The 93rd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released from January 1, 2020, to February 28, 2021, at Union Station in Los Angeles. The ceremony was held on April 25, 2021, rather than its usual late-February date due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the ceremony, the AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 23 categories. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Jesse Collins, Stacey Sher, and Steven Soderbergh, and was directed by Glenn Weiss. For the third consecutive year, the ceremony had no official host. In related events, the Academy Scientific and Technical Awards were presented by host Nia DaCosta on February 13, 2021, in a virtual ceremony.
Nomadland won three awards at the main ceremony, including Best Picture. Other winners included The Father, Judas and the Black Messiah, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Mank, Soul and Sound of Metal with two awards each, and Another Round, Colette, If Anything Happens I Love You, Minari, My Octopus Teacher, Promising Young Woman, Tenet, and Two Distant Strangers with one. The telecast received mostly negative reviews, and it garnered 10.4 million viewers, making it the least-watched Oscar broadcast since viewership records began for the 46th ceremony in 1974.
Winners and nominees
The nominees for the 93rd Academy Awards were announced on March 15, 2021, by actress Priyanka Chopra and singer Nick Jonas during a live global stream originating from London. Mank led all nominees with ten nominations. The winners were announced during the awards ceremony on April 25. Chinese filmmaker Chloé Zhao became the first woman of color to win Best Director and the second woman overall after Kathryn Bigelow, who won at the 2010 ceremony for directing The Hurt Locker. In addition, the nomination for Emerald Fennell in the same category meant that this also marked the first time two women directors had been nominated for the Oscar for Best Director in the same year. Zhao became the first woman to receive four nominations in a single year. For the first time all films nominated for Best Original Screenplay were also nominated for Best Picture.
At age 83, Anthony Hopkins became the oldest Best Actor nominee ever and the oldest performer to win a competitive acting Oscar. Best Actress winner Frances McDormand became the seventh person to win a third acting Oscar, the third to win three leading performance Oscars, and the second to win Best Actress three times. As a producer of Nomadland, she also was the first woman in history to be nominated for both acting and producing the same film, as well as the first person to win for both.
Best Supporting Actress winner Yuh-jung Youn became the first Korean performer and second Asian woman to win an acting Oscar after Miyoshi Umeki, who won the same category for her role in 1957's Sayonara. With his nominations in Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Song for One Night in Miami..., Leslie Odom Jr. was the fourth consecutive person to earn acting and songwriting nominations for the same film.
Awards
Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger (‡).
{| role="presentation" class=wikitable |- | style="vertical-align:top; width:50%;"|
Nomadland – Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey and Chloé Zhao, producers The Father – David Parfitt, Jean-Louis Livi and Philippe Carcassonne, producers Judas and the Black Messiah – Shaka King, Charles D. King and Ryan Coogler, producers Mank – Ceán Chaffin, Eric Roth and Douglas Urbanski, producers Minari – Christina Oh, producer Promising Young Woman – Ben Browning, Ashley Fox, Emerald Fennell and Josey McNamara, producers Sound of Metal – Bert Hamelinck and Sacha Ben Harroche, producers The Trial of the Chicago 7 – Stuart Besser and Marc Platt, producers | style="vertical-align:top; width:50%;"|
