By Jacob Duran

The 91st Academy Awards are going down in film history for a wide variety of reasons. 

It was the first show since 1989 that didn’t have a host and many nominees pulled off surprises.  The most significant is the first superhero movie nominated for Best Picture. “Black Panther” took home three awards: Best Costume Design, Production Design and Original Score. 

“Black Panther” fell short of winning best picture to “Green Book.” Still, the nomination is historic as “Black Panther” did what many superhero like “Logan” and “The Dark Knight” couldn’t. The door is wide open for other superhero movies now to get Best Picture acclaim along with giving Marvel Studios their first, second and third Oscars.   

The movie that took home the most awards was “Bohemian Rhapsody”.  This movie won four Oscars for Best Actor, Best Editing, Sound Mixing and Editing.   

These awards are much-deserved as “Bohemian Rhapsody” fired on many cylinders. Rami Malek embodied Freddie Mercury from his mannerisms down to his overall unique personality and unpredictability.  The editing on film and sound also made the movie flamboyant like Queen themselves were.The musical scenes transported the viewers back to the 1970s and 1980s. 

The majority of the other winners were also very deserving like Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper for Best Original Song in “A Star Is Born.” If there was one, the Best Acceptance Speech award would have to go to Lady Gaga. 

After her victory, she said “I worked hard for my success and no matter how many times you get rejected, you fall down; you get back up and stand.”  A surprise multi–award winner was also “Roma” a foreign film from Mexico directed by Alfonso Cuaron who was nominated in many categories. Cuaron not only directed “Roma,” he also wrote it, produced it and did the cinematography. 

Best Animated Film this year had stiff competition between it’s competitors, but a surprising winner emerged.  “Spider-Man Into The Spider Verse” became the first non–Disney or Pixar animated movie to win since “Rango” in 2011. “Spider-Man Into The Spider Verse” beat out the hugely popular and favored Disney and Pixar movies “Incredibles 2” and “Ralph Breaks The Internet”. 

“Roma” would overall win Best Cinematography and Best Director along with Best Foreign Language Film.  This along with “Black Panther” are proof that major changes are happening with the Academy.  These movies have had huge success and a lot of popular movies got a bevy of nominations with “Bohemian Rhapsody” being a box office darling. 

One part of the show I have mixed feelings on is there not being a host for this Oscars.  I feel like in the past hosts always added more flavor and pep to the ceremonies along with nice humor. However, the pacing of the show was fine along with the opening joke skit with Amy Poehler Tina Fey and Maya Rudolph.  Hopefully for the 92th Academy Awards, a host can be found. 

There were also some occurrences that happened that came out of left field besides this opening skit. Keegan Michael Key entered the Oscars from an umbrella much like Mary Poppins, a film that had a few nominations including Best Original Song, Score, Production and Costume Design.  When Best Costume Design was given out, Melissa McCarthy also performed a surprisingly hilarious puppet show presenting the award and giving it out. 

In terms of snubs, Glen Close and Amy Adams are the first to come to mind.  The two actresses still have multiple nominations to their name, but no wins. For Best Visual Effects, “Avengers Infinity War” also got snubbed.

Overall, the 91st Academy Awards were entertaining to watch with a great balance of humor and amazing movies winning awards. The Oscars don’t have their overall entertainment diminishing anytime soon.