The 91st annual Academy Awards happened last night and despite the controversies over its format, and lack of host, the ceremony actually ended up running quite smoothly, with the broadcast concluding before 11:30 pm. In what can be considered a upset by many, though I correctly predicted it, Green Book walked away with the Oscar for Best Picture, which was won of two awards the film received, with the other being for Best Original Screenplay. There were no runaway winners of the night, though Bohemian Rhapsody ended up having a better than expected night, with the film winning in four out of five nominated categories, including a Best Actor win for star Rami Malek. Roma and Black Panther were tied for second place with three awards apiece. This included a hat trick for Alfonso Cuarón, who won both the Oscars for Best Director and Best Foreign Language Film, while also receiving the statue for Cinematography. Meanwhile, Black Panther made history as the first Oscar winning Marvel film, picking up the awards for Production Design, Costume Design, and Original Score. Joining the Marvel celebration is Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which picked up the Oscar for Best Animated Film.
Probably the biggest surprise of the night was Spike Lee winning his first ever Oscar, as BlacKkKlansman picked up the award for Best Adapted Screenplay. However, the night ended up bittersweet for Lee, who reportedly walked out after Green Book was announced as Best Picture. Another surprise of the night was Olivia Colman winning the Oscar for Best Actress, over favourite Glenn Close. While Colman’s win was not entirely surprising to me, since she is quite impressive in The Favourite, Glenn Close was picking up major steam, winning most of the pre-Oscar awards.
So, what are my thoughts of the 2019 Oscar winners? Well, my tally at the end of the night was 14 out of 24, which has really become my average over the years. Some of the harder to pick awards that I got correctly included Period. End of Sentence. winning for Best Documentary Short Subject, the first time I correctly predicted that award, as well as First Man winning for Best Visual Effects. I underestimated the appeal of both Bohemian Rhapsody and Black Panther in various technical categories, which were the bulk of the awards I missed. In fact, I’m quite shocked that the Dolby Atmos mixed Roma didn’t win either of the Sound categories, which went instead to Bohemian Rhapsody, which also curiously won for Film Editing.
Probably the least surprising Oscar win of the night was Lady Gaga‘s “Shallow” winning the Oscar for Best Song. Some other awards that went as expected for me included both Mahershala Ali and Regina King‘s wins in the Supporting Actor categories and Free Solo winning for Best Documentary.
Well, that wraps up another year of Oscar coverage, though I am sure the debate of who did or didn’t win is going to continue for quite some time.