After being the most talked about Oscars leading up to the big night, this year’s award ceremony will probably not be talked about much afterwards as there wasn’t much excitement nor many surprises with most of the frontrunners claiming gold. Green Book  winning Best Picture was one of those surprises. With Bohemian Rhapsody winning Best Picture at the Golden Globes, Black Panther getting the highest honor at the Screen Actor Guild Awards and The Favourite cleaning up at The BAFTAS, any winner of the Best Picture category was set to be a surprise.

The biggest surprise  however goes to the Best Actress category. While seven-time nominated Glenn Close was the favorite to win, The Favourite’s Olivia Colman took home her first Academy Award for Best Actress instead. In the best speech of the night, even Olivia  Colman apologized to Glenn for winning.

Some highlights included the opening trio of Maya Rudolph, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler who joked that they were NOT the hosts and then made everyone watching realize what an amazing opportunity the Academy just missed. Melissa McCarthy and Brian Tyree Henry win the award for best presenters of the night as they gave away the statue for Best Costume. Melissa’s plush bunny covered gown paid homage to Olivia Colman’s character in The Favourite and her fascination with rabbits. You couldn’t help but laugh as her rabbit puppet “helped” her open the envelope to announce the winner. Of course the moment that everyone was waiting for, Bradley Cooper’s duet with Lady Gaga, made everyone swoon and wish that Bradley Cooper would look at you the way he and Gaga look at each other as they sing. ?

This year’s event will go down in history as one of the more controversial Oscars, due to a laundry list of widely-criticized Academy moves aimed at increasing viewership. The Kevin Hart hosting debacle was the most public of them, but there were plenty more. Further sparking the ire of traditionalists, The Academy junked its long-held tradition of having former winners of the prior year’s major acting awards serve as presenters, opting instead for presenters show producers felt would generate higher ratings.

Then there were the flip-flops – just a week ago, The Academy scrapped its recently announced plans to shorten the broadcast by giving out four of its awards – for cinematography, hairstyling/makeup, film editing and live action short – during the commercial breaks. Late last year it had also announced (then quickly backtracked) on plans to create a Best Popular Film award, jokingly referred to in some circles as the Black Panther Oscar. And as if all this flakiness wasn’t enough, The Academy also reportedly recently reversed plans to have only two of the five Best Original Song nominees perform after Lady Gaga threatened to not perform unless all five songs were included.  What’s next, killing off the “In Memorandum” tribute to the dead?  Tradition is what makes the Oscars unique.

Roma and The Favourite had led this year’s field of nominees, each picking up ten nominations, with A Star Is Born and Vice each picking up eight nominations. Black Panther made history by becoming the first superhero movie to get nominated for Best Picture.

Here is the full list of nominees with winners denoted with a ⭐️. (Click on the movie title for our review):

Best Picture:

• Black Panther
• BlacKkKlansman
• Bohemian Rhapsody
• The Favourite
• ⭐️ Green Book
• Roma
• A Star Is Born
• Vice

Best Documentary Feature

• ⭐️ Free Solo
• Hale County This Morning, This Evening
• Minding the Gap
• Of Fathers and Sons
• RBG

Best Documentary Short

• Black Sheep
• End Game
• Lifeboat
• A Night at the Garden
• ⭐️ Period. End of Sentence.

Best Visual Effects

• Avengers: Infinity War
• Christopher Robin
• ⭐️ First Man
• Ready Player One
• Solo: A Star Wars Story

Best Costume Design

• Ballad of Buster Scruggs
• ⭐️ Black Panther
• The Favourite
• Mary Poppins Returns
• Mary Queen of Scots

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

• Border
• Mary Queen of Scots
• ⭐️ Vice

Best Production Design

• ⭐️ Black Panther
• The Favourite
• First Man
• Mary Poppins Returns
• Roma

Best Film Editing

• BlacKkKlansman
• ⭐️ Bohemian Rhapsody
• The Favourite
• Green Book
• Vice

Best Sound Editing

• A Quiet Place
• Black Panther
• ⭐️ Bohemian Rhapsody
• First Man
• Roma

Best Sound Mixing

• Black Panther
• ⭐️ Bohemian Rhapsody
• First Man
• Roma
• A Star Is Born

Best Visual Effects

• Avengers: Infinity War
• Christopher Robin
• ⭐️ First Man
• Ready Player One
• Solo: A Star Wars Story

Best Animated Short

• Animal Behaviour
• ⭐️ Bao
• Late Afternoon
• One Small Step
• Weekends

Best Live Action Short

• Detainment
• Fauve
• Marguerite
• Mother
• ⭐️ Skin

What are your thoughts about this year’s Oscar telecast? Share your comments below!