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It's been a long and tiresome journey, but we have finally gotten through this Oscars season. That means we are right on the doorstep of Hollywood's biggest night: The Academy Awards. The 91st Academy Awards took place on Sunday, February 24 on ABC. For me, it has always been my favorite time of the year when we get to celebrate the best in entertainment. Just like every other year, the winners leave people either cheering for joy or shaking their heads in disapproval. With some of the winners chosen this year, it's no different.
Because there wasn't a host this year, the ceremony went by pretty quick, for the most part. Turns out, no host is actually better in the long run. There weren't any skits in-between that made the already three-hour show boring, and the presenters just did their job to present the awards. Queen and Adam Lambert kicked off the show with a solid performance of both "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions".
After a montage of last year's film, Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph, and Amy Poehler followed to introduce Best Supporting Actress, and they were hilarious. Why couldn't they have hosted?
The show overall ran smoothly. Despite the lack of a host, the show was still fairly entertaining. Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga’s musical performance was stellar. There were also some good acceptance speeches. At least there weren't any mishaps that were going to be talked about the next morning.
“Greek Book” pulled an upset as it took home the big prize of the night that of Best Picture. The film also won Best Supporting Actor (Mahershala Ali) and Best Original Screenplay. Despite the controversy that the road trip dramedy from Universal Pictures gained for its inaccuracies, it was able to succeed in winning, even without a Best Director nomination. Personally, I really enjoyed “Green Book”, and I know people who did love it.
Other memorable wins went to the film that many were expecting to earn Best Picture: “Roma." The Netflix original went on to win Best Director for Alfonso Cuarón, Best Cinematography, and Best Foreign Language Film. It was sad knowing the film didn't win Best Picture, despite being the front runner from certain award circuits. But the streaming service should still be proud. It's going to take another movie to get Cuarón that Best Picture win.
The film that took home the most wins was “Bohemian Rhapsody,” with four Academy Awards. Rami Malek won Best Actor for his uncanny portrayal of Freddie Mercury. The divisive Queen biopic also went on to win Best Editing, Sound Mixing, and Sound Editing. Knowing that if the movie wins anything in advance, the amount of "ugh" and "eye rolls" will be all over this.
The biggest surprise of the night that nobody saw coming was Olivia Colman winning Best Actress for “The Favourite” over Glenn Close for “The Wife”, who was the choice for the longest time. I wasn't even mad at this upset because she was brilliant. Her speech was also a favorite of mine. At least “The Favourite” was able to win one award out of its 10 nominations.
The biggest standout from the entire show, was “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” winning Best Animated Feature. This now means Phil Lord and Chris Miller are Oscar winners. "Shallow" from “A Star is Born”, the only lock of the night, went home with Best Original Song making Lady Gaga an Oscar winner. “Black Panther” won three Oscars, including Production Design, Costume Design, and Orignal Score, making it the first movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to win multiple Oscars. Spike Lee won Best Adapted Screenplay for co-writing “BlacKkKlansman." A long overdue win for Mr. Lee after being snubbed for “Do the Right Thing."
The Oscars season is over, and I couldn't be happier. In my opinion, the right Best Picture nominees all walked away with some sort of award. The best part is looking forward to the movies that are coming out this year; many of them could be good contenders for next year's Oscars.
My final score for the night: 16/24.
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