Oscars 2021: An unusual ceremony, unlike any other

• By ITV News Washington Producer Natasha Tierney

"Just think of this as a movie set. An Oscars movie set with a cast of over 200 nominees," said actress Regina King, opening the 93rd Academy awards.

So began the most unconventional Oscars ceremony in history.

The vision of filmmaker Steven Soderbergh and his team of producers; they had promised to overhaul the usual format into a 'movie-style telecast', designed to draw in audiences in a year in which few have been able to venture to the cinema.

Breaking with tradition

Unlike this season's other award shows, this was strictly non-virtual.

For the first time the programme was broadcast from LA's Union Station, instead of the iconic Dolby Theater (although this was a secondary ‘hub’ for some of the presenters).

The main set was a glamorous Art Deco nod to the old Hollywood supper-clubs which once hosted the Academy Awards, fitting with the smaller and more laid-back atmosphere of this year's event.

Perhaps surprisingly, there were few face-masks in sight. A mixture of vaccinations and rigorous Covid testing - as you'd find on any of the movie sets operating worldwide, we were reminded - allowed for the limited number of guests in the main studio to sit together safely with faces uncovered.

Still, the emptiness of the space was hard to disguise, and the studio often looked and sounded jarringly vacant for such a big occasion.

The socially distanced, hot-pink ‘red carpet’ outside was also a breakaway from tradition, although the dress code was not.

Guests had been warned that the more relaxed attire seen at other ceremonies this season was not permitted, with this year’s official Oscars dress-code ‘inspirational and aspirational.’

The ceremony

Casual wear may have been strictly off limits, but the tone of the ceremony was certainly less formal than usual.

As in previous years, there was no single host, but rather a series of celebrities sharing presenting duties, with Regina King, Brad Pitt, Harrison Ford, Viola Davis and Zendaya just some of the famous faces who took to the stage.

Many of the nominees were introduced for the first time with a piece of trivia about their life and work – a feature which added a personal touch to proceedings, but caused controversy by replacing the usual montage of film clips played at the start of each category, leaving much of the programme strangely devoid of film content.

The unexpected viral moment of the night went to Glenn Close, who stood up and twerked to the 80s hit ‘Da Butt’ by the band E.U, during a surprise music quiz interlude, hosted by comedian Lil Rel Howery.

With Zoom acceptance speeches strictly prohibited, all winners were present in person, either in LA, or one of the satellite studios set up for the first time all over the world – from Sydney to Prague to London - for those who couldn't get there.

And it was a night of some significant milestones, following the most diverse set of nominations in history: Chloe Zhao became the first minority woman to win the Best Director award for Nomadland, while Yuh-Jung Youn became the first Korean woman and the second Asian woman since 1957, to win an Oscar for her role in 'Minari'.

In the surprise win of the night, Sir Anthony Hopkins also became the oldest actor to win an Academy Award, for his role in 'The Father', at 83.

But in a night full of firsts, the 93rd Academy Awards is likely to be remembered as the Oscars ceremony that ripped up the rule book in the most challenging of circumstances - capping off Hollywood’s longest ever running awards season, and a year that most in the film industry are keen to put behind them.