The Oscars Recap

Last weekend, a collective net worth of  billions of dollars met in the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood for the Oscars, where the greatest films of the past year are recognized and awarded. This year’s Oscars was unusual and different from past years. For one, there was no host for the event after Kevin Hart was ousted due to unsavory tweets. Instead, the Oscars had a myriad of celebrities and movie stars present awards and forewent a traditional opening monologue.

Another abnormality in this year’s Oscars was Black Panther’s best picture nomination. Typically, superhero movies do not catch the eye of the academy, but this year was different because of the enormous cultural impact that Black Panther had.

And of course, Bradley Cooper’s and Lady Gaga’s performance of “Shallow” from A Star is Born captivated audiences everywhere for days after the ceremony.

Now, to recap the notable awards of the night:

Green Book won Best Picture, which several critics felt was an undeserved win. They believed that Green Book skirted around real and ugly truths about racism in exchange for a feel-good story and was less deserving of the award than other films this year.

Alfonso Cuaron won Best Director for his work on Roma, a movie on a family’s life in Mexico City that faced minor backlash for being hosted on Netflix.

Rami Malek won Best Actor for his role as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, a biopic about the lead singer of Queen’s life and how he rose to fame.

Olivia Colman won Best Actress for her role as Queen Anne in The Favourite, a movie about rumors regarding Queen Anne and her relationship with two aristocratic friends.

Spike Lee won his first ever Oscar, which many believed was long overdue, for his work on the screenplay for BlacKkKlansman. His speech was political and controversial.

Spider-man: Into the Spiderverse won Best Animated Feature, which is only noteworthy because Disney/Pixar has swept this category for more than a decade.

This Oscars may have been the most controversial yet, but it wound up having the highest numbers in recent history in spite (or because of) that controversy.