The 93rd Annual Academy Awards Ceremony
Memorable Moments and Words
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Los Angeles, CA-- On the warm Sunday afternoon of April 25th, on Alameda Street in downtown Los Angeles, with the California's flag fluttering in the soft breeze and the branches of the palm trees flapping against each other resembling tall inverted green mops against the grey sky, the limousines began arriving at Union Station, (1939) the main railway station in Los Angeles and the largest passengers terminal in the Western United States, Because of the pandemic, this year, the 93rd Academy Awards Ceremony was moved from the Dolby® theatre, in the Highland Center Shopping Mall on Hollywood Blvd. to Union Station. As the Oscars® nominees started walking on a wide red carpet. They were interviewed and photographed by the press. but this year the interviewers and photographers were six feet away from the stars, who spoke to them separated by a short fence at the edge of the carpet, and by another fence, this one on the red carpet and looking similar to a hanging bridge, consisting on golden metal poles, standing on the carpet, joined by hanging velvet cords. And when the nominees were interviewed, each one stood at the red carpet separated from each other by a few feet. (See picture above) To meet the requirements of the Academy Awards Ceremony, however, the station went through changes. Its large waiting room was transformed into an auditorium, by covering one of the station's huge vertical windows with a Blue curtain, to simulate a theatre's closed curtain, and by placing a wide platform in front of it to create the stage floor. Standing of the stage's floor, one on its left side and the other on its right, were two silver color metal holders, each one holding a flat television screen, to project the action on the stage and show it to the audience, and hanging on top of them a tablet screen, where the names of the award winners and name of the movies was to be projected. Adorning the stage at both sides were elaborate flower arrangements. An maybe, unable to bring the tall statues of Oscar® to the station but show his image during the ceremony, his picture, painted in gold, was on each of the panels of the white lamp shades of small round golden color lamps standing at the center of the round tables with only few chairs around each one, which filled the rest of the room (see picture below).
And maybe to reproduce the wall of the entrance corridor, when the ceremony was held at the Dolby theatre, a white wall with shelves was build, where different size Oscars® statuettes were placed. The wall is often used by the photographers as a background for the celebrities' pictures, and this year the wall served the same purpose. This year's ceremony was attended by many around the world and local celebrities, among the 93rd Academy Awards producers Jess Collins, Stacy Sher and Steven Sodenberg, and the President of the Academy David Rubin and Executive Officer Dawn Hudson.
And the President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Executive Officer.
And, as in all previous years, among all the celebrities, we saw walking on the red carpet, the two Price Waterhouse Coopers representatives carrying the bags containing all the names of all the Oscar® winners for this year.
In complete change from previous years, the 93rd Academy Awards did not have one host or hostess, but an all-star cast hosting the ceremony. They included, in alphabetical order: Steven Ahmed, Riz Ahmed, Angela Bassett, Halle Berry, Bong Joon Ho, Don Cheadle, Bryan Cranston, Viola Davis, Laura Dern, Harrison Ford, Regina King, Marlee Matlin, Rita Moreno, Joaquin Phoenix, Brad Pitt, Reese Whitherspoon, Renée Zellweger and Zendaya. Because of its length and also because the full list of the 93rd annual Academy Awards, winners could be read online, Cultural World Bilingual will include here only the winners in the categories of Best picture, Best actor, Best Actress, Best actor in a supporting role, Best actress in a supporting role, Original Song Music and the winner of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. BEST PICTURE: "Nomadland" Director TSAO's edited acceptance speech words were: "What a crazy, once-in-a-life-time journey we went on together. And I think that this goes back to something I learned when I was a kid growing up in China. My dad and I used to play this game where we memorized classic Chinese poems texts and then recite them together and try to finish each other's sentences. And there was one poem that said that People at birth are basically good ( Remember that the letters in Chinese are pictures) those six letters had a great impact on me and I truly believe them today." BEST ACTOR: ANTHONY HOPKINS "The Father" BEST ACTRESS: FRANCES McDORMAND, "Nomadland"
She said: "I have no words, my voice is in my sword. We know the sword is our work and I like to work. BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: YUH-JUNG YOUN, "Minari"
The star was very excited to receive her Award from Brad Pitt, who among other Oscars® last year won the one for Supporting actor. In her speech she said: "I cannot believe I am here. Thanks to the Academy members who voted for me and to the wonderful Minari family and most of all to Lee Isaac Chung. Without him I couldn't be here tonight. I don't believe in competition so this is to all the nominees. We are the winners for the different movies, We played different roles, so we cannot compete with each other. I am here because I have just a little bit of luck BEST SUPORTING ACTOR: DANIEL KALUUYA "Judas and the Black Messiah"
The actor was exuberant when his name was announced and said on the stage: Man, man. Thank you God. Thank you God. I can't be here without your guidance and your protection." He then thank his mum, for giving him her "factory" settings and many other people, among them Fred Hampton. About him he said: "Bro man. Man, what a man. How blessed we are that we lived in a lifetime where he existed. do you know what I'm saying? I like to thank you for your light .He was on this earth for 21 years and he found a way to feed kids breakfast, educate kids, give them free medical care against all the odds. He showed me, he taught me him." and he ended his long speech saying: "I look at everyone, every single one of you, you got work to do, and you know what I'm saying. And I'm going to get back to work Tuesday morning because tonight we got to celebrate, celebrate life man, we're breathing, we're walking. It's incredible." The JEAN HERSHOLT HUMANITARIAN AWARD WAS GIVEN TO TYLER PERRY
After accepting his award, Perry revealed to the audience that he was homeless, once, had only one pair of shoes, and had a mother who grew up in the Jim Crow South in rural Louisiana and who at age ten was already grieving the death of her mother and when she got older, the death of the civil rights boys and girls in the bombing in Alabama who she grieved for years. Adding: "I refuse to hate someone because they are Mexican, or because they are Black or white or LBGTQ. I refuse to hate someone because they are a police officer. I refuse to hate someone because they are Asian. I would hope we (all) would refuse to hate." BEST SONG: "Fight For You" The Original Song Music: "Fighting For You"
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