The Academy goes old school with its most basic BP winner since Crash- Green Book topped out with 3 Oscars in Picture, Supporting Actor and Original Screenplay. I guess you no longer need to get a director nomination to win Best Picture anymore, as Green Book becomes only the fifth movie to do it after Wings, Grand Hotel, Driving Miss Daisy and Argo
Ugh! Well, I’m not gonna lie. This was a really big disappointment for me, given how mediocre I thought this movie was. But the preferential ballot strikes again and the PGA continues to be the most important guild of the big three because of it. I also had a bad feeling after Green Book won screenplay and then Congressman John Lewis was brought out to introduce the clip from the movie, which was the last Best Picture nominee announced. I see what you did there, AMPAS. As for the show itself, it moved pretty smoothly without a host, actually. It was relatively speedy (for the Oscars), at 3 hours and 15 minutes, no unnecessary montages or annoying host bits needed to waste time. Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s performance of “Shallow” was my favorite moment of the night, followed closely by Olivia Colman’s huge surprise win for Best Actress and her adorably frazzled speech (poor Glenn! I doubt she’ll get another shot now).
2019 OSCAR WINNERS
BEST PICTURE: Green Book
BEST DIRECTOR: Alfonso Cuaron, Roma
BEST ACTRESS: Olivia Colman, The Favourite
BEST ACTOR: Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Mahershala Ali, Green Book
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: BlacKkKlansman
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Green Book
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Roma
BEST EDITING: Bohemian Rhapsody
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: Black Panther
BEST ORIGINAL SONG: “Shallow,” A Star is Born
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN: Black Panther
BEST COSTUME DESIGN: Black Panther
BEST SOUND MIXING: Bohemian Rhapsody
BEST SOUND EDITING: Bohemian Rhapsody
BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING: Vice
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: First Man
BEST DOCUMENTARY: Free Solo
BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM: Roma
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT: Period. End of Sentence.
BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT: Skin
BEST ANIMATED SHORT: Bao
I went 18/24 in my predictions, not such a great year for me. My risk in supporting actress did not pay off, as the votes for The Favourite went into the Best Actress category instead, which I did not see coming. It was a year with a lot of diversity in the winners- women, the first Arab-American in Best Actor, a record number of African-American winners all across the board, with firsts in production design, costume design and animated feature, and Spike Lee finally got his long overdue Oscar. That was a great moment as well, but of course the year that he finally wins is the year that Green Book, or Driving Miss Daisy redux (and even that’s a better movie, by the way!) has to take Best Picture. I say get rid of the preferential ballot and go back to five nominees, but maybe keep the no host thing going. The show moved quickly and didn’t drag- and that’s a plus.
The biggest upset of the night was Olivia Colman beating out Glenn Close for Best Actress- no one saw that coming, not even her
