From 9-year-old Alan Kim waddling his way into the Dolby Theater to Youn Yuh-jung flirting with Brad Pitt during her best supporting actress acceptance speech, the 93rd Academy Awards was filled with nuggets of emotion, cuteness, humor and pride for Asian Americans watching at home.
Chloé Zhao made history
Chloé Zhao took home the best director award for “Nomadland,” which also won best picture and best actress. She is the first woman of color and only the second woman to ever win the award, after Kathryn Bigelow in 2010.
She was presented the award by Bong Joon-ho, who presented the nominees entirely in Korean.
“Chloé Zhao gave us the experience of shedding the skin of who we think we are and walking in another person’s shoes,” Bong said in Korean while introducing Zhao, the first woman of color to win best director.
Youn Yuh-jung’s many quips went viral
In a moment that many Twitter users said brought a bit of life to the whole ceremony, “Minari’s” Youn Yuh-jung took the stage to accept the award for best actress in a supporting role from Brad Pitt. The 73-year-old actress gave a joke-filled speech, starting off by flirting with Pitt.
“Mr. Pitt, finally, nice to meet you,” Youn joked. “Where were you while we were filming in Tulsa?”
She also took a moment to thank her two sons.
“This is the result, because Mommy worked so hard,” she said.
Her win and speech were one of the most discussed moments of the night.
Alan Kim danced on the red carpet
The 9-year-old “Minari” star already captured the heart of the internet last month during his tearful Critics Choice Award speech. Last night, he gave Twitter yet another reason to love him by dancing his way into the Dolby Theater ahead of the ceremony.
Kim’s outfit and his pre-show dog walking also got a lot of love.
Riz Ahmed showed his wife some love
Best actor nominee Riz Ahmed made everyone swoon when he stopped on the red carpet to help his wife fix her hair.
Ahmed, who was nominated for his performance in “Sound of Metal,” told Jimmy Kimmel last week that he proposed to his now wife Fatima Farheen Mirza during a game of scrabble.