The 91st Academy Awards - The Winners - Updated with Analysis

Here is the official list of the winners at this year's Oscars ceremony, which in the end I was able to watch live!

Update: Last night's ceremony went off without a hitch, but also lacked pizzazz in my opinion. I think the absence of a host hurt the telecast even though they succeeded in keeping its run time to just over 3 hours. This was the first time I watched it without a host (it only happened once before, intentionally) and if anything it made me realize how important that figure is.

The host is the cohesive element, the only one that keeps coming back from beginning to end. It's not just the opening monologue, although that can certainly set the tone for the show. It's almost like having a knowledgeable guide keeping you company during a trip.

The reason I only watched the SAG awards ceremony once is precisely because it was a total bore. Beginning to end it was just presenter-winner-speech, presenter-winner-speech,over and over and over again. I don't even recall whether or not they have a host, but it's not a spectacle.

The Academy Awards usually put on a fabulous show, bedazzled with musical numbers, comedy, and maybe some drama, occasionally punctuated by notes of somberness. There was none of that last night, as keeping the pace seemed like the only goal. Queen, with Adam Lambert at the vocals, opened the show with a thundering medley of their greatest hits, and it was great, but that was the end of all the spectacle.

Sure, we were treated to renditions of 4 out of the 5 Best Original Song nominees, but little else felt exciting. And while I'm on the topic, why wasn't "All the Stars" performed? From all the talk about how groundbreaking Black Panther's impressive nominations haul was, you'd have thought Kendrick Lamar wouldn't have passed on the opportunity to showcase his talent to the Academy and a pretty substantial worldwide audience. So what went wrong there?

So instead of a host we got an invisible voice announcing whomever was going to walk onstage next. Alas, the producers made the unfortunate choice of starting out that parade with uber funny ladies Maya Rudolph, Tina Fey, and Amy Poehler, who seemed to be launching into the familiar opening monologue only to dash our hopes that they had been secretly engaged to host the show. Given Fey and Poehler's previous widely successful experience as hosts of the Golden Globes, it would have been a welcome surprise.

Not that the many presenters didn't do a good job, I just personally didn't like the choice and hope it doesn't become the new normal.

Anyway, here's my rundown of the night's winners and what not:

