TV Review - 91st Academy Awards

It could be said that the 91st Academy Awards telecast was probably the blackest Oscars that I've perhaps seen in the 20 years or so that I've been watching. First, there were the nominees. Of the 24 categories, 19 had nominees who were people of color. That's record-breaking. That's the highest amount of categories to feature people of color, shattering the 16 from last year and 15 from the year before. Second, there were the presenters. There were over two-dozen presenters or about 27 who were people of color. It's almost a person of color presenting every single category. 18 of those presenters were black people. If it's not a record-breaking number, it's still two-thirds of the people scripted to be on that stage. That's tremendous in terms of representation.

What most people will take away are the winners. Of the 24 categories, 12 of them featured winners who were people of color. That's half of the winners being people of color. Of those 12, there were 6 that were black people. Two of those were for acting. Three people of color though won acting prizes overall, which is the category that people recognize the most. To have three people of color win in one year is probably the first time this has happened, but this is just one of many firsts notable on the night of February 24.

Mahershala Ali won Best Supporting Actor for playing Don Shirley in Green Book. This is the second Oscar that Ali has won. He previous won Best Supporting Actor for his role in Moonlight at the 89th Academy Awards. When he won two years ago, he become the first Muslim to win an acting Oscar. With his win this year, he becomes the first African-American to win two Oscars in the same category. Denzel Washington has won two Oscars for acting but in two different categories. Ali follows Washington in being the second African-American to have two Oscars for acting.

Regina King won Best Supporting Actress for playing Sharon Rivers in If Beale Street Could Talk. With her win, she makes the second time that two African-Americans have won acting Oscars in supporting roles in the same year.

Rami Malek won Best Actor for playing Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody. Malek is of Egyptian heritage. Egypt is technically a Middle Eastern country, making Malek of Arab heritage. The Middle East is part of Asia. Therefore, this win marks the first person of Arab-descent to win an acting award. He would be the second Asian person to be nominated for Best Actor and also the second Asian person to win in that category. He follows Ben Kingsley who is of Indian-descent and who won for Gandhi at the 55th Academy Awards.

Ruth E. Carter won Best Costume Design for Black Panther. Carter was nominated for Malcolm X at the 65th Academy Awards, marking her as the first African-American nominated in this category. She was nominated again for Amistad at the 70th Academy Awards. There has been only one other African-American nominated, Sharen Davis, but she didn't win. Carter's win makes her the first black person to do so in this category.

Hannah Beachler won Best Production Design for Black Panther. Beachler is the first African-American to be nominated in this category and the first to win as well.

Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin won Best Documentary Feature for Free Solo. Numerous Asian people were nominated in this category this year. Numerous Asian people have been represented in this category over the past 30 years.

Domee Shi (pictured above on right) won Best Animated Short Film for Bao. She's the second person of Chinese descent to win in this category. Numerous Asian people though have won in this category.

Alfonso Cuarón won Best Cinematography, Best Director and Best Foreign Language Film for Roma. Cuarón is from Mexico and he isn't the first Latino or Hispanic person to win either three. He is the first person to win all three in one year for the same film. He's the second Latino to win two or more directing Oscars as well.

Peter Ramsey won Best Animated Feature for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Ramsey is the first ever African American to be nominated and to win in this category.

Spike Lee with Kevin Willmott won Best Adapted Screenplay for BlacKkKlansman. Lee won an Honorary Award at the 88th Academy Awards but he's never won in a competitive category. This is his first in a 30-year career. His win was one of the joyous moments of the night with Lee jumping into the arms of Samuel L. Jackson who presented the award.

Cicely Tyson won an Honorary Award, which is normally a kind of lifetime achievement award. She was at the Oscars but she wasn't mentioned during the telecast. She was recognized at what's called the Governor's Awards, which occurs three months prior.

But, it wasn't just racial diversity and representation. It was also about LGBTQ representation that this telecast brought to the floor. It might not have been obvious in the telecast, but there were nods to the gender and sexual diversity in a few of the films. The nominees for Best Picture featured gay and lesbian characters or themes, including Vice, A Star is Born, The Favourite, Bohemian Rhapsody and Green Book. Having five films up with gay and lesbian characters or themes all nominated for Best Picture is the most of any year, especially since the 82nd Academy Awards when the Best Picture category was expanded.

In terms of LGBTQ people who were actually nominated, there weren't that many. Scott Rudin was nominated for Best Animated Feature for Isle of Dogs. Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman were nominated for Best Documentary Short Subject for End Game. Marc Shaiman was nominated for Best Original Score for Mary Poppins Returns. Shaiman was nominated again along with Scott Wittman for Best Original Song for "The Place Where Lost Things Go." Jeff Whitty was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for Can You Ever Forgive Me?.

There were reportedly two winners who were part of the LGBTQ community. John Ottman was nominated and won for Best Film Editing for Bohemian Rhapsody. He works as an editor but has more credits as a music composer. Lady Gaga won for Best Original Song for "Shallow," the Grammy-winning, hit song that she performed with Bradley Cooper both in the film A Star is Born and on stage at the Oscars in one of the most impressively choreographed performances in Oscar history.

Gaga was also nominated for Best Actress but she lost to Olivia Colman in The Favourite. Colman isn't part of the LGBTQ community, but her character in The Favourite was Queen Anne who was a member of the LGBTQ community, allegedly. It's similarly for Malek who isn't gay but he played a gay character in Bohemian Rhapsody. Ali also isn't gay but played a gay character in Green Book.

Both Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant were nominated for the film  Can You Ever Forgive Me? and in that movie both played gay characters. McCarthy played Lee Israel who is a lesbian. Israel's book was the basis for the screenplay adaptation, which got nominated. The same was true for James Baldwin who was black and gay. Baldwin's book was the basis for the screenplay adaptation of If Beale Street Could Talk, which too got nominated.

So, I don't know if this year could be considered one of the gayest Oscar ceremonies in terms of the recognition of gay characters or themes in film. It could be in the running. That along with the racial diversity recognized is certainly a step in the right direction, and it made me happy to see that diversity being honored.