That’s it, it’s over. With the conclusion of the Academy Awards this past Sunday, February 24th, awards season is officially over. This years ceremony was pretty eventful. With several record firsts, such as Roma being the first Mexican film to win Foreign Language Film, as well as a few others. But we’ll get to some more of those in a little bit. First, lets go over the winners.
The WINNERS:
Best Supporting Actress: Regina King - If Beale Street Could Talk
Documentary Feature: Free Solo
Makeup and Hair styling: Vice
Costume Design: Black Panther
Production Design: Black Panther
Cinematography: Alfonso Cuarón - Roma
Sound Editing: Bohemian Rhapsody
Sound Mixing: Bohemian Rhapsody
Foreign Language Film: Roma
Editing: Bohemian Rhapsody
Best Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali - Green Book
Best Animated Feature: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Best Animated Short: Bao
Documentary Short: Period. End of Sentence
Visual Effects: First Man
Best Live Action Short: Skin
Original Screenplay: Green Book
Adapted Screenplay: BlacKkKlansman
Best Original Score: Black Panther
Best Original Song: Shallow - A Star Is Born
Best Actor: Rami Malek - Bohemian Rhapsody
Best Actress: Olivia Coleman - The Favourite
Best Director: Alfonso Cuarón - Roma
Best Picture: Green Book
For the majority of these categories, I personally don’t have an opinion. But for a select few I do. Now, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie Vice, I thought that it was clever and funny, but also impactful. I think that this can be something that is tricky to achieve. That being said though, I do like that the Academy chose Green Book as the best picture winner.
Green Book, in my opinion, was an excellent commentary on the times that it presented, whilst still being able to make me feel uplifted when I left the theater. There is a fine line between commentating and condemning people. But I think that Green Book did a fine job of taking us on a journey and teaching us a lesson at the same time.
As for some of the other categories, I was pleased to see that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won Best Animated Feature. It was masterfully made when it comes to the visuals. The comic book style was a nice homage to where the superhero genre comes from, whilst managing not to be distracting. They were even able to use the visuals as a means by which to enhance the story, as you should. But even the music and the story were very well done, as well. All in all, it’s a great film, I would definitely recommend watching it if you haven’t seen it already.
At first, when they announced that First Man won the Oscar for Visual Effects, I was a little, I wouldn’t say confused, but rather, intrigued as to why it got the award over some of the other nominees. But, then I took a moment to think back to the film, and after pondering it for that moment, I agreed with the Academy. I think that what First Man was able to accomplish with its visual effects, at least in my opinion, was that they were able to integrate the visual effects to the point where you were barely able to notice that they were effects. The visual effects felt real and as if they physically existed on camera. I think this is what visual effects are meant to achieve, so that is my reasoning behind why it won the Oscar, then again I could be wrong. If I am let me know.
THE FIRSTS:
Fourteen women won awards at this year’s ceremony, setting a new record.
Ruth E. Carter(costume design), Hannah Beachler(production design), and Peter Ramsey(animated feature) became the first African-Americans to win in their respective categories.
Rami Malek became the first Egyptian-American to win Best Actor.
Mahershala Ali became the first African-American to win Best Supporting Actor twice.
Marvel Studios finally won an Oscar, and not just one, the studio took home three Oscars by the end of the night.
Spike Lee also finally won his first Oscar, Adapted Screenplay for BlacKkKlansman
Alfonso Cuarón became the first director serving as his own Cinematographer ever to win the achievement in Cinematography award.
At the end of it all, every film nominated this year was nominated for a reason. That reason being that the Academy viewed them as some of the best films made last year. And their choice as to who to give the awards to was merely the Academy’s decisions on which films they think were actually the best from last year. Do you agree with their decisions? Do you have your own ideas? If so, great! Differing opinions are what challenges the industry to make better movies!