The 91st Academy Awards show proved to run nearly seamless despite the absence of a host. The night was full of lavish gowns, dapper suits, stunning performances, and a few traditional Academy Award speech cut-offs. Best Picture went to “Green Book” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” left with the most awards of the night.
The show was kicked off with a performance from Queen with Adam Lambert stepping in as lead singer for the departed Freddie Mercury. “Bohemian Rhapsody”, the film, received four Oscars: Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing.
Following close behind with three Academy Awards each were the films, “Roma” and “Black Panther”, which both made history.
“Black Panther”, featured the first African-American superhero movie Marvel created. The film excited many when it was released in February of 2018. The hype over the film was confirmed by The Academy with six nominations for the film and capturing three awards. Although monumental for the black community in terms of representation within the film industry, none of the actors themselves won any awards. The Oscars for Best Original Score, Best Production Design, and Best Costume Design were all awarded to “Black Panther”.
“Roma”, directed and written by Mexican native, Alfonso Cuarón, took home the awards for Best Directing, Best Foreign Language Film, and Best Cinematography. Roma was the film to keep an eye on throughout the show because it was a movie that was released by Netflix. “Roma’s” success with nominations and awards pushes towards the legitimization of streaming platforms as competitive production studios.
Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper shared an intimate performance of their song, “Shallow” from the movie “A Star is Born”. The pair had great chemistry and talent together whether it’s on stage or while shooting the film. This movie received the Oscar for Best Original Song and seven separate nominations. Lady Gaga was a favorite to win for Best Actress, however, she lost to Olivia Colman for her role in “The Favourite”.
Spike Lee, director of the famous film “Do the Right Thing”, finally won his first Oscar after being nominated four times for the Oscars in the past. His movie “BlacKkKlansman” only won the Oscar of Best Adapted Screenplay although being nominated in five other categories.
Although many feared the fate of the 2019 Oscars due to the lack of a host because of controversy earlier in the year involving Kevin Hart, the award show went along perfectly fine. Witty comments from award presenters and jokes cracked made it hard to justify the previous need for a host at all. In fact the show seemed to move along faster and smoother without a host.
Presenters for the award Best Costume Design, Melissa McCarthy and Brian Tyree Henry sported some wild costumes themselves. McCarthy and Henry wowed the audience with their over the top outfits. Both distracting and hilarious, the duo had no problem keeping everyone entertained during their presentation.
The many firsts of this show bring up the question whether the Academy will even bother hiring a host for the next Oscars considering how smooth this one went. The breakthrough of minorities in the industry will hopefully continue and the battle between streaming and traditional production studios will continue to play out.