Somehow last night’s Oscars showed that the Academy certainly did care about political movies but not so much they would give them its highest honor.
If you were watching last night you will most likely agree that almost all the films and actors that should have won took home a statue. That was kind of nice. But then Green Book won Best Picture and you could see Hollywood still playing by its old rules.
Before we talk about that though let’s talk about what worked last night. There may have been a bit of a delay but The Academy seems to have finally gotten the #OscarsSoWhite memo as more awards went to people of color than any other year before. And the awards were well deserved. It opened the door for Ruth E. Carter to win for her costume design in Black Panther, a major studio film that focused on Afro Futurism. The film won for production design as well.
In a major upset Into the Spider-Verse took home best animated feature, the first in ages to not belong to Dreamworks or Pixar. This is even more important because not only is the film one of the most creative animated films to come out in years but it revolves around an Afro-Latino superhero. While that detail may seem small it is very important on a cultural level. Bohemian Rhapsody cleaned up as well in a move that really honored everything Freddie Mercury stood for, even if the movie itself had flaws. The whole night seemed to be an apology for years of #OscarsSoWhite.
Then Green Book won Best Picture. The film itself isn’t bad and it has some fantastic actors involved. Anything Viggo Mortensen or Mahershala Ali do is going to be a masterclass in acting. That doesn’t change the fact that the story plays out like a reverse Driving Miss Daisy. A film which, as it turns out, beat out the far superior Do The Right Thing. The same thing seemed to happen last night as Green Book beat out Lee’s exceptional Blackkklansman, a truly timely and hard-hitting film. Even if the Academy ignored Lee’s movie Vice was nominated as well and could have made a statement. It’s as if Hollywood was prepping itself to make a grand statement and backed out at the last minute.
Maybe next year the Academy will be ready to give its highest honor to a more deserving film but for now it seems happy making comfortable decisions that don’t disrupt the status quo.
Best Supporting Actress
Emma Stone (The Favourite)
Rachel Weisz (The Favourite)
Amy Adams (Vice)
Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk)
Marina De Tavira (Roma)
Best Makeup and Hair
Border
Mary Queen of Scots
Vice
Best Documentary
Free Solo
Minding the Gap
RBG
Hale County This Morning, This Evening
Of Fathers and Sons
Best Costume Design
Black Panther (Ruth E Carter) – WINNER!
The Favourite (Sandy Powell)
Mary Poppins Returns (Sandy Powell)
Mary Queen of Scots (Alexandra Byrne)
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Mary Zophres)
Best Film Editing
Bohemian Rhapsody (John Ottman)
Vice (Hank Corwin)
BlacKkKlansman (Barry Alexander Brown)
The Favourite (Yorgos Mavropsaridis)
Green Book (Patrick J Don Vito)
Best Production Design
The Favourite (Fiona Crombie and Alice Felton)
First Man (Nathan Crowley and Kathy Lucas)
Roma (Eugenio Caballero and Barbara Enriquez)
Mary Poppins Returns (John Myhre and Gordon Sim)
Black Panther (Hannah Beachler and Jay Hart) – WINNER!
Best Cinematography
Roma (Alfonso Cuaron)
Cold War (Łukasz Żal)
Never Look Away (Caleb Deschanel)
The Favourite (Robbie Ryan)
A Star Is Born (Matty Libatique)
Best Sound Editing
First Man
A Quiet Place
Bohemian Rhapsody
Black Panther
Roma
Best Sound Mixing
A Star Is Born
Bohemian Rhapsody
First Man
Roma
Black Panther
Best Foreign Language Film
Roma (Mexico) – WINNER!
Cold War (Poland)
Shoplifters (Japan)
Capernaum (Lebanon)
Never Look Away (Germany)
Best Supporting Actor
Mahershala Ali (Green Book)
Richard E Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)
Sam Elliott (A Star Is Born)
Adam Driver (BlacKkKlansman)
Sam Rockwell (Vice)
Best Animated Feature
Incredibles 2
Ralph Breaks the Internet
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Isle of Dogs
Mirai
Best Live Action Short
Detainment
Fauve
Marguerite
Mother
Skin
Best Animated Short
Animal Behaviour
Bao – WINNER!
Late Afternoon
One Small Step
Weekends
Best Documentary Short
Black Sheep
End Game
Lifeboat
A Night at the Garden
Period. End of Sentence.
Best Visual Effects
First Man
Avengers: Infinity War
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Ready Player One
Christopher Robin
Best Original Screenplay
Green Book (Brian Hayes Currie, Peter Farrelly and Nick Vallelonga)
The Favourite (Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara)
Roma (Alfonso Cuarón)
Vice (Adam McKay)
First Reformed (Paul Schrader)
Best adapted screenplay
If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins)
A Star Is Born (Bradley Cooper, Will Fetters and Eric Roth)
Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty)
BlacKkKlansman (Spike Lee, David Rabinowitz, Charlie Wachtel and Kevin Willmott)
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen)
Best Original Score
If Beale Street Could Talk (Nicholas Britell)
Mary Poppins Returns (Marc Shaiman)
Isle of Dogs (Alexandre Desplat)
BlacKkKlansman (Terence Blanchard)
Black Panther (Ludwig Goransson)
Best Original Song
Shallow (A Star Is Born)
All the Stars (Black Panther)
I’ll Fight (RBG)
The Place Where Lost Things Go (Mary Poppins Returns)
When a Cowboy Trades his Spurs for Wings (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs)
Best Actor
Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody) – WINNER!
Christian Bale (Vice)
Viggo Mortensen (Green Book)
Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born)
Willem Dafoe (At Eternity’s Gate)
Best Actress
Glenn Close (The Wife)
Lady Gaga (A Star Is Born)
Olivia Colman (The Favourite)
Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)
Yalitza Aparicio (Roma)
Best Director
Alfonso Cuarón (Roma)
Adam McKay (Vice)
Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite)
Spike Lee (BlacKkKlansman)
Pawel Pawlikowski (Cold War)
Best Picture
Black Panther
BlacKkKlansman
Bohemian Rhapsody
The Favourite
Green Book
Roma
A Star is Born
Vice
