The 2021 Oscars came to an abrupt end on Sunday night with hotly-tipped stars Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis missing out on the two top acting awards.

Many had anticipated late actor Chadwick – who passed away last year at the age of just 43 – would win a posthumous Best Actor award for his role in drama Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.

While many also expected 55-year-old acting powerhouse Viola to walk off with the Best Actress gong for her role as the eponymous singer in the same film.

However both stars were pipped to the post by Sir Anthony Hopkins in The Father and Frances McDormand in Nomadland respectively – prompting one viewer to remark on Twitter: "That's the worst TV ending since 'Game of Thrones'."

The shows decision not to end the night with Best Picture (as is tradition) spectacularly backfired when Hopkins was announced as the final winner with the 83-year-old not even in Los Angeles to collect the award himself.

Beforehand Chloe Zhou's Nomadland won Best Director and Best Picture with Mank also winning two out of 10 total nominations.

While the awards ceremony saw success for a range of British stars on top of Sir Anthony.

Emerald Fennell kicked off the awards by winning Best Original Screenplay for rape-revenge thriller Promising Young Woman.

Daniel Kaluuya scooped Best Supporting Actor award for his role as Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah.

Oscars 2021 winners

Best Picture

Nomadland – Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey, Frances McDormand, Peter Spears and Chloé Zhao – WINNER

The Father – Philippe Carcassonne, Jean-Louis Livi and David Parfitt

Judas and the Black Messiah – Ryan Coogler, Charles D. King and Shaka King

Mank – Ceán Chaffin, Eric Roth and Douglas Urbanski

Minari – Christina Oh

Promising Young Woman – Ben Browning, Emerald Fennell, Ashley Fox and Josey McNamara

Sound of Metal – Bert Hamelinck and Sacha Ben Harroche

The Trial of the Chicago 7 – Stuart M. Besser and Marc Platt

Best Director

Chloé Zhao – Nomadland – WINNER

Thomas Vinterberg – Another Round

David Fincher – Mank

Lee Isaac Chung – Minari

Emerald Fennell – Promising Young Woman

Best Actor

Anthony Hopkins – The Father as Anthony – WINNER

Riz Ahmed – Sound of Metal as Ruben Stone

Chadwick Boseman (posthumous) – Ma Rainey's Black Bottom as Levee Green

Gary Oldman – Mank as Herman J. Mankiewicz

Steven Yeun – Minari as Jacob Yi

Best Actress

Frances McDormand – Nomadland as Fern – WINNER

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

Best Supporting Actor

Daniel Kaluuya – Judas and the Black Messiah as Fred Hampton – WINNER

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

Best Supporting Actress

Youn Yuh-jung – Minari as Soon-ja – WINNER

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

Best Original Screenplay

Promising Young Woman – Emerald Fennell – WINNER

Judas and the Black Messiah – Screenplay by Will Berson and Shaka King; Story by Berson, King, Keith Lucas and Kenny Lucas

Minari – Lee Isaac Chung

Sound of Metal – Screenplay by Abraham Marder and Darius Marder; Story by Derek Cianfrance and D. Marder

The Trial of the Chicago 7 – Aaron Sorkin

Best Adapted Screenplay

The Father – Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller, based on the play by Zeller – WINNER

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm – Screenplay by Sacha Baron Cohen, Peter Baynham, Jena Friedman, Anthony Hines, Lee Kern, Dan Mazer, Erica Rivinoja and Dan Swimer; Story by Baron Cohen, Hines, Nina Pedrad and Swimer; Based on the character by Baron Cohen

Nomadland – Chloé Zhao, based on the book by Jessica Bruder

One Night in Miami... – Kemp Powers, based on his play

The White Tiger – Ramin Bahrani, based on the novel by Aravind Adiga

Best International Feature Film

Another Round (Denmark) in Danish – directed by Thomas Vinterberg – WINNER

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

Best Documentary Feature

My Octopus Teacher – Pippa Ehrlich, Craig Foster and James Reed – WINNER

Collective – Alexander Nanau and Bianca Oana

Crip Camp – Sara Bolder, Jim LeBrecht and Nicole Newnham

The Mole Agent – Maite Alberdi and Marcela Santibáñez

Best Sound

Sound of Metal – Jaime Baksht, Nicolas Becker, Philip Bladh, Carlos Cortés and Michelle Couttolenc – WINNER

Greyhound – Beau Borders, Michael Minkler, Warren Shaw and David Wyman

Mank – Ren Klyce, Drew Kunin, Jeremy Molod, Nathan Nance and David Parker

News of the World – William Miller, John Pritchett, Mike Prestwood Smith and Oliver Tarney

Soul – Coya Elliot, Ren Klyce and David Parker

Best Cinematography

Mank – Erik Messerschmidt – WINNER

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

Best Film Editing

Sound of Metal – Mikkel E.G. Nielsen – WINNER

The Father – Yorgos Lamprinos

Nomadland – Chloé Zhao

Promising Young Woman – Frédéric Thoraval

The Trial of the Chicago 7 – Alan Baumgarten

Time – Garrett Bradley, Lauren Domino and Kellen Quinn

Best Visual Effects

Tenet – Scott R. Fisher, Andrew Jackson, David Lee and Andrew Lockley – WINNER

Love and Monsters – Genevieve Camailleri, Brian Cox, Matt Everitt and Matt Sloan

The Midnight Sky – Matthew Kasmir, Chris Lawrence, Max Solomon and David Watkins

Mulan – Sean Andrew Faden, Steve Ingram, Anders Langlands and Seth Maury

The One and Only Ivan – Nick Davis, Greg Fisher, Ben Jones and Santiago Colomo Martinez