Chloé Zhao – Nomadland Thomas Vinterberg – Another Round David Fincher – Mank Lee Isaac Chung – Minari Emerald Fennell – Promising Young Woman |- | style="vertical-align:top; width:50%;"|
Anthony Hopkins – The Father as Anthony Riz Ahmed – Sound of Metal as Ruben Stone Chadwick Boseman – Ma Rainey's Black Bottom as Levee Green Gary Oldman – Mank as Herman J. Mankiewicz Steven Yeun – Minari as Jacob Yi | style="vertical-align:top; width:50%;"|
Frances McDormand – Nomadland as Fern Viola Davis – Ma Rainey's Black Bottom as Ma Rainey Andra Day – The United States vs. Billie Holiday as Billie Holiday Vanessa Kirby – Pieces of a Woman as Martha Weiss Carey Mulligan – Promising Young Woman as Cassandra "Cassie" Thomas |- | style="vertical-align:top; width:50%;"|
Daniel Kaluuya – Judas and the Black Messiah as Fred Hampton Sacha Baron Cohen – The Trial of the Chicago 7 as Abbie Hoffman Leslie Odom Jr. – One Night in Miami... as Sam Cooke Paul Raci – Sound of Metal as Joe LaKeith Stanfield – Judas and the Black Messiah as William "Bill" O'Neal | style="vertical-align:top; width:50%;"|
Yuh-jung Youn – Minari as Soon-ja Maria Bakalova – Borat Subsequent Moviefilm as Tutar Sagdiyev Glenn Close – Hillbilly Elegy as Bonnie "Mamaw" Vance Olivia Colman – The Father as Anne Amanda Seyfried – Mank as Marion Davies |- | style="vertical-align:top; width:50%;"|
Promising Young Woman – Emerald Fennell Judas and the Black Messiah – Screenplay by Will Berson and Shaka King; story by Will Berson, Shaka King, Kenny Lucas and Keith Lucas Minari – Lee Isaac Chung Sound of Metal – Screenplay by Darius Marder and Abraham Marder; story by Darius Marder and Derek Cianfrance The Trial of the Chicago 7 – Aaron Sorkin | style="vertical-align:top; width:50%;"|
The Father – Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller; Borat Subsequent Moviefilm – Screenplay by Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Dan Swimer, Peter Baynham, Erica Rivinoja, Dan Mazer, Jena Friedman and Lee Kern; story by Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Dan Swimer and Nina Pedrad; Nomadland – Chloé Zhao; One Night in Miami... – Kemp Powers; The White Tiger – Ramin Bahrani; |- | style="vertical-align:top; width:50%;"|
Soul – Pete Docter and Dana Murray Onward – Dan Scanlon and Kori Rae Over the Moon – Glen Keane, Gennie Rim and Peilin Chou A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon – Richard Phelan, Will Becher and Paul Kewley Wolfwalkers – Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart, Paul Young and Stéphan Roelants | style="vertical-align:top; width:50%;"|
Another Round (Denmark) in Danish – directed by Thomas Vinterberg Better Days (Hong Kong) in Mandarin – directed by Derek Tsang Collective (Romania) in Romanian – directed by Alexander Nanau The Man Who Sold His Skin (Tunisia) in Arabic – directed by Kaouther Ben Hania Quo Vadis, Aida? (Bosnia and Herzegovina) in Bosnian – directed by Jasmila Žbanić |- | style="vertical-align:top; width:50%;"|
My Octopus Teacher – Pippa Ehrlich, James Reed and Craig Foster Collective – Alexander Nanau and Bianca Oană Crip Camp – Nicole Newnham, Jim LeBrecht and Sara Bolder The Mole Agent – Maite Alberdi and Marcela Santibáñez Time – Garrett Bradley, Lauren Domino and Kellen Quinn | style="vertical-align:top; width:50%;"|
Colette – Anthony Giacchino and Alice Doyard A Concerto Is a Conversation – Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers Do Not Split – Anders Hammer and Charlotte Cook Hunger Ward – Skye Fitzgerald and Michael Scheuerman A Love Song for Latasha – Sophia Nahli Allison and Janice Duncan |- | style="vertical-align:top; width:50%;"|
Two Distant Strangers – Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe Feeling Through – Doug Roland and Susan Ruzenski The Letter Room – Elvira Lind and Sofia Sondervan The Present – Farah Nabulsi and Ossama Bawardi White Eye – Tomer Shushan and Shira Hochman | style="vertical-align:top; width:50%;"|
