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.
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.
Daniel Kaluuya, who won the best supporting actor Oscar for his portrayal of Fred Hampton in “Judas and the Black Messiah,” thanked the slain Black Panther leader in his speech.
“What a man. What a man. How blessed we are that we lived in a lifetime where he existed,” Kaluuya said.
“Thank you for your light,” he said, noting that Hampton was alive for just 21 years.
“He found a way to feed kids breakfast, educate kids, give free medical care -- against all the odds," Kaluuya said.
“There’s so much work to do, guys -- and that’s on everyone in this room,” Kaluuya said.
Regina King, director of "One Night in Miami," opened the show by touching on the Derek Chauvin verdict.
“If things had gone differently this past week in Minneapolis," King said, she would’ve "traded in her heals for marching boots."
"As a mother of a Black son I know the fear that so many live with -- and no amount of fame or fortune chases that," King said.
Chauvin was convicted Tuesday on all three counts in the death of George Floyd: second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
