As we followed the Oscar ceremony last year, we could never have imagined that the pandemic would so soon bring down the curtain on the glittering world of show business (as it did on everything else). It was 9 February 2020. Today, more than a year later, on 25 April 2021, the Oscars have returned just as our cinemas are lighting up their screens once more. A symbolic coincidence, and one that gives every reason for hope.

The 2021 Oscars will be remembered above all for the upheaval in film eligibility rules (for the first time, films released exclusively on streaming were also admitted), the shifted dates (from February to April) and a ceremony reworked in keeping with the pandemic context. A disrupted edition, punctuated by protocols and social distancing, yet one that nonetheless managed to deliver emotion and surprise.

With an intimate atmosphere — more a celebrity gathering than a formal ceremony — the 2021 Oscars were broadcast from the historic Union Station in Los Angeles, and from there they marked a new milestone in Academy history. Chloé Zhao, director of Nomadland, became the first Asian woman to win an Oscar for best director and only the second woman ever to win in that category, after Kathryn Bigelow, who was awarded the prize in 2010 for The Hurt Locker.

Acclaimed by international critics, Chloé Zhao's film is inspired by Jessica Bruder's book Nomadland. Un racconto d'inchiesta and will arrive in Italian cinemas on 29 April and on Star within Disney+ on 30 April.

The 93rd Academy Awards had already been heralded as one of the most inclusive in the ceremony's history, with more female nominations in the major categories and a richer mosaic of nationalities than usual. It is a direction the Oscars have been moving in for some years, having repeatedly been accused of being a racist award due to the great imbalance in nominations between white people and people of colour. The charge had been levelled by the social media movement born in 2015, Oscar So White, which, alongside other movements such as Me Too and Black Lives Matter, is working to bring greater diversity to the films in contention. Today, the double triumph claimed by Zhao rings out as a response to those demands, as did last year's victory by the South Korean film Parasite. And it was none other than Bong Joon Ho, director of Parasite, who virtually presented the Oscar to Chloé Zhao — almost as if passing the baton in a prophetic gesture.

Oscar 2021, the historic victory of Nomadland

It was a victory that had long been anticipated for Chinese director Chloé Zhao, whose Nomadland dominated the entire awards season, winning — among other honours — the Golden Lion at Venice and two prestigious Golden Globes (best director and best dramatic film). "This is for anyone who has the faith and the courage to hold on to the goodness in themselves and the goodness in each other, no matter how hard it is to do," said the director during her acceptance speech. Zhao, wearing braids and trainers, also chose to share the most precious lesson she had received as a child from her father: "People at birth are inherently good." A message of trust and hope in others, at a historic moment of deep division and distance.

This is for anyone who has the faith and the courage to hold on to the goodness in themselves and the goodness in each other, no matter how hard it is to do.

Chloé Zhao

The 2021 Oscars will also go down in history for having seen two women nominated in the best director category for the first time: alongside Chloé Zhao, Emerald Fennell was in the running for her striking debut feature Promising Young Woman. The British director and actress had to settle instead for the best original screenplay award, earned through a remarkable dark comedy starring a young serial avenger (Carey Mulligan).

Nomadland also claimed two other of the most coveted Oscars: best picture and best actress, which gave Frances McDormand the third Oscar of her career, for her portrayal of Fern, a nomad by choice and by necessity during the economic crisis that swept the US (and the world) between 2007 and 2013. To her also goes the credit for having wanted Chloé Zhao as director, co-producing this poetic fresco of the American middle class, inspired by Jessica Bruder's book Nomadland. Un racconto d'inchiesta.

"Our love of movies helped us through it"

The 93rd edition of the Oscar ceremony was opened by African American actress Regina King, who spoke about the murder of George Floyd and the conviction of the Minnesota police officer, admitting: "I have to be honest, if things had gone differently last week in Minneapolis, I would have traded my heels for combat boots."

Tonight we are here to celebrate. This has truly been a hard year for everyone. Our love of movies helped us through it. It helped us feel less isolated and connected when we felt separated.

Regina King

A surprise victory came for Anthony Hopkins, who, thanks to his heartbreaking portrayal of a man grappling with dementia in the film The Father, at 83 became the oldest winner ever of the Oscar for best actor.

The favourite for the win had been the late Chadwick Boseman, already honoured at the Golden Globes and the SAG Awards for his role in the film Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. Hopkins paid tribute to him in his video message, sent this morning from Wales to thank the Academy. "He was taken from us far too soon," the actor said — the only winner who was absent and not connected via streaming during the ceremony. As he himself admitted, moreover, this win, however richly deserved, took him by surprise, coming on top of the one he received for The Silence of the Lambs twenty-nine years ago.

