Oscars 2019.. A night of history and glory.. One worth remembering..!

February 25: The most glorious and honourable evening for everyone in the entertainment industry, 91st Academy Awards Ceremony took place on February 24 marking number of historic moments. The Oscars 2019 ceremony was filled with lots of firsts, many surprises and plenty of joyful tears.

 

 

 

Becoming historical for not having a host after 30 years, 91st Academy Awards had lots of other histories in its bag.

 

While to everyone’s surprise sporadically powerful but feelgood comedy drama ‘Green Book’ took home the biggest award of the night for Best Picture, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was the one who went home with majority wins at the evening with 5 awards.

 

 

Rami Malek was named Best Actor for portraying Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody. He is the first Arab American to have won the best actor Oscar. “I may not have been the obvious choice but I guess it worked out,” the actor said during his acceptance speech. However, it has to be said that he wasn’t as good as the other four nominees viz. Christian Bale for Vice, Bradley Cooper for A Star Is Born, Willem Dafoe for At Eternity’s Gate and Viggo Mortensen for Green Book.

 

 

Olivia Colman who already had the title of queen, and just when it looked as if Yorgos Lanthimos’s ‘The Favourite’ was going to go home with nothing at all, Colman added the Academy Award for Best Actress to her bulging silverware cabinet and melted hearts with her inspiring and charming speech. “It’s genuinely quite stressful”, Colman said arriving on the stage, “This is hilarious..I’ve won an Oscar!” She also thanked co-stars Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone calling them “the two loveliest women in the world to go to work with”. Despite ‘The Favourite’ entering the night with 10 nominations, the Dark Comedy was only awarded with this award.

 

 

‘Roma’, the intimate Netflix drama that many had predicted would make Oscars history as the first foreign-language best picture winner, took home three awards, including well deserved trophy for Best Director for Alfonso Cuarón. “As artists, our job is to look where others don’t. This responsibility becomes even more important at times when we are told to look away”, expressed Cuarón. ‘Roma’ became Mexico’s first winner for best foreign language film, while Cuarón also picked up the award for best cinematography. The night was also a game-changing moment for Netflix, containing their biggest Oscar wins to date.

 

 

 

Regina King picked up the Best Supporting Actress award for her role in Barry Jenkins’ emotive drama If Beale Street Could Talk. A tearful King paid tribute to both Jenkins and James Baldwin, whose 1974 novel the film is based on, calling him “one of the great artists of our time”. Mahershala Ali picked up his second award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role becoming the first Black Actor to win the award more than once. He dedicated his win to Shirley, whose family have come out against the film’s portrayal of him.

 

 

 

 

Sony’s critically acclaimed Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, which brought much-needed diversity to the Spider-Man universe, was named best animated feature, putting an end to Disney’s six-year hold on the category.

 

There was a time when everyone thought that Bradley Cooper’s version of ‘A Star Is Born’ might win big this year but nominated for eight Oscars, it had to make do with only one win, for best original song. While accepting the award for ‘Shallow’, a tearful Lady Gaga said, “I’ve worked hard for a long time and it’s not about winning. What it’s about is not giving up. If you have a dream, fight for it”. Becoming the scene-stealer of the evening, the song’s steamily passionate live performance by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper earned them a standing ovation.

 

 

The evening saw historic wins for Ruth Carter, the first black winner of the best costume design award, and Hannah Beachler, the first black winner of best production design, both for Black Panther.

 

 

Spike Lee whoe earned his first Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for his fierce satire BlacKkKlansman, implored US to regain its humanity during his acceptance speech. “We must all mobilise, we must all be on the right side of history”, he said.

 

 

The annual in memoriam section, this year scored by John Williams, remembered artists including Margot Kidder, Bernardo Bertolucci, Neil Simon, Burt Reynolds, Milos Forman, Penny Marshall, Stan Lee, William Goldman, Nicolas Roeg and Albert Finney.