Monday, February 25, 2019
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES
Spike Lee won his first competitive Oscar, while Ryan Coogler’s superhero sensation “Black Panther” and Alfonso Cuaron’s black-and-white personal epic “Roma” led a brisk and hostless Oscars awash in historic wins for diversity.
Lee’s win for best adapted screenplay to his white supremacist drama “BlacKkKlansman” gave the Dolby Theatre ceremony Sunday its signature moment. The crowd rose in a standing ovation, Lee leapt into the arms of presenter Samuel L. Jackson and even the backstage press room burst into applause.
Lee, whose film including footage of President Donald Trump following the violent white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Va., spoke about the upcoming election.
“The 2020 election is around the corner. Let’s all mobilize. Let’s be on the right side of history,” said Lee, who was given an honorary Oscar in 2015. “Let’s do the right thing! You knew I had to get that in there.”
Other wins included Rami Malek as best actor for “Bohemian Rhapsody” and Olivia Colman as best actress for “The Favourite.”
Lady Gaga along with Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando and Andrew Wyatt won for best original song, “Shallow.”
Alfonso Cuar ≥n won best director award for ‘Roma,” and “Green Book” took home the Oscar for best picture.
The lush, big-budget craft of “Black Panther” won for Ruth Carter’s costume design, Hannah Beachler and Jay Hart’s production design, and Ludwig Goransson’s score. Beachler had been the first African-American to ever be nominated in the category. Beachler and Carter became just the second and third black women to win non-acting Oscars.
“It just means that we’ve opened the door,” Carter, a veteran costume designer, said backstage. “Finally, the door is wide open.”
Two years after winning for his role in “Moonlight,” Mahershala Ali won again for his supporting performance in the interracial road-trip drama “Green Book” – a role many said was really a lead. Ali is the second black actor to win two Oscars following Denzel Washington, who won for “Glory” and “Training Day.” Ali dedicated the award to his grandmother. “Green Book,” a film hailed by some as a throwback and criticized by others as retrograde, also took best original screenplay.
The night’s co-lead nominee “Roma” notched Mexico’s first foreign language film Oscar. Cuaron also won best cinematography, becoming the first director to ever win for serving as his own director of photography. Cuaron referenced an especially international crop of nominees.
The wins for “Roma” gave Netflix its most significant awards yet, while “Black Panther” – along with best animated film winner “Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse” – meant the first Academy Awards for Marvel, the most consistent blockbuster factor Hollywood has ever seen.
Queen launched Sunday’s ceremony with a medley of hits that gave the awards a distinctly Grammy-like flavor as Hollywood’s most prestigious ceremony sought to prove that it’s still “champion of the world” after last year’s record-low ratings. The tie-in was to “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the hit Freddie Mercury biopic, whose director, Bryan Singer, was fired mid-production. It won three Oscars for editing, sound mixing and sound editing.