An important note regarding this category is the inclusion of Steven Yeun, the first Korean performer nominated for a lead acting Oscar, for his role in Minari. And it was his colleague Yuh-Jung Youn who took home the award for best supporting actress for the breakout film Minari, directed by Korean-American filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung. For Yuh-Jung Youn, a diva of Korean cinema, the Academy's favour had been taken for granted after the overwhelming support of recent awards seasons (from the SAG Awards to the BAFTAs), yet it once again left a bitter taste for an icon such as Glenn Close, defeated once more at her eighth nomination, for her role as the gruff but pragmatic grandmother in Ron Howard's Hillbilly Elegy. Yuh-Jung Youn herself, disbelieving as she collected the award, admitted: "All five nominees are winners from different films. We played different roles, so we cannot compete with each other. Tonight I'm here, I just had a little bit of luck, I think. I was just luckier than you!"

Pre-ceremony predictions were also confirmed for Daniel Kaluuya, the lead of Judas and the Black Messiah by Shaka King, about the story of Black Panther activist leader Fred Hampton, who was executed at just 21 during an FBI raid. During the ceremony the actor said that Hampton and other civil rights pioneers like him "showed us the power of joining together, the power of unity. When [others] play divide and conquer, we say 'Unite and ascend!'"

Just two awards — but predictions said as much — for the most-nominated film of the year, Mank. David Fincher's film, shot in black and white and starring Gary Oldman, received the Oscars for cinematography and production design, in recognition of its sumptuous recreation of 1930s Hollywood.

Disappointment for Laura Pausini and Pinocchio

Italy went home empty-handed, seeing its three nominations for costume design, make-up and original song all come to nothing. The prize in the first two categories was snatched from Matteo Garrone's Pinocchio by the pre-race favourite Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, the Netflix film that masterfully reconstructed the blues scene of the 1920s. Meanwhile, Laura Pausini's song Io sì, nominated for La vita davanti a sé, was beaten by Fight for You from the film Judas and the Black Messiah. Despite the disappointment, the singer — already honoured with a Golden Globe for the same song — expressed all her joy and satisfaction at having reached such heights and at having performed during the event: "Having sung Io sì on the Academy stage is a dream I could never have hoped would come true even more so in such a historic edition."

The best international feature film category was won by one of the most acclaimed titles of 2020: the Danish film Another Round, bolstered also by Thomas Vinterberg's directing nomination. Noteworthy among the five nominees was the drama The Man Who Sold His Skin, the first Oscar nominee in Tunisia's history.

No surprises either in the animated feature category, long since all but secured by the Pixar film Soul, nor in the documentary shortlist, which was won hands down by My Octopus Teacher (Il mio amico in fondo al mare), the story of the incredible friendship that formed between naturalist filmmaker Craig Foster and an octopus on the seabed of the kelp forest in South Africa, near Cape Town.

All the winners of the 93rd Academy Awards 2021

Best picture
• Nomadland
• The Father
• Judas and the Black Messiah
• Mank
• Minari
• Promising Young Woman
• Sound of Metal
• The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best director
• Chloé Zhao – Nomadland
• Thomas Vinterberg – Another Round
• David Fincher – Mank
• Lee Isaac Chung – Minari
• Emerald Fennell – Promising Young Woman

Best actor
• Anthony Hopkins – The Father
• Riz Ahmed – Sound of Metal
• Chadwick Boseman – Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
• Gary Oldman – Mank
• Steven Yeun – Minari

Best actress
• Frances McDormand – Nomadland
• Viola Davis – Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
• Andra Day – The United States vs. Billie Holiday
• Vanessa Kirby – Pieces of a Woman
• Carey Mulligan – Promising Young Woman

Best supporting actor
• Daniel Kaluuya – Judas and the Black Messiah
• Sacha Baron Cohen – The Trial of the Chicago 7
• Leslie Odom Jr – One Night in Miami
• Paul Raci – Sound of Metal
• Lakeith Stanfield – Judas and the Black Messiah

Best supporting actress
• Yuh-Jung Youn – Minari
• Maria Bakalova – Borat 2
• Glenn Close – Hillbilly Elegy
• Olivia Colman – The Father
• Amanda Seyfried – Mank

Best original screenplay
• Promising Young Woman
• Judas and the Black Messiah
• Minari
• Sound of Metal
• The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best adapted screenplay
• The Father
• Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
• Nomadland
• One Night in Miami
• The White Tiger

Best international feature film
• Another Round (Druk), directed by Thomas Vinterberg (Denmark)
• Collective (Colectiv), directed by Alexander Nanau (Romania)
• The Man Who Sold His Skin, directed by Kaouther Ben Hania (Tunisia)
• Quo vadis, Aida?, directed by Jasmila Žbanić (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
• Shàonián de nǐ, directed by De