Recap of the 91st Oscars (2019)

There was a lot of weirdness with the Oscars this year, but it's okay if you don't remember how much weirdness because 2018 was 4000 years long.  Anyway, back in August, the Academy was like "how about a Popular Movie category?" and the world said No in no uncertain terms.  So they walked that back.  Then there was the whole round-the-mulberry-bush with a host or no host or a surprise host or maybe just let the Avengers do it.  Then there was the Nick Vallelonga Twitter thing, the Peter-Farrelly-shows-his-dick-to-unwitting-people thing, and the Bryan Singer thing.  Then the Academy said "We're going to cut some categories because nobody cares about cinematography or animated short films" and the world said No, once again, and they had to walk that back.

So yeah.  Lots of weirdness.

Honestly, I barely noticed them not having a host.  They had a monologue from Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Maya Rudolph and if someone had told me later that those three ladies were credited as hosts I would have believed it.  Otherwise, it was the same 400 people presenting awards and no filler bullshit in the form of audience participation or lame skits.

In that spirit, here are the winners of the night.

Best Supporting Actress went to Regina King for If Beale Street Could Talk.  Her speech wasn't as good as the one from the Golden Globes but she looked phenomenal.

Best Documentary Feature went to Free Solo.

Best Makeup and Hairstyling went to Vice.

Best Costumes went to Ruth E. Carter for Black Panther.  She is the first black woman to win in this category.

Best Cinematography went to Alfonso Cuarón for Roma as it should have.

Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing went to Bohemian Rhapsody which I have serious disagreements with and were my first upsets for the night.

Best Foreign Language Film went to Roma.

Best Film Editing went to Bohemian Rhapsody, which is slightly more justifiable than the sound editing/mixing but not by much.

Best Supporting Actor went to Mahershala Ali for Green Book, which I could have argued but I think he was the only person in that movie who deserved recognition.

Best Animated Feature went deservedly to Spider-Man:  Into the Spider-Verse.

Best Animated Short went to Bao.  Pixar remains unchallenged.

Best Documentary Short went to Period.  End of Sentence.

Best Visual Effects went to First Man.  Not a consolation prize, but it really should have won for Sound Editing and Mixing.

Best Live Action Short went to Skin.

Best Original Screenplay went to Green Book, the second big WTF moment of the night.

Best Adapted Screenplay went to BlacKkKlansman.  The difference between Samuel L. Jackson's reaction while presenting these two awards was very marked.

Best Original Score went to Black Panther.

Best Original Song went to A Star is Born, to the surprise of no one.

Best Actor went to Rami Malek for Bohemian Rhapsody.  Again, this wasn't so much a surprise as it was just kind of unwelcome for people.  I did think it was funny that absolutely no one said the words "Bryan Singer" all night.  They just accepted their awards, thanked Queen, and basically pretended it never had a director at all.

Best Actress went to Olivia Coleman for The Favourite, which was a shock to her even if it wasn't to anyone else.  Her speech was rambling, hilarious, and filled with sound effects.

Best Director went to Alfonso Cuarón for Roma.

And then Green Book won Best Picture and the Oscars lost a little more relevancy.