Oscars get underway with Queen performance, Regina King win

Jake Coyle, The Associated Press</span>
Published Sunday, February 24, 2019 2:15PM EST
Last Updated Sunday, February 24, 2019 8:26PM EST

LOS ANGELES -- Queen launched Sunday's Oscars with a medley of hits that gave the hostless 91st Academy Awards a distinctly Grammy-like flavour as Hollywood's most prestigious ceremony sought to prove that it's still "champion of the world" after last year's record-low ratings.

Singer Adam Lambert, who has been touring with the band, replaced Freddie Mercury, the subject of the best-picture nominee "Bohemian Rhapsody." Though the opening number was known, the feel of an Oscars without a host for only the second time in decades had been a mystery.

Following Queen, the motion picture academy ran of montage of the year's movies before Tina Fey -- alongside Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph -- welcomed the Dolby Theatre audience to "the one-millionth Academy Awards." The trio ran through the kind of jokes, they said, they would have said if they were, in fact, hosting.

They then presented best supporting actress to Regina King for her pained matriarch in Barry Jenkins' James Baldwin adaptation "If Beale Street Could Talk." The crowd gave King a standing ovation for her first Oscar.

"To be standing here representing one of the greatest artist of our time, James Baldwin, is a little surreal," said King. "James Baldwin birthed this baby."

The run-up to the 91st Academy Awards was a series of missteps and backtracks by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. A new best "popular film" category was in, and then it was out . Kevin Hart was host and then he wasn't . Some categories were removed from the live broadcast, and then they were back.

But if the script this Oscar season has been constantly rewritten, the film academy is hoping for a Hollywood ending (and much better ratings than the all-time low viewership last year .)

After some unlikely Los Angeles weather -- to much local fanfare, it snowed in parts of the city on Thursday -- sunny skies greeted red carpet arrivals. Screams of "Spiiiiiike" were heard along the red carpet when "BlacKkKlansman" director Spike Lee arrived to some of the biggest applause of the afternoon.

Glenn Close, wearing a gold-draped dress that she said weighed more than 40 pounds, said she was worried all day that she won't be able to stop crying. Close, who has been nominated seven times, is expected to win her first Oscar -- though she has said she doesn't want "a pity Oscar."

Producers Donna Gigliotti and Glenn Weiss have pledged that the show will be speedier this year , even though its initial goal of a three-hour broadcast has faded. Kicking things off will be a performance by Queen, featuring Adam Lambert, to celebrate the best picture-nominee "Bohemian Rhapsody."

In the academy's favour is a popular crop of nominees: "Bohemian Rhapsody," "A Star Is Born" and, most of all, "Black Panther" have all amassed huge sums in ticket sales. Typically, when there are box-office hits (like "Titanic"), more people watch the Oscars.

But just how many people have seen one of the top nominees and the film favoured to win best picture -- Alfonso Cuaron's "Roma" -- remains unknown. Netflix has declined to give box-office results or steaming viewership. It remains a nominee unlike any other. Should "Roma" -- a black-and-white, Spanish and Mixtec language film about a domestic worker in a Mexican family -- win, it will be both the first Netflix movie to win best picture and the first foreign language film to do so.

Yet this year's race has been maddeningly unpredictable , with the usual predictive awards being spread across contenders such as Peter Farrelly's "Green Book," a divisive period dramedy about a black pianist (Mahershala Ali) and his white chauffer (Viggo Mortensen); the royal romp "The Favourite; and Ryan Coogler's Marvel sensation "Black Panther," which could become the first superhero film ever to win Hollywood's top award.

Other milestones are possible, too. Though Cuaron is favoured for best director, a win for Lee ("BlacKkKlansman") would make him the first black filmmaker to ever win the award. Lee has said he likes his film's underdog position as a "dark horse -- pun intended." Lee and his fellow screenwriters are also up for best screenplay, which would give the 61-year-old Lee his first competitive Oscar.

Many also expect Close to finally win one. She's the front-runner for best actress for her performance in "The Wife," a film about the overlooked and under-honoured spouse of an acclaimed novelist. Though Lady Gaga began the season as the favourite, Close has won a string of awards leading up to the Oscars, including at Saturday's Independent Spirit Awards where she brought her dog, Pip, along as a date.

One virtual lock: Marvel will win its first Oscar. Though "Black Panther," up for six awards and could win in a number of categories, "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" is considered the overwhelming favourite for best animated film.

Last year's Oscars followed the rise of the .MeToo movement, the launch of the gender equality group Time's Up and the downfall of Harvey Weinstein. A year after best-actress winner Frances McDormand urged the adoption of an "inclusion rider" (a contractual stipulation for the diversity of a film's cast and crew), numerous production companies, stars and one studio (Warner Bros.) have made similar pledges.

How much gender equality will be discussed at this year's Oscars is unclear. Many have criticized this year's selections for lacking a female nominee in the best director category (Greta Gerwig was the fifth ever last year) or a best picture nominee directed by a woman. Recent studies have shown that Hollywood improved on many counts in diversity and gender parity in 2018, but remains far from equitable for women and people of colour.

In the last few years, the academy has considerably increased its membership in an effort to diversify its ranks, which have historically been overwhelmingly white and male. In June, the academy invited a record 928 new members.

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