Hollywood’s biggest night did not ignore a huge real-world issue.
The 2021 Oscars featured a powerful opening scene in which Regina King addressed concerns facing the Black community.
King referred to the trial where fired Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murder in the 2020 death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, shortly after she arrived on the stage at Union Station in Los Angeles on Sunday.
“It has been quite a year, and we are still smack dab in the middle of it. We are mourning the loss of so many, and I have to be honest, if things had gone differently this past week in Minneapolis, I may have traded in my heels for marching boots,” King said before presenting the ceremony’s first award.
“Now, I know that a lot of you people at home want to reach for your remote when you feel like Hollywood is preaching to you, but as a mother of a Black son, I know the fear that so many live with, and no amount of fame or fortune changes that.”
The stirring moment was met with cheers as the 93rd Academy Awards got underway. The broadcast, which aimed to resemble a movie in which the presenters are the stars, featured an in-person ceremony split between Union Station and the Dolby Theatre, with numerous COVID-19 safety protocols in place.
King said attendees had been vaccinated, tested and retested, and that the event was being treated like a movie set, where participants could only remove masks once the cameras were rolling.
Still, the glitzy event celebrating achievements in film made sure to incorporate a Hollywood flair, with the show’s producers, including Steven Soderbergh, enlisting major stars including Harrison Ford, Halle Berry, Brad Pitt and Renée Zellweger to present honors.
An early winner at Sunday’s show included Daniel Kaluuya, who was named Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton in the historical drama “Judas and the Black Messiah.”
He praised Hampton and his mission of unity during his acceptance speech, and told the audience “there’s so much work to do.”
“How blessed we are that have lived in a lifetime where he existed,” Kaluuya said of Hampton.
“Thank you for your light. He was on this earth for 21 years, 21 years, and he found a way to feed kids breakfast, educate kids, give free medical care.”
Best Original Screenplay went to Emerald Fennell for the #MeToo revenge thriller “Promising Young Woman,” while Best Adapted Screenplay was awarded to Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller for “The Father,” a drama about a man, played by Anthony Hopkins, suffering from memory loss.
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Nominees and other attendees got the opportunity to show off their Oscar attire on a stripped-down, outdoor red carpet at Union Station before the ceremony.
Attendance was reduced for safety, and for the third year in a row, the Oscars went without a host.
“Tonight, we are here to celebrate,” King said. “This was indeed a hard year for everyone, but our love of movies helped to get us through. It made us feel less isolated and connected us when we were apart.”
The ceremony was held nearly two months after its originally scheduled date of Feb. 28, with numerous nominees coming from streaming services following a year in which many movie theaters were closed due to the pandemic.
“Nomadland,” a drama starring Frances McDormand as a widow who travels the West by van after losing her job, entered Sunday’s ceremony as one of the night’s frontrunners. It was considered a heavy contender in the Best Picture category after winning equivalent honors at the Golden Globes and BAFTAs.
Writer-director Chloé Zhao won Best Director for her work on the visually stunning film, making her the second female filmmaker to win the honor, and the first woman of color. McDormand was nominated for Best Actress.
Also receiving considerable buzz throughout award season was “Minari,” a drama about a Korean-American family with big dreams. It was also one of the eight Best Picture nominees, while Yuh-Jung Youn, who played the family’s grandmother, was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, and Steven Yeun, who portrayed the family patriarch, was up for Best Actor.
History was on the line in numerous categories at Sunday’s show after nine actors of color were nominated, setting a record. If each of the four acting categories was won by a performer of color — as was the case at this month’s Screen Actors Guild Awards — it would be an Oscars first.
Viola Davis, who was nominated for Best Actress for her portrayal of the titular blues singer in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” would become the first Black actress to win two Oscars with a victory Sunday. She previously won Best Supporting Actress in 2016 for the drama “Fences.”
The late Chadwick Boseman, who was Davis’ co-star in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” entered as the favorite to win Best Actor for his portrayal of a headstrong horn player at a contentious 1927 recording session in the film. He was previously named the posthumous winner this year at award shows such as the Golden Globes, NAACP Image Awards and SAG Awards.
The role marked the final film for Boseman, who died at 43 last August after a private battle with colon cancer.
“Mank,” a historical drama about “Citizen Kane” screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz, led all films at Sunday’s ceremony with 10 nominations, including one for Best Picture. Gary Oldman, who played Mankiewicz, was up for Best Actor, while Amanda Seyfried, who portrayed actress Marion Davies, was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.
The Oscars were the last major ceremony of an award season that has seen ratings plummet during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Golden Globes and the Grammys both set record lows in viewership as they adopted new distancing guidelines in response to the virus.
Industry experts contended to the Daily News last week that there are numerous potential factors to explain declining award show ratings, including that the 2021 nominees did not feature one specific film that got everyone talking, and that people have more options than ever for content to watch.
“It is kind of mystifying why we see it, and the only real (new) variable is that these award shows look differently than they did before because of COVID,” Robert Thompson, founding director of Syracuse University’s Bleier Center for Television & Popular Culture, told The News.
“I suppose that’s the closest we get to an answer,” he said. “Somehow, the solutions that these awards productions have come up with are not appealing to people.”