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Live music triumphs at the Oscars 2019

Sunday night’s 91st Academy Awards were a celebration of both live music and cinema, as Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody and music touring road film Green Book were among the evening’s most successful films.

Bohemian Rhapsody, the filmic celebration of Queen, the band’s music and lead singer Freddie Mercury, took home the most awards of the night. Rami Malek’s portrayal of Mercury earned him the Oscar for best actor, following his Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and Bafta wins.

The film, directed by Brian Singer and Dexter Fletcher, also won the awards for film editing, sound editing and sound mixing.

Another big music-focused winner came in the form of Peter Farrelly’s Green Book, a film inspired by the true story of African-American pianist, Dr Don Shirley, and his 1962 tour across the deep south of the United States with driver and de facto road manager, Anthony Vallelonga.

Green Book won the coveted Oscar for best picture, as well as the original screenplay award. Mahershala Ali took home the prize for best supporting actor for his role as pianist Shirley.

 

Live performances on the night came from Queen, as well as from artists featuring in the best original song category.

Fronted by Adam Lambert in the place of the late Mercury, Queen opened the ceremony with live renditions of ‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘We Are the Champions’. Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper performed A Star is Born hit ‘Shallow’, winner of best original song.

Other performances came from Bette Midler, who sang ‘The Place Where Lost Things Go’ from Mary Poppins Returns. Jennifer Hudson performed ‘I’ll Fight’ from RBG, the documentary film about the career of US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Grammy award-winning Kacey Musgraves introduced David Rawlings and Gillian Welch’s live rendition of ‘When a Cowboy Trades his Spurs for Wings’ from Coen brothers western The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.

Elsewhere, Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma won three awards, for best director, cinematography and best foreign language film. It is the fifth time in six years that a Mexican director has won the award.

Black Panther also proved successful, clinching the awards for original score, production design and costume design. The film’s score consists of original songs produced by Kendrick Lamar and compositions by Swedish composer Ludwig Göransson.

See a full list of winners below:

Best Picture
Green Book

Director
Alfonso Cuarón, Roma

Actor
Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody

Actress
Olivia Colman, The Favourite

Supporting Actor
Mahershala Ali, Green Book

Supporting Actress
Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk

Original Screenplay
Green Book

Adapted Screenplay
BlackKklansman

Foreign Language Film
Roma

Animated Feature
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Sound Editing
Bohemian Rhapsody

Visual Effects
First Man

Film Editing
Bohemian Rhapsody

Animated Short
Bao

Live Action Short
Skin

Documentary Short
Period. End of Sentence.

Original Score
Black Panther

Original Song
‘Shallow’ from A Star Is Born

Production Design
Black Panther

Cinematography
Roma

Costume Design
Black Panther

Makeup and Hairstyling
Vice

Documentary Feature
Free Solo

Sound Mixing
Bohemian Rhapsody


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Stars line up for UTA protest rally

Staff at United Talent Agency (UTA)’s LA headquarters will be joined by a galaxy of stars for its protest rally tomorrow (24 February).

In response to president Donald Trump’s attempts to ban immigrants from certain countries to enter the United States, UTA cancelled its traditional pre-Oscars party in favour of a political rally to “express the creative community’s growing concern with anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States.”

As a result, joining UTA chief Jeremy Zimmer and California Lt Gov. Gavin Newsom at the rally will be the likes of Jodie Foster, Michael J. Fox, Reza Aslan, Keegan-Michael Key, Cynthia Erivo, Wilmer Valderrama, DJ Cassidy, David Garibaldi, Sam and Casey Harris of X Ambassadors, International Rescue Committee President & CEO David Miliband, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) executive Hector Villagra and more.

The agency has also pledged to donate US$250,000 to the International Rescue Committee and the ACLU.

UTA named additional attendees as Sasha Alexander, Jai Courtney, Ted Danson, James Franco, Perez Hilton, Juliette Lewis, Minka Kelly, Bill Nye, Emily Ratajkowski, Retta, Seth Rogen, Mary Steenburgen and Aisha Tyler.

The agency has also pledged to donate US$250,000 to the International Rescue Committee and the ACLU. Elsewhere, Paradigm is supporting a 3 April ACLU fundraising concert in Los Angeles, while WME-IMG has created  a national political action committee (PAC), which is a form of lobbying group in the US that raises money to influence elections or legislation.

The rally will be broadcast live this evening (11pm–1am GMT) from UTA’s Facebook page.

 


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