Oscars 2021: Outrage As Late Chadwick Boseman Loses ‘Best Actor’ Award

The 93rd Annual Academy Awards ceremony was held last night in Los Angeles at the famous Union Station and the winners were met with mixed reactions.

The Academy was commended for the diversity included in the nominations and wins, but perhaps the most surprising turn of events of the night was the late Chadwick Boseman losing the award for Best Actor in a leading role.

He was favoured to win the award as his performance in Netflix’s ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ was met with numerous positive reviews, and already earned him Golden Globe, Critic’s Choice, and Screen Actors Guild awards respectively.
Viewers expressed their outrage on social media as the award was instead given to Sir Anthony Hopkins for his performance in ‘The Father’.

Boseman, who is most famous for his role as Marvel’s ‘Black Panther’, died unexpectedly last year after a long and private battle with colon cancer.

He was first diagnosed with the disease in 2016 but never publicly spoke about it. It was also reported that only a handful of non-family members knew about his diagnosis.

Boseman was the first black actor to be nominated for an Oscar posthumously and the award would have been his first and only Academy Award. He was already favoured to win the award.

The displeasure also stemmed from the fact that the ‘Best Picture’ award usually comes last in the line-up of award presentation. But this year, it was moved up and instead, the ‘Best Actor’ award was presented last which led viewers to believe it was in honour of Chadwick Boseman. They were surprised however when the award went to Hopkins.

A Twitter user with the username @WakandaUpdates tweeted “The Oscars not only used Chadwick’s image for profit but they deliberately rearranged their category showing to have his go up last to boost their viewership, only to hand the award to someone else”.

@AshleyLCarter tweeted saying “Anthony Hopkins is a great actor and he’s great in “The Father”. I’m mostly upset with how the Oscars producers changed up the categories seemingly to capitalize on the energy surrounding the possibility of Chadwick Boseman winning. And well, that gamble failed miserably”.

@multiversable tweeted saying “Oscar or not, Chadwick Boseman will ALWAYS be one of the BEST actors and the human of our generation. He has set a legacy that cannot be competed with”.

Another point of discontent for fans came from the fact that prior to the Award show, it was announced that Academy Award nominees would receive a one-of-a-kind digital artwork of Boseman created by artist Andre Oshea, redeemable by an NFT – a Non-Fungible Token.

@lcvendrs tweeted saying, “If award shows are gonna nominate people who passed away and don’t give them the award what’s the point? And the fact that they turned Chadwick into an nft to capitalize off of him too?

@verymimi tweeted “In all seriousness, it is very, very gross that the Academy used Chadwick’s likeness to get coverage for the swag bags, used the anticipation of his win to retain viewership, and then gave him nothing”.

@phqntomthrd tweeted saying, “it’s sick how transparent the academy was using Chadwick Boseman just for clicks and views, building everything up to the best actor award and inviting his family and giving him a tribute and putting his head in gift bags and not giving him anything. He deserves more respect.”

In his virtual acceptance speech, Anthony Hopkins said he really did not expect to win the award. He said,
“At 83 years of age I did not expect to get this award, I really didn’t. I’m very grateful to the Academy and I thank you.

“And 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.

Hopkins, 83, is now the oldest actor to win an Oscar.
Sir Anthony Hopkins has previously won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1991 for his portrayal of Hannibal Lecter in “The Silence of the Lambs.”