The Big Picture · Discussion · Awards
February 25, 2019/ 76 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins react, minutes after the 91st Academy Awards, to Green Book's Best Picture win and a ceremony split between an old academy and a new one, then walk all 24 categories.
63 films across 2 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
The two academiesthe contenders, the telecast, and what Green Book means
Best Picture, Original Screenplay, and Mahershala Ali's Supporting Actor: the hosts read the sweep as the old academy digging in against the backlash over the Vallelonga tweets and the Don Shirley family's objections. Sean predicts that in five years people will ask how it won; the winners never thanked Shirley on stage.
The Netflix favorite going in, tied with The Favourite for most nominations. Won Director, Cinematography, and Foreign Language for Alfonso Cuarón but lost Best Picture: the hosts frame it as Hollywood telling Netflix 'not yet.' Amanda reclaims it as a masterpiece; Sean argues Cuarón's real best films are Y Tu Mamá También and Children of Men.
Four wins including Rami Malek's Best Actor, plus Editing and both Sound categories the hosts thought belonged to First Man and A Star Is Born. Queen bled into the commercials and the Adam Lambert opening; Sean compares Malek's win to Adrien Brody for The Pianist and worries about the same career curse.
Spike Lee's first competitive Oscar, for Adapted Screenplay: his acceptance partly bleeped, read off paper, handed over by Sam Jackson. It felt genuine even though the hosts don't rank it near his best; they wonder whether an overdue-Scorsese-style Best Director push follows.
Three wins: Hannah Beachler's Production Design and Ruth Carter's Costume Design (first Black winners in those categories in 35-plus years) plus Ludwig Göransson's Score. For about five minutes the hosts thought a seven-win sweep was happening before remembering it got no acting nods and Coogler wasn't nominated for Director.
The 'great first hour, then it dies' comparison for the whole telecast, and the source of the night's most excruciating segment: Cooper and Gaga performing 'Shallow' as themselves rather than as Jackson and Ally. Won only Original Song, and Cooper, who did nine jobs on the film, wasn't allowed on stage for it.
Went 1-for-10, the lone win being Olivia Colman's shock Best Actress, the most fun and only true upset of the night. The hosts feel awful for seven-time nominee Glenn Close of The Wife, who they call the inverted Sally Field.
Won only Makeup and Hairstyling (Greg Cannom), introduced first by Tom Morello. The hosts debate whether it fades fast or gets a Dick Cheney-driven second life, unlike Oliver Stone's forgotten Nixon and W.
The Glenn Close vehicle the hosts made a whole episode about; nobody in the academy seems to have watched it, and she lost again.
The winners, category by categoryas they happened at the 91st Academy Awards
Also mentioned raised along the way
Best Picture history the hosts invoked Driving Miss DaisyThe PianistLa La LandMoonlightThe Shape of WaterGet OutDunkirkLady BirdThree Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Cuarón and Lanthimos back catalog Y Tu Mamá TambiénChildren of MenGravityThe LobsterDogtoothThe Killing of a Sacred Deer
In passing First ReformedSense and SensibilityMrs. DoubtfireNixonW.DaveBlade Runner 2049Albert NobbsDangerous LiaisonsGroundhog DayTagThe IrishmanBurningThe Ballad of Buster ScruggsMary Poppins Returns
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV The CrownRussian Doll
Stage True West
Books Population 1280The Killer Inside Me
Ads Ringer Movies listener surveyBud Light