The 2020 Academy Awards have come and gone, leaving South Korean director Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite as the star of the night. The film took home four Oscars, including Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, and International Feature Film. This is the first time in Academy history where a foreign-language film has received the top award.
These wins were seen as surprising to many, considering how 1917 has gained much of the recent awards traction prior to the Academy Awards. Sam Mendes’s World War I drama, however, followed close behind Parasite with three Oscars, including Best Cinematography, Visual Effects, and Sound Mixing.

Other notable wins include Joaquin Phoenix for Lead Actor and Renée Zellweger for Lead Actress, bringing their awards season sweeps to an end. Brad Pitt and Laura Dern also received awards for their performances in supporting roles for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Marriage Story, respectively.

The Academy Awards has once again faced numerous controversies this year regarding representation within their nominations. Most notably, the lack of any female directors in the Best Director category, including Greta Gerwig for her adaptation of Little Women, resulted in widespread backlash across various social media platforms.
Much of the criticism towards the Academy also regards the almost entirely white nominations for the acting categories, with Cynthia Erivo’s nomination for Best Lead Actress in Harriet being the only exception. Some of the most egregious acting snubs in many people’s eyes include Lusitania Nyong’o in Us, Jennifer Lopez in Hustlers, Awkwafina in The Farewell, and the cast of Parasite.

The full list of nominations and winners are included below.

Best Picture:

Ford v Ferrari, The Irishman, Jojo Rabbit, Joker, Little Women, Marriage Story, 1917, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and the winner: Parasite.

Best Director:

The Irishman – Martin Scorses, Joker – Todd Phillips, 1917 – Sam Mendes, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Quentin Tarantino, and the winner: Parasite – Bong Joon Ho.

Best Actress in a Leading Role:

Cynthia Erivo in Harriet, Scarlett Johansson in Marriage Story, Saoirse Ronan in Little Women, Charlize Theron in Bombshell, and the winner: Renée Zellweger in Judy.

Best Actor in a Leading Role:

Antonio Banderas in Pain and Glory, Leonardo DiCaprio in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Adam Driver in Marriage Story, the winner: Joaquin Phoenix in Joker, and Jonathan Pryce in The Two Popes.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role:

Kathy Bates in Richard Jewell, the winner: Laura Dean in Marriage Story, Scarlett Johansson in Jojo Rabbit, Florence Pugh in Little Women, and Margot Robbie in Bombshell.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role:

Tom Hanks in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Anthony Hopkins in The Two Popes, Al Pacino in The Irishman, Joe Pesci in The Irishman, and the winner: Brad Pitt in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Best Adapted Screenplay:

The Irishman – Screenplay by Steven Zaillian, the winner: Jojo Rabbit – Screenplay by Taika Waititi, Joker – Written by Todd Phillips & Scott Silver, Little Women – Written for the screen by Greta Gerwig, and The Two Popes – Written by Anthony McCarten.

Best Original Screenplay:

Knives Out – Written by Rian Johnson, Marriage Story – Written by Noah Baumbach, 1917 – Written by Sam Mendes & Krysty Wilson-Cairns, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Written by Quentin Tarantino, and the winner: Parasite – Written by Bong Joon Ho and Han Jin Won.

Best Animated Feature Film:

How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World I Lost My Body, Klaus, Missing Link, and the winner: Toy Story 4.

Best Cinematography:

The Irishman – Rodrigo Prieto, Joker – Lawrence Sher, The Lighthouse – Jarin Blaschke, the winner: 1917 – Roger Deakins, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Robert Richardson.

Best Costume Design:

The Irishman – Sandy Powell and Christopher Peterson, Jojo Rabbit – Mayes C. Rubeo, Joker – Mark Bridges, the winner: Little Women – Jacqueline Durran, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Arianne Phillips.

Best Documentary Feature:

The winner: American Factory, The Cave, The Edge of Democracy For Sama, and Honeyland.

Best Documentary Short Subject:

In the Absence, the winner: Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl) Life Overtakes Me, St. Louis, Superman, and Walk Run Cha-Cha.

Best Film Editing:

The winner: Ford v Ferrari – Michael McCuster and Andrew Buckland, The Irishman – Thelma Schoonmaker, Jojo Rabbit – Tom Eagles, Joker – Jeff Groth, and Parasite – Yang Jimmo.

Best International Feature Film:

Corpus Christi – Poland, Honeyland – North Macedonia, Les Misérables – France, Pain and Glory – Spain, and the winner: Parasite – South Korea.

Best Makeup and Hairstyling:

The winner: Bombshell – Kazu Hiro, Anne Morgan and Vivian Baker, Joker – Nicki Ledermann and Kay Georgiou, Judy – Jeremy Woodhead, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil – Paul Gooch, Arjen Tuiten and David White, and 1917 – Naomi Donne, Tristan Versluis and Rebecca Cole.

Best Original Score:

The winner: Joker – Hildur Guðnadóttir, Little Women – Alexandre Desplat Marriage Story – Randy Newman, 1917 – Thomas Newman, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – John Williams.

Best Original Song:

“I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away” from Toy Story 4, the winner: “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from Rocketman, “I’m Standing With You” from Breakthrough, “Into The Unknown” from Frozen II, and “Stand Up” from Harriet.

Best Production Design:

The Irishman – Production Design: Bob Shaw; Set Decoration: Regina Graves, Jojo Rabbit – Production Design: Ra Vincent; Set Decoration: Nora Sopková, 1917 – Production Design: Dennis Gassner; Set Decoration: Lee Sandales, the winner: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Production Design: Barbara Ling; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh, and Parasite – Production Design: Lee Ha Jun; Set Decoration: Cho Won Woo.

Best Animated Short Film:

Dcera (Daughter), the winner: Hair Love Kitbull, Memorable, and Sister.

Best Live Action Short Film:

Brotherhood, Nectar Football Club, the winner: The Neighbor’s Window, Saria, and A Sister.

Best Sound Editing:

The winner: Ford v Ferrari – Donald Sylvester, Joker – Alan Robert Murray, 1917 – Oliver Tarney and Rachael Tate, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Wylie Stateman, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – Matthew Wood and David Acord.

Best Sound Mixing:

Ad Astra – Gary Rydstrom, Tom Johnson and Mark Ulano, Ford v Ferrari – Paul Massey, David Giammarco and Steven A. Morrow, Joker – Tom Ozanich, Dean Zupancic and Tod Maitland, the winner: 1917 – Mark Taylor and Stuart Wilson, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Michael Minkler, Christian P. Minkler and Mark Ulano.

Best Visual Effects:

Avengers: Endgame – Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, Matt Aitken and Dan Sudick, The Irishman – Pablo Helman, Leandro Estebecorena, Nelson Sepulveda-Fauser and Stephane Grabli, The Lion King – Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones and Elliot Newman, the winner: 1917 – Guillaume Rocheron, Greg Butler and Dominic Tuohy, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – Roger Guyett, Neal Scanlan, Patrick Tubach and Dominic Tuohy.