At the film industry’s biggest night, Joaquin Phoenix won his first Oscar, “Parasite” won best international feature and best picture, and Renee Zellweger won a best actress Oscar for her performance as an aging Judy Garland in the musical biopic “Judy,” a film which marked one of our best film releases of 2019.
At 3 hours and 35 minutes long, the 92nd annual Oscar ceremony had no formal host and started with a surprise appearance by former hosts Steve Martin and Chris Rock, who delivered a string of jokes about the lack of female directors and people of color among this year’s nominees.
Performances included an opening number from Janelle Monáe who led an elaborate number that involved backup dancers dressed in outfits honoring titles that didn’t make the Oscar nominations list and rapper Eminem who took to the Oscars stage to perform “Lose Yourself,” his 2003 Oscar-winning song from the movie “8 Mile.”
Other winners included “1917” and Brad Pitt for his role in the Quentin Tarantino directed film “Once Upon a Time.” This earned him his first acting Oscar and Laura Dern also received her first Academy Award for playing a tough divorce lawyer in “Marriage Story.”
Former NFL wide receiver Matthew Cherry also won an Oscar for the animated short “Hair Love.” Backstage, Cherry talked about his decision to make the short which follows the story of a father tackling his daughter’s hair for the first time.
“Back in 2017, every week there was a new story, a black person not being able to wear their hair at work, a young person not being able to wear their hair in school. So, it just felt like this was the perfect medium so that it could be able to be consumed in places like schools. Oftentimes fathers, when they do basic tasks in the household, it’s like, oh, my God, look at fathers, like, being dads. For us, we wanted to help normalize it.”
By Samantha Ofole-Prince / Photos by Royalty Images
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