The film – which had earlier won prizes for its screenplay and for supporting actor Mahershala Ali – defeated bookies’ favourite Roma as it scooped the night’s most prestigious honour. But its route to the top has been a rocky one: many have taken issue with its so-called “whitesplained” handling of race; saying that it’s a film about racism told from a white person’s perspective. Many have now compared its Best Picture win to that of Crash back in 2005.
That ensemble drama famously beat runaway favourite Brokeback Mountain despite ropey reviews.
“GREEN BOOK might be the worst best picture winner in the history of the academy,” raged one viewer.
Another said: “the worst part of this ‘green book’ garbage is it was such a good year for movies that talked about race and race relations in really interesting and complicated ways: blindspotting, sorry to bother u, beale street, widows, et al.”
“Green Book is the worst film to ever win Best Picture. Period. Good night. #Oscars,” someone else complained.
Yet another person tweeted: “I can’t believe Green Book won Best Picture. That’s gotta be one of the worst #Oscars wins ever!
“A win chalked up to pandering and marketing. BlackKklansman and Roma both outclass it in every way…and Peter Farrelly has the audacity to credit Viggo for the whole endeavor? Yikes.”
“the worst part about Green Book winning is the plethora of f**king amazing movies The Academy completely ignored,” said one person as the tweets continued.
It wasn’t all bad news at the Oscars, though: there was heartbreak for Glenn Close as she lost Best Actress, but victor Olivia Colman gave a hugely well-received acceptance speech.
Bohemian Rhapsody won an impressive four prizes: for Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Editing and Actor.
Rami Malek’s emotional acceptance speech thanked his late father, girlfriend Lucy Boynton and the members of Queen.
Roma didn’t go home empty handed: Alfonso Cuaron won Director and Cinematography, and it also scooped Best Foreign Language Film.
And Black Panther won Marvel Studios its first ever Oscars: the superhero caper won three overall.
See all the winners here.