• Best Documentary Short/Animated Short/Live Action Short: No comment; I didn't see any of them.
• Best Achievement in Visual Effects: So glad First Man took home the prize as the other nominees likely relied much more heavily on CGI then more old fashioned techniques, even though nowadays that's really hard to tell. Still, First Man is a good movie that unfortunately didn't get more love from the Academy, so I'm glad it at least got some gold.
• Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling: The unbelievable work these artists did in transforming the handsome Christian Bale into that pustule of Dick Cheney in Vice unarguably deserved the highest of accolades.
• The winners' acceptance speech, however, was embarrassing and the absolute worst of the night. If they wanted to make sure they all talked, then have three copies of the speech, rehearse ahead of time, and carry some bloody reading glasses! I couldn't believe how badly they mangled their time onstage, especially considering how incensed everyone always is at the winners' long winded and boring "thank you" speeches. Thank gods they cut their mike!
• Best Achievement in Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, and Editing: Bohemian Rhapsody triumphed here and with Maleck's subsequent win ended up with the biggest single tally of the night. I was under the impression that all the movie's songs featured Freddie Mercury's unparalleled vocals, but then I learned that they were actually a merging of Mercury's and Maleck's, which makes a win in the Sound categories even more deserved.
• Best Achievement in Production Design, Costume Design, and Original Score: Black Panther snatched all three and I have no complaints. The scores for Panther, BlacKkKlansman, and If Beale Street Could Talk were the best for me, but considering the many and varied African musical elements Ludwig Göransson interwove in the texture of his work, his win is justified. As for the other two categories, I'm content that the effort that went into creating a whole nation, comprising five different tribes with their customs and traditions, from scratch was recognized.
• Melissa McCarthy and Brian Tyree Henry were terrific in their presenting skit. Totally hilarious!!
• Production designer Hannah Beachler's speech was incredibly touching and rousing.
• Costume designer Ruth E. Carter's speech was fierce!
• Best Foreign Language Film of the Year and Cinematography: Roma was the front runner in both categories, so there was no surprise here. Of note, Alfonso Cuarón has now become the first director ever to win an Oscar for cinematography.
• Best Documentary Feature: I actually saw Free Solo and enjoyed it, even though the outcome was well known and it ran a bit too long.
• Best Animated Feature Film: So happy that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse took this award. That movie is a marvel and certainly the most original of the bunch (full disclosure, I still haven't seen Mirai no Mirai).
• Best Original Song: A Star Is Born's Shallow is one of the best film songs ever written, and the wondrous performance of Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper onstage last night proved it once and for all.
• Jennifer Hudson's rendition of Diane Warren's "I'll Fight" was roof raising, and I love her voice, but sometimes I wish she held back a bit rather than always shooting for the highest and longest notes.
• What a nice surprise it was when Bette Midler was announced to perform "The Place Where Lost Things Go"!! And obviously she was lovely.
• Best Adapted Screenplay: BlacKkKlansman only took home one Oscar, which is a pity for such a great movie, but fortunately it was one of the most coveted ones. Furthermore, Spike Lee can finally say he won a competitive Oscar after working so hard and for so long in Hollywood, and his speech hit all the right notes.
• Best Original Screenplay: One of the three Oscars that Green Book took home last night. I really enjoyed this movie, so I was pleased, even though I was rooting for either The Favourite or First Reformed.
• Best Achievement in Directing: Roma's Alfonso Cuarón was a shoo-in here, so if he hadn't won it would have been a HUGE upset. Of the five nominees I thought the most deserving was Spike Lee, but he didn't really stand a chance.
• Cuarón has now won two Best Director Oscars in just six years, while his Mexican friends Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro González Iñárritu have won three more (one the former and two the latter). Think about that for a second: five of the last six Oscars in this category have gone to Mexico!
• Best Supporting Actress: The lovely Regina King had been the front runner for the majority of awards season, so this was no surprise. She was visibly shaken and gave a nice speech, and her gown was gorgeous. This was the only win for If Beale Street Could Talk.
• I would have liked to have seen either of The Favourite actresses win, even though they've both already won previously, or perennial loser Amy Adams, but that's not because I didn't think King didn't deserve it. Anything but.
• Best Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali for Green Book was such an announced win here that there was no suspense.
• I kind of wish Richard E. Grant had won, simply because he did such a fantastic job in Can You Ever Forgive Me? and Ali had won this very same category just two years ago. Still, he is such a great actor, no one can really say he didn't deserve it.
• Rather, my only complaint would be, Why was he nominated in this category instead of Lead Actor, with Viggo Mortensen, since they share virtually the same amount of screen time? The most logical explanation is that they feared such a pairing would have split the vote (likely what happened to Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone), and neither would have won. And that doesn't sound fair to me.
• Best Lead Actress: This was one of the two biggest upsets of the night. Glenn Close, who now has seven nominations and zero wins, was the odds-on favorite to finally grab a long coveted Oscar, but it just wasn't meant to be. Olivia Colman's name was called and my jaw dropped in shock, even though I felt tremendous joy for her. She obviously was as surprised as everyone and hadn't even prepared a speech, just in case. As a result, her time onstage ended up being one of the best things of the night. This was the only win for The Favourite.
• I would have liked to have seen Close win because she was terrific in The Wife and it was long overdue, and given her age, this might have been the last chance to award her. However, I honestly think Colman's was the best performance of the year among the nominees, so I'm at peace.
• Frankly, as much as I like Lady Gaga, her performance was so overrated that I would have been happier with any of the other four winning this category, especially since she had already won an Oscar for Best Song.
• Best Lead Actor: Rami Malek was phenomenal as Freddy Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, but so was Christian Bale in Vice. For me it's a tough choice because Malek's role was showier but Bale's work felt even more authentic. At any rate, I really enjoyed his speech for the message of inclusivity.
• Best Picture: When Green Book was named the winner of the top award of the year, I was over the moon. I saw all the nominees and honestly Roma, the front runner and perennial winner in every competition, was the most boring and overrated of them all. I would have loved to see either The Favourite or BlacKkKlansman win, but the only one with a shred of hope was Green Book. I can understand the controversies surrounding it, but I thought it was well made and had a very good message overall.
• Is it just me or Angela Bassett always looks like a queen?
• I had heard that the show's producers had decided to buck the tradition of having the four acting winners from the previous year present the awards to this year's winners in order to save time. That was appalling news made only more bizarre by the decision to instead use the previous four in pairs to award only the lead categories. How does that make any sense??! Sometimes I really wish I had been in their meetings to hear the logic behind such decisions.
• I can understand asking Kacey Musgraves to introduce the Country song or civil rights icon John Lewis to introduce Green Book's clip, but why was Serena Williams asked to be a presenter?

