The Best Picture win itself was the biggest surprise at this year’s Oscars.This year’s Oscars, just like every year, did not please everybody. The Best Picture win itself was the biggest surprise of the night.
Let’s start with that.
Green Book: This year’s Oscars were notable in the sense that controversies plaguing them really did not affect them. Green Book director Peter Farrelly has admitted to flashing his genitals at colleagues. One of the writers, Nick Vallelonga, wrote an allegedly anti-Muslim tweet in 2015. One of the lead actors, Viggo Mortensen uttered the N-word before apologising. None of that, however, stopped this feel-good drama from winning the biggest award of all — Best Picture. Many felt other movies, especially BlacKkKlansman and Roma, deserved the award more, but the jury thought otherwise.
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Black Panther: The Academy finally deigned to acknowledge populist cinema, and Black Panther won in the Best Original Music, Best Costume Design and Best Production Design categories. Not the perfect scenario, since it would have been great (and unprecedented) if it had won in the Best Picture category as well. Few people would have objected, and it would have been a win for diversity as well.
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Roma: Not really a surprise, since this movie seemed to have everything the Academy likes — artistic, tackles socio-political issues, and is directed by a ‘prestige’ filmmaker. But odds were against Alfonso Cuaron. The Academy has only just now begun to admit that there is a thing called streaming services and the movies available on them can also be good. Roma won Cuaron his second Best Director win after Gravity. He also won the Best Cinematography award, and the film took home the Best Foreign Language Film award as well.
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Glenn Close: Nobody would have had a problem with Olivia Colman’s win in the Best Actress category if there wasn’t Glenn Close in the list of nominees. Close’s performance in The Wife was arguably the best. Some say even Amy Jackson’s performance in Vice was Oscar-worthy. Now Close, with seven nominations, and Jackson, with six nominations, are the actors holding a dubious honour of being nominated the most times in the Academy Awards without any win.
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Bradley Cooper: Cooper gave it all to A Star is Born. In his debut itself, Cooper was like an auteur. Much like Roma, Cooper’s remake of the classic musical was a very personal movie. His vision drove the story and characters. He was sadly not even nominated in the Best Director category, and did not win the Best Actor trophy either. The song “Shallow”, which he sung with Lady Gaga, did take home a trophy.
