8 ways the Oscars made history last night

Frances McDormand won the best actress Oscar on Sunday night for her celebrated performance in "Nomadland."

This is McDormand's third best actress Oscar: she took home the prize in 1997 for her performance in Joel and Ethan Coen's "Fargo" and picked up the award once again in 2018 for "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri." Only Katharine Hepburn, who won four, has won more best actress Oscars.

In "Nomadland" McDormand plays Fern, a widow who decides to retreat to a nomadic lifestyle after she loses her job and her husband dies.

"Nomadland" picked up four Oscars on the night including a historic best director win for Chloé Zhao as well as the show's top prize, best picture, giving McDormand, who was also a producer on the film, her second Oscar of the night.

This was the first time an actress has achieved this double win.

Daniel Kaluuya was named best supporting actor for his turn as the revolutionary Black Panther leader Fred Hampton in "Judas And The Black Messiah." He is the first Black British performer to take home an acting Oscar.

Kaluuya, who rose to international acclaim after his role in Jordan Peele's award-winning debut "Get Out," had been an Oscars frontrunner throughout awards season having won in the same category at several other shows including the BAFTAs and Golden Globes.

His acceptance speech began with him thanking God and now-famously ended with him expressing how grateful he was that his parents had sex. "My mom, my dad — they had sex," Kaluuya said. "It's amazing! I'm here!"

The reaction of Kaluuya's mother and sister — who were watching from the Oscars' UK hub in London — was thankfully caught on camera.

Anthony Hopkins is now the oldest actor to take home an Oscar after winning best actor for his performance as a man suffering from dementia in "The Father," the filmmaking debut of the hugely acclaimed French playwright Florian Zeller.

The record was previously held by Christopher Plummer, who was 82 when he won for "Beginners" in 2011.

Hopkins' victory was the biggest surprise of the night. The best actor award had been heavily tipped to go to the late Chadwick Boseman, who died last year after a battle with bowel cancer, for his performance in "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom."

This is Anthony Hopkins' second best actor victory at the Oscars – he won in 1992 for his role as Hannibal Lecter in Jonathan Demme's horror classic "The Silence of the Lambs." But he was not in attendance at the Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles or the British Film Institute in London — the ceremony's UK venue — to collect his award. Instead, Hopkins posted a belated acceptance speech to his Instagram from his home in Wales the next day.

He said: "I am grateful to the Academy and thank you. I want to pay tribute to Chadwick Boseman who was taken from us far too early, and again, thank you all very much. I really did not expect this, so I feel very privileged and honored. Thank you."

Costume designer Ann Roth became the oldest woman to win an Oscar at age 89 after she was honored for her work on the Netflix drama "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom."

Roth is now tied with the legendary filmmaker James Ivory as the oldest Oscar winner in history.

This is Roth's second Oscar win, having won for "The English Patient" in 1997. She did not attend the Oscars ceremony and the LA Times reports that earlier this year when Roth was honored at the Costume Designers Guild Award, presenter Lana Condor told the audience that Roth prefers to let her work speak for itself.

Although during a short interview with Variety after the film's release, Roth explained the difficulty she had finding period-accurate horsehair wigs for the film. "I defy you to find a wig made of horsehair," Roth chuckles. "You'll only find them in the courts of England."

"Soul" won the Academy Award for best-animated feature giving the film's director, Pete Docter, a record third Oscar in the category. The Pixar film beat out "A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmaggedon," "Over the Moon," "Wolfwalkers," and "Onward," another Pixar production, to take home the prize.

Pete Docter previously won the award for his work on "Up" and "Inside Out." In his acceptance speech, Docter described "Soul" as "a love letter to jazz."

He said: "We had no idea how much jazz would teach us about life. We don't get to control what happens, but like a jazz musician, we can turn what happens into something of value and beauty."

Hairstylists Jamika Wilson and Mia Neal became the first Black winners of the makeup and hairstyling Oscar for their work on Netflix's "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," a big-screen adaptation of August Wilson's play of the same name.

Wilson, Neal, and their partner Sergio Lopez-Rivera were responsible for transforming Viola Davis into the eccentric 1920s blues singer Ma Rainey whose life is dramatized over the course of a single day during a turbulent recording session in 1920s Chicago.

In a previous interview with Vulture, the styling trio broke down their work process and revealed that after an exhaustive look through visual archives, they only managed to uncover seven photographs of the singer including one close-up, which they used as a basis for their work on the film.

"I want to say thank you to our ancestors who put the work in, were denied but never gave up," Neal said in her acceptance speech.

"And I also stand here as Jamika and I break this glass ceiling with so much excitement for the future. Because I can picture Black trans women standing up here and Asian sisters and our Latina sisters and Indigenous women. And I know that one day it won't be unusual or groundbreaking, it will just be normal."

Yuh-Jung Youn took home best supporting actress. She is the first South Korean actress to win an Oscar in an acting category. The 73-year-old won for her performance as an eccentric grandmother in Lee Isaac Chung's family drama "Minari."

Youn is a veteran of the South Korean film industry but she has found huge international acclaim with her performance in "Minari." She has also become a favorite with awards audiences thanks to her funny and often forthright acceptance speeches.

During her Oscars acceptance speech, Youn made a jovial reference to Brad Pitt, who executive produced "Minari" and presented her the award. When she got on stage, she turned to the actor, laughed, and said: "Mr. Brad Pitt, finally. Nice to meet you. Where were you when we were filming in person?"

Youn appeared to be implying that Brad Pitt did not visit the set of "Minari" while the film was in production in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2019. She also proceeded to call out all the hosts and attendees who have mispronounced her name all awards season. "Tonight, you are all forgiven," she said.

Glenn Close once again left an Oscars ceremony empty-handed. On Sunday night, the 74-year-old actress lost the best supporting actress race to South Korean actress Yuh-Jung Youn. This is Close's eighth Oscar loss, meaning she is now tied with Peter O'Toole for the actor with most nominations without winning.

Close was first nominated for best actress in 1983 for "The World According to Garp," her first big-screen performance. And she has picked three Golden Globes, three Tony awards, and three Emmys across her four-decade career as both a screen and stage actor.

At this year's ceremony, she was nominated for her performance in the critically panned film "Hillbilly Elegy." Although Close still managed to steal the show. During a hilarious cut-away segment with the comedian Lil Rel, Close danced to E.U.'s 1988 single "Da Butt."

Close also impressed with her expert knowledge of the song's origins telling the crowd that the song was written for Spike Lee's "brilliant" film "School Daze," which was snubbed by the Academy in 1988.

"My friends at the Oscars missed it and it wasn't nominated, so it couldn't have won, which I think is just an effing tragedy," she said.