Oscars Live Updates: Lady Gaga and Spike Lee Win Academy Awards

The latest awards

“Shallow,” the duet between Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper that serves as the centerpiece of “A Star Is Born,” won best song. The film has come up short during the awards season, but “Shallow” has proved irresistible to most voters.

Ludwig Goransson won best score for “Black Panther,” the Marvel blockbuster directed by Ryan Coogler. Goransson, who is Swedish, previously worked with Coogler on “Fruitvale Station.”

Spike Lee takes the stage

Spike Lee and his three fellow “BlacKkKlansman” writers won best adapted screenplay for their story about an African-American police officer who infiltrates the Ku Klux Klan with the help of a Jewish surrogate. It was Lee’s first competitive Oscar. He started his speech with an expletive and praised his family before pivoting into anti-Trump politics by sounding a battle cry for the coming presidential election.

“Let’s all mobilize,” Lee shouted. “Make the moral choice between love versus hate. Let’s do the right thing!”

“Green Book” won best original screenplay. It was written by Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie and Peter Farrelly. Vallelonga, who wrote the book on which the film was based, thanked his parents. Farrelly thanked his cast, agents, publicists, production executives, family and the entire state of Rhode Island.

Queen opens the show

The first hostless Academy Awards in 30 years took its lead from the Grammys, opening with a rowdy rendition of “We Will Rock You” by Queen, the supergroup chronicled in the blockbuster best-picture nominee “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

“Welcome to the Oscars!” shouted Adam Lambert, who has taken over for Freddie Mercury as Queen’s frontman in recent years, as a waterfall of sparks fell to the Dolby Theater stage.

Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph then took the stage and — while explaining they were not the hosts — gave a mini-performance that drew relaxed laughter from the audience and seemed to make the case that the three women should be hired to co-host next year, pronto. In a quick segue, they began presenting the Oscar for best supporting actress at the show’s eight-minute mark. Last year, it took the show 18 minutes just to get through Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue.

Regina King won the trophy for the lyrical art film “If Beale Street Could Talk.”

“I’m an example of what it looks like when support and love is poured into someone,” King said, composing herself after breaking into tears.

Historic wins for ‘Black Panther’

Two subsequent awards also found African-American women called to the stage. Ruth E. Carter won best costume design for her Afro-futuristic “Black Panther” attire. Carter, a three-time nominee (“Amistad,” “Malcolm X”), was the first African-American winner in the category. Hannah Beachler made history herself as the first African-American to win in the production design category, also for her work (with Jay Hart) on “Black Panther.”

“When you think it’s impossible, just remember to say this,” Beachler said, reading off her phone during an emotional speech. “I did my best, and my best is good enough.”

Another early trophy went to Cuarón, who won the Oscar for cinematography for “Roma,” making him the first director to win for shooting his own film. “Roma” also won best foreign-language film.

“Free Solo,” about a daring rock climber, took the prize for documentary feature.

“Thank you National Geographic for believing in us, and for hiring women and people of color,” said one of its directors, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had pressed the producers of this year’s ceremony to dramatically reduce the running time. Last year, the Oscars stretched to almost four hours — beyond the endurance of viewers, with ratings dropping to a record low. In one abandoned plan, the academy wanted to award four Oscars, including hair and makeup, during the commercial breaks, with the winning moments edited and aired later in the broadcast.

Perhaps as a protest, intentional or not, the three winners for hair and makeup, honored for their work on “Vice,” took their time at the microphone. In an awkward and halting set of thank yous, they fumbled with a piece of paper containing names and went way over their allotted 90-second time. Producers started the playoff music and ultimately cut sound to the microphone.

The academy spreads the love around

For much of the first half of the ceremony, the Oscars played out like the more populist and less prestigious Golden Globes — veering in multiple directions as voters sprinkled their attention among a half-dozen pictures, with no film walking away with a commanding sweep.

“Bohemian Rhapsody” picked up Oscars for sound editing and sound mixing. John Ottman also won the Oscar for editing “Bohemian Rhapsody.” None of the winners thanked Bryan Singer, who was fired as the film’s director because of erratic behavior on the set and has been dogged by sexual misconduct allegations.

“Green Book” got on the board with a supporting actor victory by Mahershala Ali, who plays an erudite musician in the film who hires an unrefined white man as his chauffeur and body guard. It was Ali’s second supporting actor win in two years. (He previously won in 2017 for his role in “Moonlight.”) Ali became the second African-American man to win two Oscars for acting, joining Denzel Washington

“I want to dedicate this to my grandmother, who has been in my ear my entire life telling me that if at first I don’t succeed, try, try again,” Ali said from the stage.

“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” won best animated feature for Sony Pictures, as expected. The win was a blow to Disney and its Pixar studio, which have dominated the category since its creation in 2001 and had two nominees this year, “Incredibles 2” and “Ralph Breaks the Internet.”

Peter Ramsey, one of the three-credited “Spider-Verse” directors, spoke about the importance of inclusion in animated films. “We see you, we’re powerful,” he said to fans who identified with the diverse characters in the film.

Pixar did not leave empty handed. The studio’s “Bao,” conceived and directed by Domee Shi, won the Oscar for best animated short. Even the space-race thriller “First Man” picked up an award, for visual effects.

All eyes on Netflix

In many ways, this year’s best picture race has become a referendum on Netflix, which has never won.

The streaming giant’s new in-house campaigner, Lisa Taback, mounted a colossal get-out-the-vote push for “Roma,” turning off some academy members. Other voters do not believe that Netflix movies should be eligible for Oscars in the first place — that “Roma” should be considered a made-for-television movie because the internet has been its primary home. Netflix offered theaters only a three-week period of exclusivity to show the film (three months is standard), resulting in a boycott by multiplex chains. “Roma” was ultimately booked into about 250 smaller theaters in the United States, but Netflix has refused to disclose ticket sales.

Not everyone in Hollywood sees Netflix as the enemy — certainly not when the company has revved up its moviemaking operation, countering a downturn at traditional studios like 20th Century Fox. Going forward, Netflix intends to release roughly 90 films annually, including documentaries. Maybe specialty films like “Roma” don’t need a wide theatrical release? The cultural tide has clearly swung toward streaming.

“Roma,” with 10 overall nominations, was not the only Netflix film vying for Oscars. “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” from the writer-directors Joel and Ethan Coen, is competing in the adapted screenplay, song and costume design categories.