In closing, the best part of the ceremony was the atmosphere of inclusivity that permeated most of the proceedings. There were a lot of firsts, a lot of minorities, and a lot of women getting recognized that simply wouldn't have just a few years back. It honestly feels like the Academy's efforts to diversify its membership after the #OscarsSoWhite controversy are paying off.

So that's it for me, now on to a new slew of movies that will contend for next year's prizes!

Best Motion Picture of the Year

Green Book

A Star Is Born
BlacKkKlansman
Black Panther
Bohemian Rhapsody
The Favourite
Roma
Vice

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody

Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born
Christian Bale, Vice
Viggo Mortensen, Green Book
Willem Dafoe, At Eternity's Gate

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Olivia Colman, The Favourite

Glenn Close, The Wife
Lady Gaga, A Star Is Born
Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Yalitza Aparicio, Roma

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Mahershala Ali, Green Book

Adam Driver, BlacKkKlansman
Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Sam Elliott, A Star Is Born
Sam Rockwell, Vice

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk

Amy Adams, Vice
Emma Stone, The Favourite
Marina de Tavira, Roma
Rachel Weisz, The Favourite

Best Achievement in Directing

Alfonso Cuarón, Roma

Adam McKay, Vice
Pawel Pawlikowski, Zimna wojna
Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman
Yorgos Lanthimos, The Favourite

Best Original Screenplay

Nick Vallelonga, Brian Hayes Currie, Peter Farrelly, Green Book

Paul Schrader, First Reformed
Alfonso Cuarón, Roma
Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara, The Favourite
Adam McKay, Vice

Best Adapted Screenplay

Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman

Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper, Will Fetters, A Star Is Born
Nicole Holofcener, Jeff Whitty, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Barry Jenkins, If Beale Street Could Talk
Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score)

Ludwig Göransson, Black Panther

Terence Blanchard, BlacKkKlansman
Nicholas Britell, If Beale Street Could Talk
Alexandre Desplat, Isle of Dogs
Marc Shaiman, Mary Poppins Returns

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song)

Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, Andrew Wyatt, "Shallow" A Star Is Born

Sounwave, Kendrick Lamar, Anthony Tiffith, SZA, "All the Stars" Black Panther
Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman, "The Place Where Lost Things Go" Mary Poppins Returns
Diane Warren, "I'll Fight" RBG
David Rawlings, Gillian Welch, "When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings" The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Best Animated Feature Film

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Incredibles 2
Isle of Dogs
Mirai no Mirai
Ralph Breaks the Internet

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year

Roma

Capharnaüm
Manbiki kazoku
Werk ohne Autor
Zimna wojna

Best Documentary Feature

Free Solo

Hale County This Morning, This Evening
Kinder des Kalifats
Minding the Gap
RBG

Best Achievement in Cinematography

Roma

A Star Is Born
The Favourite
Werk ohne Autor
Zimna wojna

Best Achievement in Film Editing

Bohemian Rhapsody

BlacKkKlansman
Green Book
The Favourite
Vice

Best Achievement in Production Design

Black Panther

First Man
Mary Poppins Returns
Roma
The Favourite

Best Achievement in Costume Design

Black Panther

Mary Poppins Returns
Mary Queen of Scots
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
The Favourite

Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling

Vice

Gräns
Mary Queen of Scots

Best Achievement in Sound Mixing

Bohemian Rhapsody

A Star Is Born
Black Panther
First Man
Roma

Best Achievement in Sound Editing

Bohemian Rhapsody

A Quiet Place
Black Panther
First Man
Roma

Best Achievement in Visual Effects

First Man

Avengers: Infinity War
Christopher Robin
Ready Player One
Solo: A Star Wars Story

Best Documentary Short Subject

Period. End of Sentence.

A Night at the Garden
Black Sheep
End Game
Lifeboat

Best Animated Short Film

Bao

Animal Behaviour
Late Afternoon
One Small Step
Weekends

Best Live Action Short Film

Skin

Detainment
Fauve
Madre
Marguerite