The 91st Academy Awards show has been under fire since Kevin Hart announced that he would not be serving as a host this year. Another big issue that has been plaguing the Oscars since 2018 was the announcement of a new category, “Best Popular Film” alongside the classic “Best Picture.” Now, before I dive into the awards and my opinions on the winners, I want to talk about these two points: Was the no-host situation as big of a deal as it was reported to be? How did the “Best Picture” category turn out?
In my opinion, there was no problem with the Oscars not having a host. In fact, I think it is a change for the better. Right at the beginning of the ceremony, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Maya Rudolph came on stage to tell the audience that there would be no hosts. After this announcement, the ceremony kicked into full gear, with very little wait time between the categories. In between the distribution of awards, pairs of actors, actresses, and performers came on stage to introduce the nominees from each category and created anticipation for the “Best Picture” winner. Some musical performances also broke the monotony of the ceremony. The pace of the show felt much faster compared to previous years, as there was no host to make jokes and give speeches in between the announcement of each award winner. The awards were what people wanted to see, and they got what they wanted. There also seemed to be no tense moments since there was no host to keep on making political jokes and political commentary to the point where it felt like it was taking over the entire ceremony.
When it came to “Best Picture” and “Best Popular Film,” the Academy decided to merge the two categories and nominate upwards of 6 to 8 films. The Academy managed the backlash well. However, I felt as if some movies, which were specifically meant for the newly created “popular” film category, felt out of place competing against more serious films. The controversy surrounding the “Best Picture” winner is a whole other subject that will be discussed later in this article.
Overall, however, the winners of each separate category proved to be decent and satisfactory for the masses. The big highlights were Black Panther grabbing three awards for “Best Original Music Score,” “Best Costume Design, ” and “Best Production Design.” Roma also scored by for “Best Director,” “Foreign Language Film,” and “Best Cinematography.” Netflix has shown its capabilities to produce an Oscar-worthy film with Roma. Roma, with its nostalgic black and white aesthetic, as well as its amazing cinematography and story, deserved its wins. Black Panther, which managed to bring a specific type of culture and style of life very rarely depicted on the big screen, also rightly deserved its recognition. Marvel, which produced the movie, has recently made a statement saying that superhero movies can and should be viewed as works of art.
Some unsurprising winners were Bohemian Rhapsody in the categories of “Sound Editing” and “Sound Mixing” and Vice in “Makeup and Hairstyling.” Bohemian Rhapsody perfectly re-created the Live Aid concert of 1985 on screen with its roaring crowds and the legendary voice of Freddie Mercury, whereas Vice transformed Christian Bale into Dick Cheney.
One very heartfelt moment during the Oscars was when Spike Lee won his first Oscar after 30 years of filmmaking for “Adapted Screenplay” with his film BlacKkKlansman. Lee jumped onto Samuel L. Jackson, who was announcing the category, and they both celebrated together on stage. Lee, wearing his golden Jordan sneakers as well as a big, shiny key, proceeded to give a poetic speech that honored his ancestors and all the people who were forced into slavery for several hundred years. This speech was reciprocated with a standing ovation and turned into one of the highlights of the night.
After everything was said and done, it all came down to the category everybody was waiting for: Best Picture. Everybody was even more interested in the category this year due to the merging of the “popular” and Best Picture category as well as the fact that there were some films which represented much more than their content. Black Panther represented the rising popularity and trend of superhero films, and Roma represented the revolution of big studio-style filmmaking. BlacKkKlansman represented the change from the classic black-protagonist film format: a drama film about slavery and oppression to make a cop film with Spike Lee’s out-of-the-ordinary filmmaking style, ushering in a new era.
The general consensus was that Roma was going to win, due to the importance of its story in our modern times and its amazing visuals. People thought it was a well-rounded representation of what film is meant to be: the merging of an idea or a message with mesmerizing visuals. However, the result took everybody by storm, as the “Best Picture” award was given to Green Book. In what seemed to be shocking even for the producers behind the film, Green Book managed to surpass all the other nominees.
If I had only one chance to change something about the Oscars, it would be the decision to give Green Book the award. Even though Green Book is not a bad film in, comparison to the other nominees it does not bring anything new to the table. In fact, such a concept had been executed in the past in 1989 with Driving Miss Daisy, starring Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy. Besides these similarities, the movie has had a rocky behind-the-scenes press tour as one of the main actors, Viggo Mortensen, used a racial slur. The movie also faced criticism for its subtext regarding race relations and the presence of racial stereotypes. I believe that Roma should have won. However I cannot say that I am surprised, since the Academy is infamous for making safe-bets.
Overall, this year’s Oscars were a good iteration since it felt faster with no host and there were several interesting performances, including a performance by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper which turned a few heads with a few hiccups along the way. If only the “Best Picture” category was not so polarizing, I could’ve said I actually enjoyed the Oscars. However, it is clear that the Academy needs to go through some dramatic changes regarding what it values. •