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom – Sergio Lopez-Rivera, Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson – WINNER

Emma. – Laura Allen, Marese Langan and Claudia Stolze

Hillbilly Elegy – Patricia Dehaney, Eryn Krueger Mekash and Matthew W. Mungle

Mank – Colleen LaBaff, Kimberley Spiteri and Gigi Williams

Pinocchio – Dalia Colli, Mark Coulier and Francesco Pegoretti

Best Costume Design

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom – Ann Roth – WINNER

Emma. – Alexandra Byrne

Mank – Trish Summerville

Mulan – Bina Daigeler

Pinocchio – Massimo Cantini Parrini

Best Production Design

Mank – Production Design: Donald Graham Burt; Set Decoration: Jan Pascale – WINNER

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

Best Original Song

"Fight for You" from Judas and the Black Messiah – Music by D'Mile and H.E.R.; lyric by H.E.R. and Tiara Thomas – WINNER

"Hear My Voice" from The Trial of the Chicago 7 – Music by Daniel Pemberton; lyric by Celeste and Pemberton

"Husavik" from Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga – Music and lyric by Rickard Göransson, Fat Max Gsus and Savan Kotecha

"Io sì (Seen)" from The Life Ahead – Music by Diane Warren; lyric by Laura Pausini and Warren

"Speak Now" from One Night in Miami... – Music and lyric by Sam Ashworth and Leslie Odom Jr.

Best Original Score

Soul – Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste – WINNER

Da 5 Bloods – Terence Blanchard

Mank – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Minari – Emile Mosseri

News of the World – James Newton Howard

While Martin Desmond Roe added to the UK wins on Sunday night as he scooped the Best Live Action Short Film award alongside American co-director Travon Free.

But viewers of the awards show were far from impressed by the final results.

Many took to social media to decry the Academy's decision to snub Chadwick – as many felt the evening's awards show had been building up to him being declared Best Actor.

An In Memoriam section towards the end of the three-and-a-half hour long ceremony had been criticised for speeding through a names of performers and industry experts who had died over the past year – with Chadwick featuring fleetingly at the end of the segment.
Chadwick had been tipped to win a posthumous Best Actor award for his role in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (
Image:
NETFLIX)

And when the Best Picture award was announced before the Best Actor and Best Actress segment, many expected show producers to have made way for a more fitting tribute to Chadwick as they anticipated him winning the final award of the night.

However, Sir Anthony Hopkins won Best Actor for his role as Anthony in the film The Father – but did not feature at all during the award presentation.

One angered viewer hit out on Twitter, writing: "The Oscars were so sure that Chadwick Boseman was going to win that they REARRANGED THE ENTIRE CEREMONY so his category could be last, and then they gave the award to Anthony Hopkins instead...the most chaotic and unhinged thing I've ever seen."
Sir Anthony Hopkins won Best Actor for his role in The Father

Another echoed the sentiment, tweeting: "Wow, what a massively bad idea. And this overshadows the fact that both Anthony Hopkins and Chadwick Boseman were brilliant and one of them had to win. The spotlight is now shining solely on the producers. Huge mistake. From In Memoriam on, this show was a disaster."

While a further viewer tweeted: "They build the entire show around a Chadwick Boseman ending and then Anthony Hopkins won and didn't show up."

One fan highlighted that Viola has yet to win the Best Actress award despite previously being nominated for the gong for her 2011 performance in The Help.
Viola Davis was nominated for her own role in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom – but missed out on the award (
Image:
POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

They tweeted: "Who is sabotaging Viola Davis? How has she not won yet? She is an astonishing talent. Easily one of the best actors alive today."

Another viewer tweeted: "Well, disappointed most of all for Viola Davis. She bodied that role. Anthony Hopkins was a no show and Frances McDormand never really campaigned, clearly she didn’t have to. I think Nomadland is an exceptional film, and Viola should have won best actress."

And another wrote: "Um??? just wasted 2hrs of my life watching the oscars just to see Viola Davis AND Chadwick Boseman be robbed."

Viola previously won the Best Supporting Actress award in 2016 for her role in Fences.
Frances McDormand gave a brief acceptance speech as she collected her Best Actress award (
Image:
ABC / BACKGRID)

While Anthony Hopkins gave no acceptance speech, with Joaquin Phoenix merely stating the Academy accepted the award on his behalf, Frances McDormand did give a speech when she collected her own award.

Winning Best Actress for her role as Fern in Nomadland, she said: "My voice is in my sword.

"We know the sword is our work. And I like work. Thank you for knowing that. And thanks for this."

It is the third Best Actress award Frances has scooped – previously winning in 1997 for her role in Fargo, and in 2018 for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

While she won another gong, for Best Picture, as a producer of Nomadland on Sunday night as well.

Sir Anthony Hopkins, meanwhile, previously won Best Actor back in 1992 for his role in the psychological thriller classic The Silence of the Lambs.