It’s the grand final for movie fans and the 91st Academy Awards offered up a few interesting surprises.  As predicted in last week’s e-newsletter (and also on ABC radio this morning), Green Book stunned many by taking the top prize for best picture.  Many tipped Roma to win but it looks to have fallen foul of the preferential ballot.

The bigger surprise of the night was seeing Olivia Coleman win best actress in a stunning turn of events over “sure thing” Glenn Close who looked on track to break her Oscar duck and win at her 7th attempt.  Close is now the biggest living acting loser in history and it was a clearly surprised Coleman who got to stand on stage and deliver a heartfelt speech.

Every one of the 8 best picture nominees got to take home a statuette in some form.  The critically maligned Bohemian Rhapsody won 4 awards (including best actor for Rami Malek) while Roma, Green Book and Black Panther all won 3.  It was nice to see the love shared around.

I only managed 14 out of 24 in terms of predictions but as always, I went for a few upsets that didn’t all come off.

Oscars gambling

I outlined my Oscars bets last week and I was an excited as anyone to see Green Book take the prize for best picture since I wagered $100 on the film at $8.50 back in November.  That leaves me in the black for the 4th straight year and here’s my latest tally…

1996 – profit of $750 – won on Susan Sarandon

1997 – profit of $300 (cumulative profit $1,050) – won on Frances McDormand

1998 – loss of $250 (cumulative profit $800)

1999 – loss of $250 (cumulative profit $550)

2000 – profit of $620 (cumulative profit $1,170) – won on Kevin Spacey and Michael Caine

2001 – loss of $190 (cumulative profit $980) – won on director Steven Soderbergh

2002 – profit of $480 (cumulative profit $1,460) – won on Halle Berry

2003 – profit of $275 (cumulative profit $1,735) – won on Catherine Zeta-Jones and Adrian Brody

2004 – profit of $150 (cumulative profit $1,875) – won on Sean Penn

2005 – profit of $214 (cumulative profit $2,089) – won on Hilary Swank

2006 – profit of $350 (cumulative profit $2,439) – won on Reese Witherspoon

2007 – profit of $1,463 (cumulative profit $3,912) – won on Eddie Murphy at Globes, Alan Arkin & West Bank Story at Oscars

2008 – profit of $268 (cumulative profit of $4,280) – won on Tilda Swinton and the Coen brothers

2009 – profit of $253 (cumulative profit of $4,533) – won on Mickey Rourke & Kate Winslet at Globes, Kate Winslet at Oscars

2010 – loss of $830 (cumulative profit of $3,703)

2011 – profit of $30 (cumulative profit of $3,733) – won on Social Network at Globes, Tom Hooper & King’s Speech at Oscars

2012 – loss of $640 (cumulative profit of $3,093) – won on Jean Dujardin at Oscars

2013 – loss of $850 (cumulative profit of $2,243) – won on Ang Lee at Oscars

2014 – loss of $72 (cumulative profit of $2,171) – won on Matthew McConaughey at Globes and Oscars

2015 – loss of $50 (cumulative profit of $2,121) – won on Eddie Redmayne at Oscars

2016 – profit of $1,325 (cumulative profit of $3,446) – won on Mark Rylance and Spotlight at Oscars

2017 – profit of $870 (cumulative profit of $4,316) – won on Damien Chazelle, Casey Affleck, Emma Stone and Mahershala Ali at Oscars

2018 – profit of $330 (cumulative profit of $4,646) – won on Frances McDormand and Three Billboards at Globes and Frances McDormand at Oscars

2019 – profit of $1,022 (cumulative profit of $5,668) – won on Rami Malek and Green Book at Globes and Green Book at Oscars

It’s been a good run!

Oscars competition

Congratulations to Sarah Case who won my 19th Annual Pick the Oscars competition.  It was a tough year and she finished with 4 out of 6 and a fairly close answer when it came to the tie-breaker question.  51-year-old Julia Roberts presented the best picture Oscar and Sarah guessed the age of 50.  An honourable mention goes to Katie Read who also managed 4 out of 6.  The toughest category to get right this year was Green Book.

So that wraps up another Oscars.  It clocked in at a nice running time and while there were a few odd presenter pairings and some unnecessarily long speeches, the telecast was solid.  Until next year!