If Anything Happens I Love You – Will McCormack and Michael Govier Burrow – Madeline Sharafian and Michael Capbarat Genius Loci – Adrien Mérigeau and Amaury Ovise Opera – Erick Oh Yes-People – Gísli Darri Halldórsson and Arnar Gunnarsson |- | style="vertical-align:top; width:50%;"|
Soul – Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste Da 5 Bloods – Terence Blanchard Mank – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Minari – Emile Mosseri News of the World – James Newton Howard | style="vertical-align:top; width:50%;"|
"Fight for You" from Judas and the Black Messiah – Music by H.E.R. and Dernst Emile II; lyrics by H.E.R. and Tiara Thomas "Hear My Voice" from The Trial of the Chicago 7 – Music by Daniel Pemberton; lyrics by Daniel Pemberton and Celeste Waite "Husavik" from Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga – Music and Lyrics by Savan Kotecha, Fat Max Gsus and Rickard Göransson "Io sì (Seen)" from The Life Ahead – Music by Diane Warren; lyrics by Diane Warren and Laura Pausini "Speak Now" from One Night in Miami... – Music and Lyrics by Leslie Odom Jr. and Sam Ashworth |- | style="vertical-align:top; width:50%;"|
Sound of Metal – Nicolas Becker, Jaime Baksht, Michelle Couttolenc, Carlos Cortés and Phillip Bladh Greyhound – Warren Shaw, Michael Minkler, Beau Borders and David Wyman Mank – Ren Klyce, Jeremy Molod, David Parker, Nathan Nance and Drew Kunin News of the World – Oliver Tarney, Mike Prestwood Smith, William Miller and John Pritchett Soul – Ren Klyce, Coya Elliott and David Parker | style="vertical-align:top; width:50%;"|
Mank – Production design: Donald Graham Burt; set decoration: Jan Pascale The Father – Production design: Peter Francis; set decoration: Cathy Featherstone Ma Rainey's Black Bottom – Production design: Mark Ricker; set decoration: Karen O'Hara and Diana Stoughton News of the World – Production design: David Crank; set decoration: Elizabeth Keenan Tenet – Production design: Nathan Crowley; set decoration: Kathy Lucas |- | style="vertical-align:top; width:50%;"|
Mank – Erik Messerschmidt Judas and the Black Messiah – Sean Bobbitt News of the World – Dariusz Wolski Nomadland – Joshua James Richards The Trial of the Chicago 7 – Phedon Papamichael | style="vertical-align:top; width:50%;"|
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom – Sergio López-Rivera, Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson Emma – Marese Langan, Laura Allen and Claudia Stolze Hillbilly Elegy – Eryn Krueger Mekash, Matthew Mungle and Patricia Dehaney Mank – Gigi Williams, Kimberley Spiteri and Colleen LaBaff Pinocchio – Mark Coulier, Dalia Colli and Francesco Pegoretti |- | style="vertical-align:top; width:50%;"|
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom – Ann Roth Emma – Alexandra Byrne Mank – Trish Summerville Mulan – Bina Daigeler Pinocchio – Massimo Cantini Parrini | style="vertical-align:top; width:50%;"|
Sound of Metal – Mikkel E. G. Nielsen The Father – Yorgos Lamprinos Nomadland – Chloé Zhao Promising Young Woman – Frédéric Thoraval The Trial of the Chicago 7 – Alan Baumgarten |- | colspan="2" style="vertical-align:top; width:50%;"| Tenet'' – Andrew Jackson, David Lee, Andrew Lockley and Scott Fisher Love and Monsters – Matt Sloan, Genevieve Camilleri, Matt Everitt and Brian Cox The Midnight Sky – Matthew Kasmir, Christopher Lawrence, Max Solomon and David Watkins Mulan – Sean Faden, Anders Langlands, Seth Maury and Steve Ingram The One and Only Ivan – Nick Davis, Greg Fisher, Ben Jones and Santiago Colomo Martínez
Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Awards Motion Picture & Television Fund – for the emotional and financial relief services it offers to members of the entertainment industry.
Tyler Perry – for his active engagement with philanthropy and charitable endeavors in recent years, including efforts to address homelessness and economic difficulties faced by members of the African-American community.
Film awards and nominations