The 91st Oscars were a total fever dream. Seriously. No host, a massive controversy over a "Popular Film" category that got scrapped before it even breathed, and a Best Picture winner that still makes film buffs argue until they’re blue in the face. Honestly, looking back at the 2019 Academy Award winners, it feels like a time capsule of a Hollywood in the middle of a massive identity crisis. The industry was trying to figure out if it wanted to keep honoring the "old guard" or finally let the new wave of diverse, streaming-adjacent cinema take the wheel.
It was February 24, 2019. Green Book walked away with the top prize.
People lost their minds.
Some saw it as a feel-good story about racial reconciliation, while others—including Spike Lee, who reportedly tried to storm out of the Dolby Theatre—viewed it as a massive step backward. But that’s the thing about the 2019 slate. It wasn't just one movie. It was the year of Roma, The Favourite, Black Panther, and A Star Is Born. It was a year where the Academy tried to please everyone and, in doing so, created one of the most chaotic ceremonies in recent memory.
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The Best Picture Mess and the Green Book Fallout
Let's get into the heavy hitter first. When Julia Roberts opened that envelope and read Green Book, the room felt... weird. It was a polarizing win. The film, directed by Peter Farrelly (yes, the guy who did Dumb and Dumber), followed the real-life story of Black classical pianist Don Shirley and his Italian-American driver, Tony "Lip" Vallelonga.
Critics of the win pointed out the "white savior" trope. They argued that in a year where BlacKkKlansman and Black Panther were nominated, choosing the most "comfortable" movie about race felt out of touch. Shirley’s own family even called the film a "symphony of lies," which is a pretty stinging indictment. Yet, the Academy voters—a group that, at the time, was still heavily skewed toward an older demographic—clearly loved it. It was heartwarming. It had great acting. It was safe.
But was it the best?
If you look at the technical mastery of Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma, many would say no. Roma was a Netflix movie, which was a huge deal back then. Steven Spielberg and other purists were still skeptical about streaming services "buying" Oscars. Roma took home Best Director, Best Foreign Language Film, and Best Cinematography. It was the first time a director won Best Cinematography for their own film. That’s a massive flex. Yet, it missed the big one. Some insiders suggest the "Netflix bias" is exactly why it couldn't clinch Best Picture.
Olivia Colman: The Upset We Didn't See Coming
Remember the Best Actress race? Everyone—and I mean everyone—thought it was Glenn Close’s year. She was nominated for The Wife. It was her seventh nomination. She was "due." The narrative was set.
Then Olivia Colman happened.
When her name was called for The Favourite, she looked more shocked than anyone in the building. Her speech was legendary. She blew a raspberry at the teleprompter telling her to wrap it up and gave a shout-out to Lady Gaga. It was pure, unadulterated joy. Colman played Queen Anne as a tragic, fickle, lonely mess of a human, and it was brilliant. Honestly, it’s one of the few times an "upset" felt completely deserved based on the performance alone, rather than the politics of the industry.
Meanwhile, Rami Malek took home Best Actor for Bohemian Rhapsody. This is another one of those 2019 Academy Award winners that hasn't necessarily aged like fine wine in the eyes of critics. While Malek’s physical transformation into Freddie Mercury was impressive, the movie itself was panned by many for its choppy editing and "by-the-numbers" storytelling. But the Oscars love a biopic. They love a transformation. Malek beat out Christian Bale (who lived on a diet of basically air to play Dick Cheney in Vice) and Bradley Cooper, who many felt was snubbed for both acting and directing in A Star Is Born.
Black Panther Changed the Game for Marvel
We have to talk about Marvel. Before 2019, superhero movies were mostly relegated to the "Visual Effects" and "Sound Editing" categories. They were the "popcorn" movies. Black Panther changed the DNA of the Oscars.
It didn't just get nominated; it won.
Ruth E. Carter became the first Black person to win for Costume Design. Hannah Beachler became the first Black person to win for Production Design. These weren't just "diversity wins"—the world-building of Wakanda was legitimately groundbreaking. It mixed traditional African aesthetics with high-tech Afrofuturism in a way we’d never seen. When Ludwig Göransson won for Best Original Score, it solidified the film as a technical powerhouse. This was the moment the Academy finally admitted that "blockbusters" could also be "art."
The Supporting Players and the Quiet Victories
Regina King won Best Supporting Actress for If Beale Street Could Talk. If you haven't seen it, stop what you're doing and go watch it. Her performance as a mother fighting for her daughter’s fiancé is soulful and devastating. It was a "locked-in" win from the start of awards season, and it was one of the few moments of the night where everyone seemed to agree.
Mahershala Ali picked up his second Oscar in three years for Green Book. Say what you want about the movie, but Ali’s portrayal of Don Shirley was precise and elegant. He became the first Black actor to win two Supporting Actor trophies. That’s a heavy legacy.
Then there was Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It won Best Animated Feature, breaking the Disney/Pixar streak. It deserved it. The animation style was like a comic book coming to life—jittery, colorful, and experimental. It pushed the medium forward more than any other movie that year.
What We Learned from the 2019 Roster
Looking back, the 2019 Academy Award winners reflect a bridge between two eras. You had the traditionalist wins like Green Book and Bohemian Rhapsody sitting right next to the experimental triumphs of Roma and Spider-Verse.
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The absence of a host actually worked. The show moved faster. It felt less like a variety hour and more like an actual awards ceremony. It proved that the "glamour" of the Oscars doesn't need a comedian doing a 15-minute monologue to stay relevant.
But the biggest takeaway? The "Best Picture" isn't always the movie that stands the test of time.
If you ask people today which movie from 2019 they still watch, they'll say The Favourite, Spider-Verse, or Black Panther. Very few people are out here having Green Book viewing parties. The Oscars are a snapshot of what a specific group of people thought was important in a specific week in February. Sometimes they get it right. Sometimes they just choose the movie that made them feel the least uncomfortable.
Practical Steps for Film History Buffs
If you’re trying to really understand the impact of this specific year of cinema, don’t just look at the winners list. You have to look at the "why" behind the votes.
- Watch the "Big Three" Contrasts: Watch Green Book, Roma, and Black Panther back-to-back. You will see three completely different visions of what "prestige" cinema looked like in the late 2010s.
- Track the Career Trajectories: Notice how winning an Oscar changed things for people like Regina King and Olivia Colman. King moved into directing (One Night in Miami), and Colman became the go-to lead for basically every prestige drama in the UK and US.
- Check the Technical Categories: Don’t skip the crafts. The win for First Man in Visual Effects was a massive nod to practical effects over CGI. The sound wins for Bohemian Rhapsody showed how much the Academy values "re-creation" over "creation."
- Research the "Popular Film" Category: Look up the trade articles from 2018 about the Academy's failed attempt to start a "Best Popular Film" Oscar. It explains a lot about why Black Panther was pushed so hard for the main category.
The 2019 Oscars weren't perfect. They were messy, controversial, and deeply human. They represented a shift in how we define a "great" movie in an era of streaming and superheroes. Whether you love the winners or hate them, you can't deny that the ceremony changed the conversation about what an "Oscar Movie" is supposed to be.
Next time you’re scrolling through a streaming service and see that gold statue icon next to a title, remember the chaos of 2019. It was the year the Academy tried to grow up, stumbled a bit, but ultimately gave us a night we're still talking about years later.