Green Book’ Winning Best Picture Was a Huge Step Back for the Academy.

The 91st Academy Awards, held on February 24, 2019, had the distinction of being the first ceremony without a dedicated host in 30 years, and the peculiarity of the telecast was matched by its Best Picture outcome, which saw

Green Book defeating audience favorites like A Star is Born, Black Panther, and the prohibitive favorite, Roma. The film won two additional Oscars, including Best Original Screenplay for Nick Vallelonga, the real-life son of the film’s protagonist, Tony “Lip” Vallelonga, played by Viggo Mortensen in the movie, and Best Supporting Actor for Mahershala Ali for his performance as Don Shirley, winning his second statuette in three years.

Green Book’s win felt like a retrograde decision by the Academy, which, two years prior, broke new ground by handing Best Picture to Moonlight, a nuanced portrait of race and identity starring an all-Black cast and directed by a Black filmmaker. The award felt especially ironic considering that, earlier in the ceremony, Spike Lee (who later quipped that Green Book “wasn’t my cup of tea”) won his long-overdue first Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for BlacKkKlansman. Before the ceremony, the film, as is customary during awards season, faced a slew of controversies, relating to the lack of participation from the Shirley family, a misleading portrait of Tony Lip and Shirley’s relationship, and unearthed Islamophobic tweets by Nick Vallelonga.