The 91st annual Academy Award show, The Oscars, premiered on Sunday Feb. 24 in the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California. For the first time in 30 years, the awards did not have a host. Kevin Hart was originally supposed to take this role, but was asked to step down after a controversial joke caught attention.

The show instead highlighted a live performance from Brian May and Adam Lambert of Queen and Lady Gaga with Bradley Cooper performing Shallow from their movie A Star Is Born.

The award for Best Picture shocked the audience when Green Book took home the award, after defeating the other highly rated nominations from Roma, Bohemian Rhapsody, and A Star Is Born.
Directed by Peter Farrelly, Green Book is a comedy-drama starring Mahershala Ali. The film takes place in 1962 and is based of a true story about an African American pianist trying to make it big in the Deep South. The film was rated a 79 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Although one of the other nominated movies, A Star Is Born was rated higher at a 90 percent, Green Book appealed more to the Academy.

For the first time in the Academy Awards, best costuming and best production went to African American Nominees, Ruth Carter and Hannah Beachler with Jay Hart. Also, Alfonso Cuaron’s, Roma won Best Foreign Film, making Roma the first Mexican film to win in this category.

Black Panther won an award for best original score, costume design, and production design. It is also the first movie in the superhero genre to get a Best Picture Oscar nomination, but it did not receive the reward itself.

Freshman Danielle Bodziak watched the Oscars this past weekend and has enjoyed them for years. She loves the original band Queen and the nominated film Bohemian Rhapsody. However she did agree with the Academy’s decision regarding Green Book as the winner for Best Film because she felt that Green Book had a stronger message. Bodziak also appreciated the large amount of entertainment presented for the night.

“Green book was really good, I think it deserved it. The performance by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper was also very good. Although Bradley’s voice was not very good,” said Bodziak.

Freshman Emma Holly loves award shows, especially the Oscars. Her favorite part about this year’s show was when Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper performed Shallow. She thought the performance had so much emotion and that “the look they made at the end was perfect.”

Freshman Tamzid Razzaque watched the Oscars for the first time this year. Razzaque appreciated many of this years feature films. He really admired Bohemian Rhapsody because of all the music. He feels it should have won Best Film.

“Green Book was very boring to me and I thought Bohemian Rhapsody was way more fun,” expressed Razzaque.

The Oscars are an anticipated event each winter season and continue to delight and surprise the audience. This year’s films starred many familiar faces and even some new. Many musicians branched into the acting industry this year and more continue to with this upcoming year.