spent decades making movies primarily for black audiences,and that’s clearly been a viable business model for him. But increasingly,audiences are willing to watch movies with characters who may not look like them,and in my view that has made for a much richer movie-going experience.

Anyway,the breakdown of winners by ethnicity for the 93rd Academy Awards looks like this:

White
International feature:Another Round
Sound:Sound of Metal
Adapted screenplay:The Father
Original screenplay:Promising Young Woman
Animated short:If Anything Happens I Love You
Documentary short:Colette
Documentary feature:My Octopus Teacher
Production design:Mank
Cinematography:Mank
Visual effects:Tenet
Editing:Sound of Metal
Best actress:Frances McDormand (Nomadland)
Best actor:Anthony Hopkins (The Father)

Non-white
Best Picture:Nomadland
Supporting actor:Daniel Kaluuya (Judas and the Black Messiah)
Supporting actress:Yuh-Jung Youn (Minari)
Costume design:Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Director:Chloe Zhao (Nomadland)
Make-up and hairstyling:Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Short film (live action):Two Distant Strangers(Travon Free is African-American,co-director Martin Desmond Roe is English)
Animated feature:Soul (black subject,white creators)
Original score:Soul (Trent Reznor,Atticus Ross,Jean Batiste)
Original song:Fight For You fromJudas and the Black Messiah (H.E.R. and Dernst Emile II;Lyric by H.E.R. and Tiara Thomas)
Jean Hersholt Humantitarian Award:Tyler Perry and the Motion Picture Television Fund for its assistance in the fight against COVID-19

Speaking backstage,Nomadland producer Peter Spears said the in-person Oscars telecast was the first chance the creative team fromNomadland had to see each other since early last year. “Usually you spend time together on the awards circuit,but[in this case] it was the first time we got to be reunited and to see the other great filmmakers whose films were nominated.”

Commenting on the change of order for the night’s final awards – announcing best picture before best actor and actress –Nomadland producer Dan Janvey said it was a surprise. “A lot of us grew up watching the Oscars and got used to that being the last category,” he said. “It was incredibly fun they shook it up,and I think the producers did an incredible job of making this in-person;we were very appreciative of that.”

But the woman of the house was undoubtedly the film’s director Chloe Zhao who took out the Oscar for directing,in addition to the film taking best picture. “It’s pretty fabulous to be a woman in 2021,” she said.

“I am extremely lucky to do what I love for a living,” Zhao said. “And if it means more people get to live their dreams,I am extremely grateful. For Asian filmmakers,for all filmmakers,we have to stay true to who we are and we have to tell the stories we feel connected to. It’s a way for us to connect to other people. That’s why I love filmmaking.”

The final award goes to Anthony Hopkins forThe Father. It’s his second win,and it is absolutely deserved,but he’s not there. Not even on video. That leaves Joaquin Phoenix to say “the Academy accepts this award on his behalf”,and then it’s all over.

Traditionally,the ceremony has ended with the best picture award,but that came a few beats back. Maybe if there had been a boilover,finishing this way might have packed a punch. But there wasn’t – both McDormand and Hopkins were frontrunners – and so the ending has come swiftly,and with little impact.

Steven Soderbergh is a terrific filmmaker,but I’m not convinced he got the last act of this one right. Sure,the awards went to the right performances,but that was a total anticlimax.

Chloe Zhao’sNomadland,which has won best picture,is based on Jessica Bruder’s 2017 non-fiction bookNomadland:Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century,which featured interviews with itinerant workers in five US states over three years.

The book was first adapted into a short documentary film before Frances McDormand and actor-producer Peter Spears optioned it for a movie and brought on Zhao to direct.

It was filmed over four months on location in Nebraska,South Dakota,Nevada,Arizona and California,with real-life nomads playing versions of themselves.

Frances McDormand is a freakin’ legend. This is her third win as best actress (her previous wins were forFargo andThree Billboards Outside Ebbing,Missouri).

And it’s her fourth Oscar in all because she’s a producer ofNomadland too.

She also knows how to keep it short and sweet.

“I have no words,my voice is in my sword,the sword is in my work,and I like work. Thank you for knowing that,and thank you for this.”

And she’s gone. No howl this time.

The award:best actor in a leading role

The nominees:

Riz Ahmed,Sound of Metal
Chadwick Boseman,Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Anthony Hopkins,The Father
Gary Oldman,Mank
Steven Yeun,Minari

The winner:Anthony Hopkins,The Father

InThe Father,Hopkins’ character Anthony has dementia and is greatly confused by life events big and small. Our film critic Paul Byrnes awarded the film four stars when he reviewed it in March – you cansee that review here,and be sure to read our explainer onwhat it’s like living with dementia.

The award:best actress in a leading role

The nominees:

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

The winner:Frances McDormand,Nomadland