The final moments of the 2021 Oscars ceremony left plenty of viewers confused and even upset.
Breaking with tradition, the Best Picture category was announced as the third-to-last prize of the night on Sunday, April 25, despite having been presented as the final award for many years running. This led some viewers and analysts to speculate that the ceremony's producers were purposely saving Best Actor as the last category, with the assumption that Chadwick Boseman would receive a posthumous win for his role in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.
However, that's not how the show ending up playing out. After Nomadland was crowned Best Picture and Frances McDormand won Best Actress for her role as Fern in the same film, some viewers were stunned when Anthony Hopkins was named Best Actor for his role in The Father. Because Hopkins was not in attendance, presenter Joaquin Phoenix abruptly ended the ceremony right there.
"anthony was phenomenal," one Twitter user posted. "good for him truly. but how are you gonna 1) speed the absolute f--k out of the in memoriam segment and 2) switch up the order of the awards to make your audience think you're gonna give chadwick some sort of tribute and then just....... not. feels cruel."
Another fan tweeted, "them pushing best actor till the end just for chadwick not to win was very f--ked up and it feels like they exploited his death for views."
A third individual wrote, "ok rearranging the categories for the first time ever trying to end on best actor in order to honor chadwick and then instead giving the award to hopkins who isn't even there... actually a really good bit, bravo."
E! News has reached out to the Academy for comment on why the traditional order of the categories was switched this year.
Earlier in the day on April 25, Hopkins tweeted footage of himself visiting his father's grave in Wales. The 83-year-old star became the oldest person to ever win an acting Oscar.
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