The 91st annual Academy Awards ceremony was held last night, February 24, 2019, at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center® in Hollywood, and was televised live on ABC. There was no host this year.

The awards were spread around quite a bit this year. In some past years, movies have swept the awards pretty cleanly, sometimes garnering as many as eleven statues by the end of the night! Bohemian Rhapsody took the lead with just four awards (Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Film Editing, and Actor). Three other movies had three awards each. All in all, twelve of the 37 nominated movies were recognized with (non-short) awards.

In the end, the last award is the one that is most discussed afterward. Along with being awarded for its screenplay and supporting actor, Green Book took home the win for Best Picture. Many people were thinking that the Netflix movie Roma was the favorite, but it did get recognized for Best Foreign Language, Director, and Cinematographer. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won for Animated Feature Film.

Personally, I don't think Roma should have been nominated for both Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Film, and I would have been very disappointed had it won both categories. It did serve as a major shot across the bow of the current studio and movie theater industries that Netflix is a force to be reckoned with, and its impact at the movie industry's largest award ceremony and the future that it may be heralding can't be ignored by either group.

Hits

The absence of a host was not really felt, especially as the show clocked in at just over 3.25 hours (just over the 3 hour mark they were shooting for). Sure, the opening monologue and the skit/stunts by the host can be effective (cue Billy Crystal), they can really drag down the proceedings when they don't work.

The show opened with a great performance by Queen and Adam Lambert of the songs "We Will Rock You" and "We are the Champions" celebrated the subject material of Bohemian Rhapsody nicely. It gave the show some energy that could have been missing because there was no opening monologue.

Rami Malek's win for Best Actor for Bohemian Rhapsody was followed by a very good speech, as was Olivia Colman's for The Favourite. The winners for Documentary Feature, Documentary Short, and Animated Short seemed genuinely happy to be up on stage, and that kind of joy is easy to watch.

The performance of the Oscar-winning song "Shallow" from A Star is Born by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper could have been repetitive (we've seen it plenty of times after the movie), but they gave a very touching performance that made you feel as though they were enjoying themselves, and enjoying performing together.

Misses

The "In Memoriam" segment seemed much less poignant than in past years. I think it was due to the lack of context brought to many of the names, as in the past, they showed some clips of the more prominent figures so that you could revisit a classic role of that actor or actress. By just showing a name and perhaps a screenshot of, say, Burt Reynolds, you don't get that chance, like you would if you were to see that not only was he known for Smokey and the Bandit (the screenshot used for him), but he also had other roles, such as in Deliverance and Boogie Nights (for which he was nominated for Supporting Actor). This segment is a chance to honor those that have contributed to the legacy of movies as an art form, and it seems as though they sacrificed that honor for the sake of runtime.

It might have just been our local ABC broadcast, but there were several instances where the sound was bouncing between the left and right speakers, and the center channel speaker. When someone is talking center-screen, you expect their voice to be coming from the center channel, not the left and/or the right. The "In Memoriam" segment was especially bad, as the music was switching between the channels as well. It was quite distracting at times, but it's quite possible that it was an issue with our local ABC affiliate.

Academy Award Winners

Below is a list of the winners and their awards. For a full list of nominees, please see our articles that list the nominees by category and the nominations by movie.

Some of these movies are playing in theaters, while some have already made it to home video. Winning and being nominated often causes some of them to make a return appearance, so head over to the Academy Award® Winners and Nominees page to see where and when they're playing!

	Black Panther Costume Design, Production Design, Original Score
	BlacKkKlansman Adapted Screenplay
	Bohemian Rhapsody Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Film Editing, Actor (Rami Malek)
	The Favourite Actress (Olivia Colman)
	First Man Visual Effects
	Free Solo Documentary Feature
	Green Book Supporting Actor (Mahershala Ali), Original Screenplay, Best Picture
	If Beale Street Could Talk Supporting Actress (Regina King)
	Roma Foreign Language Film, Cinematography, Director (Alfonso Cuarón)
	Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Animated Feature Film
	A Star is Born Original Song
	Vice Makeup and Hairstyling

Photo above taken by Aaron Poole ©A.M.P.A.S. Maya Rudolph, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler present during The 91st Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre in Hollywood, CA on Sunday, February 24, 2019.

Related News Articles

• Video clips from the Oscars -- ABC [Feb 24, 2019]
• The 2019 Academy Awards, in pictures -- CNN [Feb 24, 2019]
• Best-dressed at the Oscars: Charlize Theron, Brie Larson, Amy Adams and more -- USA Today [Feb 24, 2019]
• Oscars: 10 Most Memorable Moments From the 2019 Academy Awards -- The Hollywood Reporter [Feb 24, 2019]
• Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper Perform ‘A Star Is Born’s’ ‘Shallow’ at the Oscars -- Variety [Feb 24, 2019]
• Spike Lee on 'Green Book's' Controversial Oscars Best Picture Win: "Ref Made a Bad Call" -- The Hollywood Reporter [Feb 24, 2019]
• Oscars: 7 Things You Didn’t See on TV From Lady Gaga’s Disappearance to Spike Lee’s Speech -- Variety [Feb 25, 2019]