Last night Rami Malek was named Best Actor for his swaggering bravura as Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in the Queen biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
Most prognosticators expected several roads to lead to “Roma” last night, and it won for cinematography and foreign language film. But it was not the only winner. To a rousing standing ovation at the Dolby Theater, Spike Lee received the first competitive Academy Award of his storied career for the adapted screenplay of “BlacKkKlansman,” the true story of a black man who infiltrated the Colorado Ku Klux Klan.
Earlier on last night’s 91st annual Academy Awards, Regina King of “If Beale Street Could Talk” was named supporting actress as many had predicted for her performance as a fiercely devoted mother of a young pregnant daughter in the film based on a novel by the great James Baldwin. Obviously deeply moved, King thanked her mother in the audience and director Barry Jenkins.
Mahershala Ali of “Green Book” picked up his second Oscar since 2017 for his impeccable turn as master musician Dr. Don Shirley, traveling in the Deep South in the company of a coarse, but jovial Italian-American bouncer.
Nominated for eight Oscars, “A Star Is Born” won for original song. “Free Solo,” a daunting record of a climb up El Capitan without ropes by the intrepid, if not insane Alex Honnold, was named best documentary. “Vice,” which required the incredible transformation of Christian Bale into Dick Cheney, received the prize for Make Up and Hair.
Springfield’s own Ruth E. Carter made Oscar history and became the first African-American to win an Academy Award for best costume, shouting out a thank you to her 97-year-old mother back in Massachusetts. Hannah Beachler of “Black Panther” became the first African-American to win for production design. “Black Panther” also took best score.
This year’s four-time nominee Alfonso Cuaron (“Roma”) picked up his first award of the evening for cinematography. Cuaron is a previous winner of the best director prize for “Gravity” (2013). Cuaron also collected the foreign-language prize for “Roma” as many had expected. His velvety, black-and-white film is a fictional memoir of a privileged, if turbulent Mexico City childhood graced most prominently by a maternal, indigenous maid named Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio, the first indigenous best actress nominee).
“Bohemian Rhapsody,” the biopic of the band, Queen, that opened the show triumphantly, quickly, if predictably, scooped up the trophies for sound editing and sound mixing and later for editing. Its director Bryan Singer was notably absent from the acceptance speeches.
In a rare loss for Pixar, the arguably hipper “Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse” took the trophy for best animated film. Beating off Avengers, Star Wars and Steven Spielberg, Damien Chazelle’s “First Man” picked up the award for visual effects.
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