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The 2019 Oscars were humming at a steady pace, scattered with funny cameos and winners of impressive variety. Everything was going fine.
Until it is not.
The biggest prize of the night, the best picture, was awarded to Green Book a much-criticized movie about American race relations in the 1960s, leaving the Oscars viewers with an ugly feeling after three hours surprisingly solid. The film's rewards campaign was tainted by controversy: it was revealed that its director, Peter Farrelly, had the habit of portraying women on film sets. A tweet from one of the movie's screenwriters, Nick Vallelonga, resurfaced in which he subscribed to Donald Trump's racist and belittling claim that Muslims would have applauded after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. as well as the family of Don Shirley, the famous black pianist that Mahershala Ali plays in the film, publicly condemning the way he was described.
And that does not mean anything about the film itself, which some critics have described as reductive and simplifying complicated racial dynamics. The film followed Shirley and his white chauffeur (played by Viggo Mortensen) who was traveling across the southern United States in the 1960s. The three screenwriters in the film are white, as is Farrelly, the director.
The great victory of Green Book evoked bad memories of the winner of the best film of 2006 Crash another film about race relations that received a mixed reaction from critics. Some experts already say that Green Book is the worst winner of the picture in more than a decade – especially when more deserving (and truly progressive) films like Roma BlacKKKlansman Black Panther and The Favorite are nominated.
Although the Oscars may have left us with an unpleasant aftertaste, they have not spoiled everything that preceded them. The evening was piled with historic victories, perhaps in part because of the younger and more diverse voting block presented at the Film Academy in 2017.
- Three of the four laureates (Regina King, Mahershala Ali and Rami Malek) were not white.
- Women were represented on stage with the best documentary, short documentary, animated short film, production design, costume design and sound editing.
- Ruth Carter and Hannah Beachler became the first black designers to win the best costume and production design.
- A Mexican filmmaker (Alfonso Cuaron) was voted Best Director for the fifth time in the last six years.
- Spike Lee finally won his first Oscar (for co-writing the screenplay of BlacKKKlansman ) ..
Another positive aspect: viewers seemed generally satisfied with the broadcast without animator ]. The show was able to move faster than usual, ending in just over three hours. The night was not bogged down in long monologues and pieces of cheese – most of the time, the focus was on movies and winners. Reports that Marvel Avengers members would act as a group of rotating pseudo-hosts were exaggerated.
As is often the case in the film world, diversity has taken a step forward before taking another step backwards. The great Oscar tragedy of 2019 would be that if this big step back obscured all the positive momentum that had been created before it.
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