I want to start with giving a shoutout to all of the women and people of color who were nominated for and/or won Academy Awards this year. All were well deserved, and it was refreshing to see diversity among the nominees and winners.
The 91st Academy Awards was full of iconic moments, as always, even though this year they went without a host. The Academy also decided to not present any awards during commercial breaks due to the strong backlash from people in the industry, to film aficionados – myself included.
Before the actual ceremony began, the audience was serenaded by Queen + Adam Lambert with We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions in honor of Freddie Mercury and the Academy Award nominated movie, Bohemian Rhapsody. When I say that they killed it, I mean they killed, which is saying a lot coming from an avid Queen fan.
Javier Bardem was really enjoying himself too.
And then there was this iconic trio.
These three women of comedy presented the award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and were funny as hell while they did it. They threw shade at the Academy, the border wall, Bradley Cooper, and kept it classy while they did it.
The award went to Regina King for her work in If Beale Street Could Talk, and her speech was incredibly moving, especially for women of color. Not to mention that, but she also looked GORGEOUS.
No one really knew what to do when out walked Melissa McCarthy and Brian Tyree Henry dressed like this.
It was unclear at first why they were wearing such beautifully ridiculous costume, but as it turns out, they were presenting the award for Best Costume Design and could not pass up a comedic opportunity. It really got weird when Melissa started doing this though, which warranted a lot of laughs.
The award for Best Costume Design was awarded to Ruth Carter for her work on Black Panther. The person she thanked the most in her speech was Spike Lee, whose 1988 film School Daze was Carter’s first Hollywood production. She has worked on a total of 10 films by Spike Lee.
Tyler Perry, known mainly for his Madea movies, presented the award for Best Cinematography. Let me tell you, he shaded the Academy hard. Cinematography was one of the awards that the Academy was going to present during commercial breaks, so it was fitting for him to call them out on their s***.
Perhaps the most memorable moment of the night, was when Keegan Michael-Key propelled down from the ceiling with an umbrella in his hand like a true queen.
Girls, we need to talk about how Krysten Ritter is PREGNANT. The Jessica Jones actress debuted her belly bump with boyfriend Adam Granduciel on the red carpet, and again when she presented the award for Best Live Action Short in her gorgeous red lace dress.
Now for the realest moment ever. Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. Singing “Shallow” from A Star is Born. Not only were we blown away with Lady Gaga’s raw talent, and the harmonious duet with Bradley Cooper, but the onstage chemistry – it was way too much to handle! Especially in this intimate moment:
And this one:
Lady Gaga later said that she and Bradley are in fact not an item, but this performance still leaves us with a lot of questions.
My personal favorite moment was during the award for Best Adaptive Screenplay, presented by Brie Larson and Samuel L. Jackson. The award went to Spike Lee for BlacKkKlansman. He was so excited to have won his first Oscar, that he jumped on Sam Jackson out of pure joy when he got up on stage.
And let’s not forget his response to Barbara Streisand’s shoutout to him
Barbara: We were both born in Brooklyn.
Spike Lee:
The award for Best Director was presented by Guillermo del Toro, whose film The Shape of Water took home 4 Academy Awards last year (nominated for 13), including Best Picture and Best Director.
The award went to Alfonso Cuarón for his film Roma, which took home a total of three awards that night. In his speech, he said some inspiring words, but the ones that stuck with me were, “As artists, it is our job to look where others don’t.”
Now on to the awards for Best Actor and Best Actress.
The award for Best Actor in a Leading Role went to Rami Malek for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody.
The award for Best Actress in a Leading Role went to Olivia Coleman for her work in The Favourite. She was so shocked by her win that she could barely speak for a solid 5 minutes.
And when she finally found her voice again, she said, “This is genuinely quite stressful. This is hilarious.”
And let’s not forget the most truthful moment of the night, when the winners for Best Documentary (Short Subject) said this:
Those are some of the most iconic moments from the 91st Academy Awards, though certainly not all of them. For a complete list of winners and nominees, visit The Oscars website.
Photos and gifs courtesy of ABC Network and giphy.com