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Last Sunday was Hollywood’s big night, and it left us with a lot of predictable winners, but also a few surprises, including the big one, with “Green Book” taking home the Best Picture statue.

“Green Book” starring Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali, took home three awards including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, and Ali was rewarded with Best Supporting Actor for the second time in the last three years after he won in 2017 for his work in “Moonlight.”

But “Green Book’s” Best Picture win wasn’t the biggest shock of the night. That came from the Best Actress category, where the fans (and myself) wanted Lady Gaga to win the award for her performance as Ally  in “A Star is Born”, but it seemed as though legendary actress Glenn Close had this award all but sealed with her wins at the SAG awards and the Golden Globes for “The Wife.” To everyone’s surprise, Olivia Colman won the award for “The Favourite” where she played a declining, Queen Anne. Colman delivered a fantastic and hilarious performance and deserved the films only win of the night. Glenn Close now still holds the record for most Oscar nominations without a win, at seven.

“Green Book” wasn’t the big winner of the night however, as 20th Century Fox’s Freddie Mercury biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” took home the most awards of the night with four, including Best Actor won by Rami Malek, as his depiction of Freddie Mercury was excellent. Bradley Cooper delivered the best performance of his career in “A Star is Born” and I would’ve given the award to Cooper if I had vote, but I don’t, so moving on.

It was a very spread out evening, with four awards being the “big” winner. “Roma”, “Black Panther”, and “Green Book” were a close 2nd with three wins each. Black Panther’s three wins are significant, as they are the first ever Oscar wins for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which I think we all know should’ve come years earlier but that’s a story for another day.

Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma” was seen as the heavy Best Picture favorite, but despite the loss, Cuarón himself took home three awards including Best Cinematography, Best Foreign Language Film, and Best Director, adding to his trophy case as he now has four Oscars. Despite a lot of predictions of a sweep, Roma only took home three awards and it was nominated for 10.

Spike Lee finally took home his first ever Oscar, as he won Best Adapted Screenplay for the stunning true story, and what was my favorite film of 2018, “BlacKkKlansman.”

Regina King won best Supporting Actress for the Barry Jenkins film “If Beale Street Could Talk” which I haven’t seen, but have heard great things.

And now the topic you’ve all been waiting for, Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s beautiful performance of the Best Original Song winner “Shallow”. This was the highlight of the entire show for me, as Cooper and Gaga seemed to have poured their souls into their performance, and it was amazing, just as it was in the movie. I got chills multiple times watching this rendition of the song, and it was without a doubt the best moment of night.

As for the show itself, I thought it was fine. This was the first time since 1989 that the Oscars went hostless, and relied on multiple big name actors and actresses to present the awards. I thought this formula worked to a certain extent, with the pacing being a little fast for my liking, though the show still came in at three hours and 17 minutes long, but a lot of the speeches were rushed and it seemed as though the winners weren’t getting an equal amount of presentation time. Some of the winners even had the microphones turned off on them while they were still speaking. I don’t think the Academy should stick with no host, even though it wasn’t a disaster, it just doesn’t seem like a winning formula for the future.

So, the 91st Oscars was somewhat of a success, going with no host for the first time since 1989. The ratings on the show were at 29.6 million viewers, up 12% from last year, according to Variety. This could be in part to the popular movies getting more recognition than usual, with Black Panther, which grossed just above one billion dollars worldwide, and Bohemian Rhapsody which made over 800 million worldwide. Both of those movies being in the Best Picture race certainly must’ve helped the shows ratings.

The Academy is certainly going to have to answer some tough questions between now and the next Oscars, but as for this year, they were able to cloud a very controversial lead up, with a show that had enough star power behind it. Here’s to hoping Avengers Endgame gets all the nominations next year, though it probably won’t.

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