The 91st Annual Academy Awards (aka the Oscars) were handed out by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Sunday night, February 24 at a host-less ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

There were quite a few surprises but none of the eight movies nominated for Best Picture went home empty-handed, as awards were handed out rather diplomatically between them.

While Peter Farrelly’s Green Book won three Oscars, including Best Picture, Original Screenplay and Mahershala Ali’s second Oscar in the Supporting Actor category, another big winner of the night was the equally controversial Bohemian Rhapsody.

The Freddie Mercury and Queen biopic won four of the five Oscars it was nominated for including a Lead Actor win for Rami Malek, who played Freddie. The musical drama also won in the Film Editing, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing categories.

Marvel Studios’ Black Panther, the first superhero or comic book movie to be nominated for Best Picture, went home with three Oscars, for Costume Design, Production Design and Original Score. This is one more than Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight won ten years back.

Thought to be a favorite for Best Picture, Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma, received three Oscars, one for Cuaron for directing, another for Cuaron for his cinematography and a third in the Foreign Language category. Not winning Best Picture meant that there still hasn’t been a foreign language film to take that honor in 91 years of the Oscars.

Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk, which won top honors at the Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday, went home with one Oscar for Supporting Actress Regina King. Annapurna’s other offering, Adam McKay’s Vicereceived an Oscar for its hair and make-up used to transform Christian Bale into former Vice President Dick Cheney.

Furthermore, the now-legendary Star is Born jinx continued with the latest remake directed by Bradley Cooper (who wasn’t even nominated for his direction). Despite receiving eight nominations, it only won one for the Original Song “Shallow,” which was performed by co-writer/actor Lady Gaga and Cooper in a rousing show-stopper. The previous version of A Star is Born from 1976, which starred Barbra Streisand — who oddly presented Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman during the ceremony — also only won a single Oscar for Original Song out of four nominations. The 1954 movie with Judy Garland was nominated for six nominations and won none, while the 1938 movie also won a single Oscar out of six nominations.

Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman did take home the Oscar for Adapted Screenplay, making it Lee’s first Oscar win, if you disregard the Governors Award (aka Lifetime Achievement Oscar) he received a few years back.

As the night wore on, it seemed like Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite, nominated for ten Oscars, might get shut-out. Things turned around later in the evening when the film’s Olivia Colman won Lead Actress in a surprise victory over the popular favorite (and multiple Oscar nominee) Glenn Close for The Wife.

Sony Pictures Animation took home its very first Oscar with the Animated Feature win by Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, while the Disney animated short Bao won in that category.

The mountain-climbing doc Free Solo took home the Oscar in the Documentary Feature category.

Final tally puts Bohemian Rhapsody at four Oscars, and Green BookRoma and Black Panther at three each.

6 COMMENTS

  1. L.A. Times’ Justin Chang writes: “‘Green Book’ is the worst best picture winner since ‘Crash'”:

    //www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-oscars-green-book-worst-best-picture-winner-20190224-story.html

    As for the “Star is Born” jinx, only one version — the one from 1954 — deserved a best picture nomination. And it wasn’t as good as that year’s winner, “On the Waterfront.”

  2. Great that Roma got what it did but it could have gone that one better. Blackkklansman would have been a better choice than the one taken.

    Highlights were Olivia Colman and Spike Lee. I wanted Vice to somehow get recognition more than just makeup.

  3. The number of nominations for both Vice and The Favourite place them in good stead though, now that I think about it, even though the one win for each.

  4. Finally got to see Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse. Such a great flick. Such a unique vision. Glad it won.

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