The 91st Academy Awards

The 91st Academy Awards happened on Sunday, February 24, and, much like last year, I’d like to use this week’s Spoiler Alert entry to review the results of the films that were nominated that I had previously written about!

Roma walked away with a total of three Oscars (Director, Cinematography, and Foreign Language Film) out of its 10 total nominations. Although it was my personal pick for Best Picture, you can imagine I was quite happy with these results; however, like I’ve mentioned in previous Spoiler Alert entries, I was already happy with the amount of recognition that the film was getting.

Black Panther also walked away with three Oscars (Original Score, Costume Design, and Production Design) out of its seven nominations (one of which was Best Picture!). I’m not surprised that Black Panther wasn’t awarded more than these three; the Academy has not historically considered comic book-based films as “worthy,” which I vehemently disagree with. I’m elated that Black Panther received the nominations it did, especially Best Picture, and hopefully this is a sign of future recognition for superhero movies at the Oscars.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was the winner in all categories it was nominated in! Sure, it was only nominated in one category (Animated Feature), but much like my feelings towards Black Panther’s performance at the Oscars, I was thrilled to see one of my favorite movies of last year be recognized within a strong group of nominees.

While being nominated for four Oscars, First Man was only successful in one category (Visual Effects). While he was not the recipient of the Oscar, I was happy director Damien Chazelle’s third feature film was able to perform well at the Oscars like his other two films, which are my two favorite movies (Whiplash (2014) and La La Land (2016)).

BlacKkKlansman was also only successful in one category; Adapted Screenplay. I did not even mention Oscar contention when writing about this movie in September, but I can’t say I’m surprised about the categories it was nominated for. Of its six nominations, however, I had expected BlacKkKlansman to win in the film editing category, which ended up going to Bohemian Rhapsody.

Bohemian Rhapsody received the Oscar in four of the five categories it was nominated in. I was wholeheartedly anticipating Rami Malek’s win in the Lead Actor category, having written, “I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Rami Malek’s name come up in February,” back in November. While I am not surprised with Bohemian Rhapsody’s win in Sound Editing and Sound Mixing, I am a bit perplexed with its win in Film Editing.

Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born took home one Oscar of eight total nominations. Despite having written about its impressive cinematography in my dedicated entry about the film, I had not seen Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma just yet. While I would have liked to have seen A Star is Born receive a couple more Oscars, I am satisfied with its win in the Original Song category for “Shallow” (written by Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, Andrew Wyatt, and Benjamin Rice). Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga’s performance of the song at the award show was incredibly enjoyable to watch (the camera work was amazing too!). It even made me want to revisit the film and soundtrack, so I recommend taking a look at the performance if you have the chance.

I can’t say I’m as satisfied with this year’s films and winners as I was with last year’s, but 2018 did bring a plethora of movies that weren’t included in the Oscars but which I’ll still be talking about for awhile; Sorry to Bother You, Eighth Grade, and Bad Times at the El Royale.