In an unusual setting, the 93rd Academy Awards became a celebration of political film and love for the cinema. “Nomadland” is “Best Picture”, Anthony Hopkins surprise winner.
Los Angeles – If the academy didn’t want to show something, it was the sparsely filled rows of cinema seats, as the Corona restrictions still require in Los Angeles. Without further ado, the traditional Dolby Theater on Hollywood Boulevard stayed dark this time and the Academy Awards were relocated to a location that rarely gets crowded anyway – the magnificent Los Angeles Central Station.
When Union Station opened in 1939, the city had long been dominated by automobiles. The imposing Art Deco monument is particularly known as a film set, from “Blade Runner” or “The Dark Knight Rises”. This time the Oscars were presented not from the big stage, but between cozy Art Deco tables, eulogists and candidates met at eye level.
Cinema backdrop for the Academy Awards in Los Angeles Central Station, “directed” by Steven Soderbergh
As a director, none other than Steven Soderbergh made sure that everything looked as little staged as possible – and at the same time expelled a good deal of pathos from the Oscars. Without the presence of an orchestra, however, no flourish interrupted the acceptance speeches. Unfortunately this time there was also no opportunity to hear the nominated songs performed live.
The stylish modesty provided the appropriate framework for what Laura Dern called the “greater cultural conversation” using the example of the film “One Night in Miami”: a commitment to diversity in film culture that has never been seen in Hollywood. It’s not just that the Oscars have lost their whiteness. The film academy apparently no longer believes that Hollywood style should be the main currency of cinema.
Los Angeles: Academy Awards 2021 is celebration of independent cinema in Hollywood style
This Oscars was a celebration of independent cinema unlike anything else here. The prizes were spread across a large number of worthy winners in an unusually wide range.
As expected, “Nomadland”, the semi-documentary social drama about migrant workers in the USA, won as “best film” and, for Chloé Zhaos, a director that was artfully balanced between reality and fiction. Surprisingly, co-producer Frances McDormand also received an Oscar as a leading actress, which probably surprised her a little. In fact, it can be argued that the amateur actors made a stronger impression than the star. An even bigger surprise was the award for veteran Anthony Hopkins in the role of dementia patient in the British-French chamber play “The Father”.
Awards ceremony in Los Angeles: Contrary to expectations, no Oscar for cinema film with Chadwick Boseman
For all the quality of Hopkins’ performance, it was often expected that the late Chadwick Boseman would be honored posthumously for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”. In the case of the “best adapted script”, “The Father” prevailed against the favorite, in this case “Nomadland”. For “Ma Rainey”, the minimalist biopic about the blues pioneer, the prices for costume design and make-up remained.
Blackness, the specifically Afro-American life experience, is the unifying motif of two other well-deservedly honored films of this year: Pixar’s “Soul”, perhaps the most original film of all, was honored as expected as “best animated film” and for the score. “Judas and the Black Messiah”, Shaka King’s historical drama about the Black Panther movement and its persecution by the FBI in the 1960s, also received two Oscars: In addition to supporting actor Daniel Kaluuya, the film song also received an award: “HER” and heard her “Fight for You” that gets under your skin on this evening, which celebrated political cinema almost throughout.
Me-Too-Drama: At the Academy Awards in Los Angeles, many awards go to politically relevant film productions
This included ensuring that Promising Young Woman was not overlooked, the MeToo movement-inspired abuse drama that was honored for Emerald Fennell’s original screenplay. One almost had the feeling that a jury would have wanted to distribute the available prizes to as many politically relevant productions as possible. Supporting actress Yuh-Jung-Youn was honored for the Korean-American migration story “Minari”.
The 73-year-old grande dame of Korean cinema was delighted to finally be able to exchange a few words with the film’s famous producer, Brad Pitt.
Oscars 2021: Zhao’s homage to Werner Herzog – confessions of love film instead of the usual pathos
In addition to politics, it was cinephilia that ran like a red thread through the ceremony – and repeatedly replaced the otherwise usual pathos with very private confessions of love for the cinema. No film has paid more haunted tribute to the threatened film culture and its history than David Fincher’s “Mank” – now well deserved with prizes for camera and production design.
For Chloé Zhao, the beaming winner of the evening, it is a German filmmaker, by the way, to whose work she keeps coming back in crises, as she admitted: If she doesn’t know what to do, then take another look at how Werner Herzog would have done it .
