Anthony Hopkins received his second Academy Award for his role in the film The Father, in a category where many expected the late Chadwick Boseman to win posthumously. The 83-year-old is now the oldest individual to ever win an Academy Award for acting.

The Oscar producers even changed the order of the awards event to conclude with the best actor award, rather than the best picture award, which typically rounds up the show, as if they were preparing a Boseman triumph. However, when presenter Joaquin Phoenix opened the envelope, Hopkins was declared the winner. Hopkins was not there for the event, thus it concluded on an anticlimactic note with no remarks.

He did, however, subsequently broadcast a live Instagram acceptance statement from his birthplace of Wales, saying, “At 83 years of age I did not expect to get this award, I really didn’t. And [I’m] very grateful to the Academy, and 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 did win the BAFTA award for best actor for “The Father,” but his Oscar victory remains one of the night’s greatest surprises.

Numerous important statuettes, including several critics’ circle prizes and the Screen Actors Guild award, were presented to Boseman after his death throughout the course of the season. Taylor Simone Ledward, Boseman’s widow, collected each award along the way, giving moving comments about his brilliance and elegance. She paid homage to him at the Gotham Awards in January, saying, “He harnessed the power of letting go and letting God’s love shine through. May we not let his conviction be in vain.”

Boseman for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Steven Yeun for Minari, Riz Ahmed for The Sound of Metal, and Gary Oldman for Mank were the other candidates in Hopkins’ category.

Hopkins told the Huffington Post in 2012 that he was not interested in the awards circuit, despite the fact that his picture Hitchcock was receiving Oscar hype. “Having to be nice to people and to be charming and flirting with them…oh, come on! People go out of their way to flatter the nominating body and I think it’s kind of disgusting. That’s always been against my nature,” said Hopkins. “People groveling around and kissing the backsides of famous producers and all that. It makes me want to throw up, it really does.”

At the age of 76, legendary actor Henry Fonda held the record for the oldest Best Actor recipient for his work in On Golden Pond in 1982. At the age of 82, the late Christopher Plummer held the record for being the oldest winner in acting history for his Supporting Actor victory for Beginners.

Hopkins plays an old dad suffering from dementia in Florian Zeller’s film The Father. It is based on Zeller’s play of the same name.

The film, which had its world debut at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, was released in theaters in February and became accessible on demand in March.

Hopkins’ first Oscar, again for best actor, was for playing Hannibal Lecter in 1991’s “The Silence of the Lambs,” one of the most famous performances in film history. Hopkins has been nominated for six Academy Awards, the most recent being for best supporting actor in “The Two Popes,” which he won last year.

Frances McDormand (Nomadland), Yuh-Jung Youn (Minari), and Daniel Kaluuya were among the other acting winners at this year’s event.

While shocking, the actual moment of Hopkins’ win was a bit anticlimactic. Last year’s Best Actor winner, Joaquin Phoenix, ambled onstage and told the audience he was not going to speak about what he was supposed to speak about — the transformative moment when an actor discovers his character — because, he said, “I don’t think I’ve ever had that experience.”

Fans took to Twitter to express their displeasure at the abrupt end of this year’s awards season, with one viewer calling it the “worst ending to the Oscars in years.”

The 93rd Academy Awards were broadcast live on ABC from Union Station in Los Angeles and the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. There was no host. Steven Soderbergh, Jesse Collins, and Stacey Sher produced the event.