Green
Book sprang a surprise by winning the award for best picture at this year’s
ceremony in Los Angeles.
Olivia Colman defied the odds to scoop an Oscar for best actress for her
role in The Favourite and charmed
viewers with a funny and tearful speech.
Green Book won three awards in
total, including best picture, which had been expected to go to Netflix’s Roma.
Bohemian Rhapsody won the most
awards in total with four, while Roma
and Black Panther also won three
each.
Olivia Colman, who started out as a sidekick in TV sitcoms like Peep Show, was in shock when her name
was called.
Glenn Close had been the firm favorite for her role in The Wife – and now has the unenviable record of seven nominations
without a win.
Olivia Colman is the first British actress to win the prize since Kate
Winslet in 2009.
The four awards for Bohemian Rhapsody, the authorized biopic of Queen and Freddie Mercury, included best actor for Rami Malek, who won rave reviews for playing the late singer.
It was later reported that Rami Malek, 37, fell off the stage after the
ceremony concluded and had to be helped into a seat by security staff.
He was reportedly attended to by paramedics, though he made no reference to
the incident later when he spoke to reporters backstage.
Mahershala Ali won his second best supporting actor Oscar in three years. He
won for Moonlight in 2017 and has now
won for playing jazz pianist Don Shirley in Green
Book.
Green Book tells the story of Don Shirley’s
tour to the racially segregated US Deep South in the 1960s, but its chances had
been thought to have been dented by a series of controversies.
Meanwhile, a tearful Regina King won best supporting actress for If Beale Street Could Talk, from what
was her first Oscar nomination.
Richard E Grant, Rachel Weisz and Christian Bale lost out on the acting
awards.
However, Mark Ronson shared the best song award with Lady Gaga, among others.
Paul Lambert and Tristan Myles shared the prize for best visual effects with
two American colleagues for creating the rocket-rattling effects on First Man, about the first Moon landing.
Key crew members on Bohemian Rhapsody
won the two sound awards.
The Oscars failed to find a main host this year after comedian Kevin Hart
pulled out following a row about old homophobic tweets.
Instead of having the traditional opening monologue, Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph
and Amy Poehler appeared to introduce the show as well as presenting the first
award.
“We are not your hosts this year
but if we had hosted, it probably would have gone like this,” Tina Fey
said – before the trio launched into a sketch poking fun at some of the
nominees, which is one of the host’s usual jobs.
The ceremony continued to rely on a procession of stars presenting
individual awards.
However, it didn’t obviously suffer from the lack of an overarching host,
and it helped the event move along.
Queen, fronted by singer Adam Lambert, had opened the ceremony with a bombastic
medley of We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions as A-listers waved
and clapped along in their seats.
A number of Academy Awards ceremonies have had no host. The last time, in
1989, proved highly controversial, not least due to an opening number featuring
Rob Lowe and an actress dressed as Disney’s Snow White.
A group of leading Hollywood figures wrote an open letter after the
ceremony, calling the telecast “an embarrassment to both the Academy and
the entire motion picture industry”.
The Walt Disney Company also filed a legal action against the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, accusing the organization of copyright
infringement.
The role of anchoring the Oscars has thrown up problems for a number of
hosts since then. The Hollywood Reporter
has described it as “the least wanted job in Hollywood”.
The controversy about Kevin Hart’s tweets and the choice not to replace him
with a single host follows a difficult few years for the Academy.
The 2017 ceremony was rocked by the so-called “Envelopegate”
scandal, in which La La Land was
wrongly named best picture instead of the actual winner Moonlight.
Plans to introduce a popular film award category were shelved last year following
widespread criticism.
The Academy has also been stung by the #OscarsSoWhite campaign, prompted by the all-white line-ups in the four categories for acting in 2015 and 2016.
Detainment,
the British film recreating events around the notorious murder of two-year-old
James Bulger, will be allowed to compete at the Oscars, the awards’ organizers
say.
James Bulger’s mother, Denise
Fergus, had called for the movie to be withdrawn, after it was nominated in the
best live action short category.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences said it takes Denise Fergus’s concerns “very seriously”
but maintains a “neutral role” in the voting process.
It said academy members applied their
“own judgment” on the film’s merits.
James Bulger was a month short of
his third birthday when he was abducted by two 10-year-old boys, Jon Venables
and Robert Thompson, at the Strand shopping center in Bootle, Merseyside, the
UK, in 1993.
