It wasn’t the hoped for Irish sweep at the 91st Academy Awards in Hollywood last night, but Element Pictures’ The Favourite did take one one award, Best Actress for Olivia Colman. Green Book, Peter Farrelly’s tale of race relations in the southern U.S. in the 1960’s, won Best Picture, overcoming stinging criticism from the family of the pianist Don Shirley, whose life is depicted in the film, and also allegations of misconduct aimed at the director. Green Book also won Best Original Screenplay, besting The Favourite which had been heavily favoured in that category.
Another controversial film, Bohemian Rhapsody, won the most individual awards on the night, taking home four Oscars for actor, film editing, sound mixing, and sound editing. The film’s credited director Bryan Singer was dismissed half-way through filming, with Dexter Fletcher stepping in to finish the film. None of the recipients on the night credited Singer from the stage amid allegations of inappropriate conduct with minors leveled against Singer.
Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma was another big winner, taking Best Director and Best Cinematography for Cuaron, as well as Best Foreign Language Film. The film had been tipped to be the first non-English language feature to win Best Film following a huge campaign and spend by backers Netflix.
Rami Malek was named Best Actor for playing Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, with Green Book‘s Mahershala Ali winning his second Best Supporting Actor Oscar, and Regina King winning Best Supporting Actress for Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk.
It was a historic night for Black Panther as Ruth Carter became the first black winner of the best costume design award and Hannah Beachler became the first black winner of best production design. The film also won Best Score for composer Ludwig Göransson.
Celebrated African-American filmmaker Spike Lee won his first Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for BlacKKKlansman. The director was noticeably agitated when Green Book was announced as Best Picture winner and later compared its win negatively to his favourite sport basketball by saying “the ref made a bad call”.
Sony’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse won Best Animated Feature, ending Disney’s 6-year winning streak. Disney did win Best Animated Short for Bao, besting Irish director Louise Bagnall’s Late Afternoon.
The Oscars went without a host this year after more controversy regarding selected host Kevin Hart. The evening also featured musical performances by Queen and Adam Lambert, as well as Jennifer Hudson, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, and Bette Midler. Cooper and Lady Gaga’s Shallow won Best Song, the only award for early favourite A Star is Born.
Colman’s win was the second time that a film produced by Dublin’s Element Pictures has won Best Actress at the Oscars, following Brie Larson’s win for Lenny Abrahamson’s Room in 2016.
Huge congratulations to Olivia Coleman on taking home the Best Actress prize for her wonderful performance in The Favourite. The success of The Favourite over this awards season has been a remarkable feat and I would like to congratulate Ed, Andrew, Yorgos, and all the team at Element following last night’s Academy Awards.
Although Element Pictures and Cartoon Saloon didn’t take home the Best Picture Award and Best Animated short film award, it is wonderful to see two Irish production companies with such a high profile at the Oscars. We are very proud of both companies and delighted to have supported them as they have grown over the last number of years, and in particular to have supported both Late Afternoon and The Favourite this year.
It’s fantastic to see that Ireland has had feature films in contention at the Academy awards every year for the last five years, with nominations for Song of the Sea, Room, Brooklyn, The Lobster, The Breadwinner and The Favourite, which highlights the enormous growth and world-class talent working in the Irish film and animation industry in recent years.
James Hickey, Chief Executive – Screen Ireland
We are so delighted for Olivia, such a richly deserved award! The love for the film from audiences and critics alike worldwide has been gratifying and we are indebted to Yorgos for making a film we can all be so proud of. Long live the Queen!
Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe, Producers – Element Pictures
Irish presence at Oscars 2019 is a testament to the talent in our film industry which richly deserves recognition on the world stage.
