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'Green Book' takes home best film award

'Green Book' takes home best film award
'Green Book' takes home best film award

LOS ANGELES — “Green Book,” about a white chauffeur and his black client in segregation-era America, won best picture and two other trophies at the 91st Academy Awards on Sunday night, overcoming a series of awards-season setbacks and mixed critical notices.

In backing “Green Book,” voters slowed the rise of Netflix, which had aggressively pushed “Roma” in the best picture race. Netflix made significant inroads, however, with “Roma,” about a domestic worker in 1970s-era Mexico City, winning three Oscars, including best director and cinematographer for Alfonso Cuarón.

In many ways, the ceremony at the Dolby Theater — the first hostless Oscars in 30 years — played out like the more populist and less prestigious Golden Globes: veering in multiple directions as voters sprinkled their attention among a half-dozen pictures, with no film walking away with a commanding sweep.

“Bohemian Rhapsody,” the blockbuster biopic about Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, received the most Academy Awards — four — with wins for Rami Malek’s lead acting, editing, sound mixing and sound editing. “Black Panther” went home with three Oscars. The Dick Cheney biopic “Vice” received one, for hair and makeup. “The Favourite,” which had 10 nominations going into the night, tying “Roma” for the most, also left with one Oscar, for Olivia Colman as lead actress.

“We made a film about a gay man, an immigrant, who lived his life just unapologetically himself,” Malek said. “We’re longing for stories like this.”

In a major shift from the #OscarsSoWhite years of 2015 and 2016, this year’s ceremony, which lasted a little over three hours, was notable for the diversity of honorees. Two “Black Panther” crew members, Hannah Beachler (production design) and Ruth E. Carter (costumes), became the first African-Americans to receive Oscars in their respective categories.

Asian-Americans were represented in victories for “Free Solo,” which was named best documentary, and for “Bao,” which won best animated short.

And Spike Lee (“BlacKkKlansman”) won a competitive Oscar for the first time in his celebrated career — albeit for writing and not directing. It was the lone award for the film, about an African-American police officer who infiltrates the Ku Klux Klan with the help of a Jewish surrogate.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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