The most recognizable faces in entertainment assembled yet again last night for the 91st Academy Awards. The iconic golden statues were handed out over the course of three and a half hours. Many of the winners were expected, but four surprises in significant categories stood out the most.
Last month when the nominees were announced, I predicted who I thought would win. You can read my predictions here. Five of my predictions ended up being wrong in my previous article, but I am not counting Rami Malek’s win in the Best Actor category because many signs have popped up within the last month making it clear he would come out on top.
I’ll be going over these four surprises, listing them in order of what I see as the best to what I see as the worst. You can check out the full list of winners here.
Outstanding: Best Actress, Olivia Colman
This was my favorite moment of the night (not counting the adorable hug between Guillermo del Toro and Best Director winner Alfonso Cuarón). Even though Colman swept the awards circuit with wins for her scene-stealing role as Queen Anne in Yorgos Lanthimos’s “The Favourite,” myself and many others had predicted Glenn Close would win the Oscar this year since her legendary four-decade-long career has gotten her nominated seven times without one win. Luckily, Colman was rightly rewarded for her simultaneously hilarious and tragic performance. She was definitely not expecting to win, and this made her acceptance speech much more fun to watch and listen to.
Great: Best Animated Feature Film, “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”
While I would have preferred “Isle of Dogs” to win here, I did enjoy “Into the Spider-Verse” a bit more than “Incredibles 2,” which I was completely expecting to get the Oscar. You can read my extended thoughts on “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” here.
Bad: Best Original Score, Ludwig Goransson for “Black Panther”
I admittedly did not enjoy “Black Panther” anywhere near as much as many others did. However, its early wins in Best Costume Design and Best Production Design were rightfully earned—even if I do believe “The Favourite” just barely edged it out in those categories. What I cannot say was rightfully earned, though, was the movie’s win for best original score. I believe the clear winner here was Nicholas Brittel’s score for “If Beale Street Could Talk.” I also would have been happy to see Alexandre Desplat win for “Isle of Dogs.” I still remember the music from these two movies even after seeing them each only once. I have seen “Black Panther” all the way through twice, and I cannot for the life of me remember the score to it.
Abhorrent: Best Picture Winner, “Green Book”
This made me legitimately upset—unreasonably upset—but upset nonetheless. All signs pointed to “Roma” winning the biggest prize of the night: it bagged Best Cinematography, Best Foreign Film and Best Director. Instead of a profound, deeply personal and unforgettable cinematic marvel like “Roma” winning Best Picture, the statue instead went to what was one of the most mediocre, boring and forgettable movies I saw in 2018, “Green Book.” It worked almost solely because of its phenomenal leading performances, whereas “Roma” worked because of the impeccable efforts of every single person involved. I cannot help but feel “Roma” lost this award because a foreign language film could not possibly be the Best Picture of the entire year. Even if you were to argue the Academy Awards are a celebration of American and English-speaking films and should award movies which address issues most relevant in America (i.e., race relations)—an argument which I wholeheartedly disagree with—I would argue movies from last year like “BlacKkKlansman” and the snubbed “Sorry to Bother You” address these issues in an infinitely more impactful way. At least I walked away from those with more than just “racism is bad.” The only thing which could have been worse is if “Bohemian Rhapsody” had won Best Picture. Go watch “Roma” if you haven’t yet for whatever reason.
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