Josepha Madigan TD, Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht
All of the winners
Best Picture
Black Panther
BlacKkKlansman
Bohemian Rhapsody
The Favourite
Green Book (WINNER)
Roma
A Star Is Born
Vice
Director
Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman
Pawel Pawlikowski, Cold War
Yorgos Lanthimos, The Favourite
Alfonso Cuarón, Roma (WINNER)
Adam McKay, Vice
Lead Actress
Yalitza Aparicio, Roma
Glenn Close, The Wife
Olivia Colman, The Favourite (WINNER)
Lady Gaga, A Star Is Born
Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Lead Actor
Christian Bale, Vice
Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born
Willem Dafoe, At Eternity’s Gate
Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody (WINNER)
Viggo Mortensen, Green Book
Original Song
All The Stars from Black Panther by Kendrick Lamar, SZA
I’ll Fight from RBG by Diane Warren, Jennifer Hudson
The Place Where Lost Things Go from Mary Poppins Returns by Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman
Shallow from A Star Is Born by Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, Andrew Wyatt and Benjamin Rice (WINNER)
When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs by David Rawlings and Gillian Welch
Original Score
BlacKkKlansman, Terence Blanchard
Black Panther, Ludwig Goransson (WINNER)
If Beale Street Could Talk, Nicholas Britell
Isle of Dogs, Alexandre Desplat
Mary Poppins Returns, Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman
Adapted Screenplay
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Joel Coen , Ethan Coen
BlacKkKlansman, Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee (WINNER)
Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty
If Beale Street Could Talk, Barry Jenkins
A Star Is Born, Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper, Will Fetters
Original Screenplay
The Favourite, Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara
First Reformed, Paul Schrader
Green Book, Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly (WINNER)
Roma, Alfonso Cuarón
Vice, Adam McKay
Live Action Short Film
Detainment, Vincent Lambe
Fauve, Jeremy Comte
Marguerite, Marianne Farley
Mother, Rodrigo Sorogoyen
Skin, Guy Nattiv (WINNER)
Visual Effects
Avengers: Infinity War
Christopher Robin
First Man (WINNER)
Ready Player One
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Documentary Short Subject
Black Sheep, Ed Perkins
End Game, Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman
Lifeboat, Skye Fitzgerald
A Night at the Garden, Marshall Curry
Period. End of Sentence., Rayka Zehtabchi (WINNER)
Animated Short
Animal Behaviour, Alison Snowden, David Fine
Bao, Domee Shi (WINNER)
Late Afternoon, Louise Bagnall
One Small Step, Andrew Chesworth, Bobby Pontillas
Weekends, Trevor Jimenez
Animated Feature
Incredibles 2, Brad Bird
Isle of Dogs, Wes Anderson
Mirai, Mamoru Hosoda
Ralph Breaks the Internet, Rich Moore, Phil Johnston
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman (WINNER)
Supporting Actor
Mahershala Ali, Green Book (WINNER)
Adam Driver, BlacKkKlansman
Sam Elliott, A Star Is Born
Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Sam Rockwell, Vice
Film Editing
BlacKkKlansman, Barry Alexander Brown
Bohemian Rhapsody, John Ottman (WINNER)
Green Book, Patrick J. Don Vito
The Favourite, Yorgos Mavropsaridis
Vice, Hank Corwin
Foreign Language Film
Capernaum (Lebanon)
Cold War (Poland)
Never Look Away (Germany)
Roma (Mexico) (WINNER)
Shoplifters (Japan)
Sound Mixing
Black Panther, Steve Boeddeker, Brandon Proctor and Peter Devlin
Bohemian Rhapsody, Paul Massey, Tim Cavagin and John Casali (WINNER)
First Man, Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño, Ai-Ling Lee and Mary H. Ellis
Roma, Skip Lievsay, Craig Henighan and José Antonio García
A Star Is Born, Tom Ozanich, Dean Zupancic, Jason Ruder and Steve Morrow
Sound Editing
Black Panther, Benjamin A. Burtt, Steve Boeddeker
Bohemian Rhapsody, John Warhurst (WINNER)
First Man, Ai-Ling Lee, Mildred Iatrou Morgan
A Quiet Place, Ethan Van der Ryn, Erik Aadahl
Roma, Sergio Diaz, Skip Lievsay
Cinematography
Cold War, Lukasz Zal
The Favourite, Robbie Ryan
Never Look Away, Caleb Deschanel
Roma, Alfonso Cuarón (WINNER)
A Star Is Born, Matthew Libatique
Production Design
Black Panther, Hannah Beachler (WINNER)
First Man, Nathan Crowley, Kathy Lucas
The Favourite, Fiona Crombie, Alice Felton
Mary Poppins Returns, John Myhre, Gordon Sim
Roma, Eugenio Caballero, Bárbara Enrı́quez
Costume Design
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Mary Zophres
Black Panther, Ruth E. Carter (WINNER)
The Favourite, Sandy Powell
Mary Poppins Returns, Sandy Powell
Mary Queen of Scots, Alexandra Byrne
Makeup and Hairstyling
Border, Göran Lundström and Pamela Goldammer
Mary Queen of Scots, Jenny Shircore, Marc Pilcher and Jessica Brooks
Vice, Greg Cannom, Kate Biscoe and Patricia Dehaney (WINNER)
Documentary Feature
Free Solo, Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (WINNER)
Hale County This Morning, This Evening, RaMell Ross
Minding the Gap, Bing Liu
Of Fathers and Sons, Talal Derki
RBG, Betsy West, Julie Cohen
Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, Vice
Marina de Tavira, Roma
Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk (WINNER)
Emma Stone, The Favourite
Rachel Weisz, The Favourite