Oscar Recap

by Kam Williams

Green Book Is the Surprise Best Picture Winner

Olivia Colman Upsets Glenn Close for Best Actress

Green Book upset Roma to take home the Academy Award for Best Picture on an historic night featuring a record number of wins for black-themed films. Green Book also won in the Supporting Actor (Mahershala Ali) and Original Screenplay categories. 

 

Meanwhile, Spike Lee landed the Oscar for Adapted Screenplay for BlacKkKlansman, and Regina King garnered the Supporting Actress award for inspired performance in If Beale Street Could Talk. And Peter Ramsey won for co-directing the Best Animated Feature, Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse.

Black Panther prevailed in a trio of categories: Original Score, Costume Design and Production Design. In the process, Ruth E. Carter made history as the first African-American female to win for Costume Design, and Hannah Beachler did so, too, as the first African-American to win for Production Design.

The festivities flowed smoothly despite the absence of an emcee, and the show was about an hour shorter than usual. The emphasis on diversity was pretty obvious, with white presenters being outnumbered by black, Latino and Asians.

After jumping into the arms of Samuel L. Jackson on his way to the podium, a euphoric Spike Lee delivered a politically-tinged acceptance speech in which he appealed to folks to vote in the 2020 election. Although Spike never referred to Trump by name, the president subsequently saw fit to tweet about the Oscar-winner's supposedly “racist hit” against him.

As far as my Oscar picks, I only got half right, my worst showing ever.

Complete List of Academy Award 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 Foreign Film: Roma
Best Animated Feature Film: Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse
Best Original Screenplay: Green Book
Best Adapted Screenplay: BlacKkKlansman
Best Original Score: Black Panther
Best Original Song: Shallow (A Star Is Born)
Best Documentary Feature: Free Solo
Best Documentary Short: Period. End Of Sentence
Best Live Action Short: Skin
Best Animated Short: Bao
Best Cinematography: Roma
Best Production Design: Black Panther
Best Costume Design: Black Panther
Best Hair And Makeup: Vice
Best Sound Editing: Bohemian Rhapsody
Best Sound Mixing: Bohemian Rhapsody
Best Visual Effects: First Man
Best Editing: Bohemian Rhapsody