This year brought barrier-breaking wins.
Hollywood's biggest night -- the Academy Awards -- has come to a close.
"Nomadland" took home the coveted best picture award while Anthony Hopkins and Frances McDormand won best actor and actress in a leading role.
Hopkins' victory was an upset over Chadwick Boseman, who died in August after a private four-year battle with colon cancer. Boseman was nominated for best actor for his role in "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom."
This year brought barrier-breaking wins, including the first woman of color to win best director and the first Black women to win best makeup and hairstyling.
“Nomadland" claimed the Oscar for best picture. “Nomadland" director Chloé Zhao also took home the best directing statue.
“Nomadland,” based on a 2017 book, follows a woman named Fern (Frances McDormand), who leaves her home after her husband dies to live out of her van, traveling the U.S. and taking on odd jobs. The movie features real-life nomads in the supporting cast.
McDormand won best actress for the role.
The Academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award was presented Sunday to Tyler Perry in recognition of his charity efforts.
As Perry stood on stage, he recalled a story of when he offered money to a homeless woman. She, however, asked for a pair of shoes.
The woman, staring down, said, “Thank you, Jesus, my feet are off the ground,” Perry recalled.
The woman said to Perry that she thought he’d hate her. Perry said he responded: “How can I hate you when I used to be you?”
Perry said he dedicates his award “to anyone who wants to stand in the middle no matter what’s around the walls” because “that’s where healing happens” and where “change happens.”
“So anyone who wants to meet me in the middle to refuse hate… to help lift someone’s feet off the ground, this one is for you, too,” he said.
Chloe Zhao won best director for "Nomadland,” becoming the first Asian woman -- and woman of color -- to win the award.
Zhao also is only the second woman ever to win best director.
Another Oscar barrier was broken for Asian women this year -- Yuh-Jung Youn, who won best supporting actress for her role in "Minari," is the first actress of Korean descent to win the award.
As Mia Neal, one of the makeup and hairstyling winners for "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom,” accepted her Oscar, she used her moment to share the spotlight with other minority women.
Neal and Jamika Wilson, who won alongside Sergio Lopez-Rivera, were the first Black women nominated in the category.
“As Jamika and I break this glass ceiling,” she said, she was filled with “so much excitement for the future.”
“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,” she said.
