[JSR] The 91st Academy Awards

The 91st Academy Awards were held on February 24, 2019 and was broadcasted nationwide by ABC. [Source: Associated Press, Chris Pizzello, Invision]

The cast of Best Picture winner “Green Book” gathered on stage to accept their award. [Source: Associated Press, Chris Pizzello, Invision]

Every year there are thousands of movies that are produced and watched by millions of viewers across the world. But of these movies, only a handful stand out and are recognized for being truly outstanding. The producers and actors of these prestigious films are honored at the Academy Awards, more commonly known as the Oscars. The Oscars usually take place sometime between February and March every year.

Jonathan Chun, Grade 9 West Ranch High School

This year, the 91st Academy Awards were held on February 24th at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. The ceremony was televised in the United States by ABC, and was produced by Donna Gigliotti and Glenn Weiss, with Weiss also serving as director. Unlike many previous ceremonies, this year’s ceremony was the first in three decades without a host. Instead, many famous movie stars and celebrities presented each award in the role of the host.

Comedian Kevin Hart was originally nominated as the host but stepped down after homophobic tweets he had posted in the past resurfaced online. Although it had no host, the Oscars were still packed with action as fan favorite movies such as “Black Panther”, “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “Roma”, and many more received awards that evening.

For Best Picture, “Green Book” starring Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen, took home the award. In the Best Animated Film category, “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”, and in Best Foreign Film, “Roma” were the winners. In individual awards, Alfonso Cuarón won Best Director, Rami Malek won Best Actor, and Olivia Colman won Best Actress. The films with the most nominations were “The Favourite” and “Roma” with each film receiving 10 in various categories. Although it only received 5 nominations, “Bohemian Rhapsody” took home the most awards, winning all five.

This year, the Oscars took a big step in a good direction in terms of Hollywood diversity. Some of the Best Pictures included the Netflix foreign film “Roma” and the first Superhero themed movie, “Black Panther”, which also featured a predominantly African-American cast. Winners such as Mahershala Ali for Best Supporting Actor, Rami Malek for Best Actor, and Alfonso Cuarón for Best Director, came from different racial and cultural backgrounds. Spike Lee also finally won his first Oscar in his 33 year feature career, for best adapted screenplay for his film “BlacKkKlansman”.

In spite of the no-host format, the 2019 Oscars were very memorable and overall fantastic leaving everyone excited for another great year in the movies.