Oscars shine without host for first time in 30 years
Oscar night rocked with a cold open performance of “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions” by Queen and Adam Lambert, and that wasn’t the only unorthodox thing the Oscars did this year. Spoiler alert: the show had no host.
The formerly-announced host, Kevin Hart, stepped down after controversy regarding homophobic tweets. The 91st telecast of the Academy Awards went host-less for the first time since 1989, and it paid off in a big way.
Chris Pizzello AP Photo Melissa Berton, center left, and Rayka Zehtabchi accept the award for best documentary short subject for “Period. End of Sentence.” at the Oscars on Sunday, Feb. 24, 2019, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
While big rock numbers are usually reserved for shows like The Grammys and The MTV Music Awards, Queen took advantage of all the hype surrounding “Bohemian Rhapsody” and was invited to open for Hollywood’s biggest night. “Bohemian Rhapsody” itself took home four Oscars for Best Actor, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing and even Best Sound Editing, beating out the frontrunner for the award, “A Quiet Place.”
The awards show was 36 minutes shorter without needless jokes from a host; instead, multiple stars shared the spotlight. Maya Rudolph, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were the first presenters and did the job of “monologuing.” Awkwafina, John Mulaney and Trevor Noah stole the show with their one-liners, while Julia Roberts closed out the night saying goodbye to the audience and viewers at home.
Chris Pizzello AP Photo Lady Gaga, left, and Bradley Cooper react to the audience after a performance of “Shallow” from “A Star is Born” at the Oscars on Sunday, Feb. 24, 2019, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
To help cut time, the musical numbers were also fairly scaled back, with only Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s Oscar-winning song “Shallow” getting much time to shine.
This year’s show was prefaced with multiple announced changes that didn’t make it to the actual show, including the announcement to not air speeches for categories like Best Documentary Short. Had the category been cut, the night’s most memorable speech by the creators of “Period. End of Sentence” wouldn’t have been seen.
Other surprises included “Green Book” winning Best Picture over frontrunners “Roma” and “Black Panther,” and Olivia Colman winning Best Actress over Glenn Close and Lady Gaga.
“Green Book” also brought home two other awards: Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor for Mahershala Ali.
Other Best Picture nominees “Vice,” “The Favourite,” “A Star Is Born” and “BlackKklansman” all only won one award each.
“Black Panther” won three awards for Production Design, Costume Design, and Original Score.
Best Animated Feature went to “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” so while “Black Panther” didn’t win Best Picture, a sci-fi film featuring a black superhero still won a top honor.
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@GrahamWoodMedia