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 The 2019 Oscars were a win for films telling stories from a
range of racial and cultural perspectives, marking a major shift
three years after the movie industry's top awards show was
slammed for overlooking work by nonwhite artists.
"Green Book," a film about racial injustice in the segregated
U.S. South in the 1960s, took best picture, the night's top
prize. In his acceptance speech, director Peter Farrelly said
the film, about a black pianist and his white driver, was "about
loving each other despite our differences."
"Green Book" won three awards, as did "Roma," a black-and-white,
Spanish-language film about an indigenous housemaid, and "Black
Panther," a Marvel superhero movie with an almost entirely black
cast. Spike Lee's "BlacKkKlansman," about a black detective who
goes undercover with the Ku Klux Klan, also was honored.
"It's a real breakthrough that any film about race gets to win,"
Kevin Willmott, who is African-American and was one of the
“BlacKkKlansman” writers who won an Oscar for the screenplay,
said backstage.
"When I first started in the industry, it was really bad. And
we’ve come a long way since then."
Mahershala Ali, one of the stars of "Green Book," was one of two
black actors to claim acting prizes, taking home the best
supporting actor trophy. Regina King, who played a protective
mother in "If Beale Street Could Talk," claimed the supporting
actress award.
Rami Malek, whose parents immigrated from Egypt to the United
States, took home the best actor prize for his turn as Freddie
Mercury in "Bohemian Rhapsody." He noted backstage that as a
child he felt skeptical about his prospects in Hollywood because
of his cultural background.
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"I never saw anyone in a lead role that looked like me," he
said.
Spike Lee, the acclaimed black director, took home his first
Oscar on Sunday, a best adapted screenplay prize for "BlacKkKlansman,"
after a career that has spanned decades and included a famous
Oscar loss in 1989 for his film "Do The Right Thing."
Backstage, Lee sipped champagne and said he would not have won
an Oscar on Sunday had it not been for the #OscarSoWhite
campaign that erupted in 2015 and 2016, and for Cheryl Boone
Isaacs, the former Academy president who oversaw efforts to
diversify its membership.
"They opened up the Academy to make the Academy look more like
America," Lee said, noting wins on Sunday by black women
including Ruth E. Carter and Hannah Beachler, the costume
designer and production designer, respectively, for "Black
Panther."
Mexico's Alfonso Cuaron, who won the directing, cinematography
and foreign film prizes for his film "Roma," thanked the Academy
in his speech for recognizing a film with a lead character "that
has historically been relegated to the background of cinema."
Backstage, however, he noted that Hispanic Americans are "really
badly represented still" in film roles.
Also backstage, King noted the broad support she received for
her performance, but said of Hollywood that "we're still trying
to get more reflective. Still trying to get there."
(Reporting by Nichola Groom; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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