Detainment,
directed by Vincent Lambe, recreates the police interviews with James’ killers,
by using transcripts from the original tapes played in court during their
trial.
Denise Fergus had said she was
haunted by some of the imagery in the movie and called on the academy to remove
it from next month’s ceremony or for Vincent Lambe to withdraw it.
In statement the academy said it “offers its deepest condolences to Ms.
Fergus and her family. We are deeply moved and saddened by the loss that they
have endured, and we take their concerns very seriously.”
The statement added: “Following
longstanding foundational principles established to maintain the integrity of
the awards, the Academy does not in any way influence the voting process.
“Detainment was voted on by
Academy members. When making their choices, each individual applies their own
judgment regarding the films’ creative, artistic and technical merits.
“We understand that this will not
alleviate the pain experienced by the family; however we hope it clarifies the
Academy’s neutral role in the voting process.”
An online petition calling on Detainment
to be dropped from the Academy Awards in Los Angeles on February 24 has
attracted more than 100,000 signatures.
However, Vincent Lambe has refused to withdraw his work, saying: “I think it would defeat the purpose of
making the film.”
He said he did not mean any disrespect by not consulting Denise Fergus or
her family but maintained: “The film
was made in the interest of understanding why it happened in order to prevent
something similar happening again in the future.”
Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, who were convicted of murder after a 17-day trial at Preston Crown Court in November 1993, have since been released from detention and given new identities.
The
Favourite and Roma lead this
year’s Oscar race, with 10 nominations each.
The other contenders include A Star Is Born and Vicewith 8 nominations each, followed by Black Panther with seven.
The Marvel blockbuster is the first superhero movie ever to be nominated for
best picture.
The Favourite actress Olivia Colman is among the acting nominees, alongside her co-star Rachel Weisz and Christian Balefor Vice.
Olivia Colman’s strongest
competition in the best actress category is likely to come from Glenn Close, who is odds-on favorite
to win her first Academy Award for The Wifeafter six previous
nominations, according to bookmakers.
Yalitza
Aparicio is nominated for her first screen
role, as the Mexican maid in Roma. The
Netflix film has also given the media-services provider its first ever best
picture nomination.
The best actress category also
includes Melissa McCarthy for Can
You Ever Forgive Me?and Lady Gaga for A Star Is Born.
Lady Gaga’s co-star Bradley Cooperis nominated in the best actor category, but he missed out on a nod for best director.
The frontrunners for the best actor award are two men who earned acclaim for
portraying real-life public figures.
Rami Malek won rave reviews for playing Freddie Mercury in BohemianRhapsody, while Christian Bale transformed into former Vice-President Dick Cheney with the help of prosthetics in Vice.
Richard E. Grant has received his first ever Oscar nomination, for best supporting actor for his role in the film Can You Ever Forgive Me?.
Rachel Weisz is up for best supporting actress, 13 years after she won the
same award for The Constant Gardener.
The actress will face competition this time from Emma Stone, who played her rival in The Favourite, as well as Roma‘s Marina de Tavira, If Beale Street Could Talk’sRegina King and Amy Adams for Vice.
Kevin Hart had said hosting the Oscars was “a goal on my list for a
long time”.
In a tweet on December 6, the actor said he had chosen to step down” because I do not want to be a distraction on a night that should be celebrated by so many amazing talented artists”.
He said: “I’m sorry that I hurt people.. I am evolving and want to continue to do so. My goal is to bring people together not tear us apart. Much love & appreciation to the Academy. I hope we can meet again.”
Comments Kevin Hart made during a comedy routine in 2010 have been put under
the spotlight in recent days.
“One of my biggest fears is my son growing up and being gay. That’s a fear,” the actor told the audience.
“Keep in mind, I’m not homophobic, I have nothing
against gay people, be happy. Do what you want to do.
“But me, being a heterosexual male, if I can prevent my
son from being gay, I will.”
In 2015, by which time Kevin Hart’sprofile had risen significantly, the actor addressed the comments in an interview with Rolling Stone.
He said: “I wouldn’t tell that joke today, because when I said it, the
times weren’t as sensitive as they are now.
“I think we love to make big deals out of things that aren’t necessarily big deals, because we can.”
When Kevin Hart revealed he would bethe Oscars host earlier this week, he said it was the “opportunity of alifetime for me as a comedian” and that his mother was “smiling fromear to ear right now”.
This website has updated its privacy policy in compliance with EU GDPR 2016/679. Please read this to review the updates about which personal data we collect on our site. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our updated policy. AcceptRejectRead More
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
