Green Book Wins Best Picture at 91st Academy Awards!

February 24, 2019

Universal Pictures‘ 1960’s-set racial drama Green Book took home three major Academy Awards tonight, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Mahershala Ali) and Best Original Screenplay. This is a huge win for Universal and especially for co-writer/co-producer/director Peter Farrelly, one-half of the comedy duo The Farrelly Brothers with brother Bobby that made their name in comedies like Dumb and Dumber and There’s Something About Mary. It was Ali’s second Best Supporting Actor win after he took home the award in 2017 for Moonlight.

Click here to purchase Green Book on Digital HD!

Click here to pre-order Green Book on Blu-ray!

In the days leading up to the Awards, ComingSoon.net posted a poll asking our readers to predict which of the eight Best Picture nominees would win. Here are their results…

1. Roma (29%, 807 votes)

2. Green Book (15%, 425 votes)

3. Bohemian Rhapsody (15%, 418 votes)

4. Black Panther (14%, 387 votes)

5. A Star is Born (13%, 365)

6. The Favourite (5%, 141 Votes)

7. BlacKkKlansman (5%, 133 votes)

8. Vice (3%, 69 votes)

Not too bad, CS readers! Roma definitely had a big chance of taking home Best Picture, especially after landing Best Director (Alfonso Cuarón), Best Cinematography (Alfonso Cuarón) and Best Foreign Language Film Oscars. But that Netflix movie clearly didn’t have the exposure or mainstream appeal of Green Book, which became a sleeper hit after grossing over $144 million worldwide.

Green Book tells the story of Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen), an Italian-American bouncer with a seventh-grade education, who’s hired to drive Dr. Don Shirley (Ali), a world-class African-American pianist on a concert tour from Manhattan to the Deep South. Together, they must rely on the “Negro Motorist Green Book” to guide them to the few establishments that were then safe for black people. Confronted with racism, danger—as well as unexpected humanity and humor—they are forced to set aside differences to survive and thrive on the journey of a lifetime.

Production companies for Green Book are Participant Media and DreamWorks Pictures. Jim Burke (The Descendants), Charles B. Wessler (The Heartbreak Kid) and Farrelly produce alongside Farrelly’s fellow writers, Nick Vallelonga and Brian Currie. The drama is executive produced by Participant’s Jeff Skoll (The Help) and Jonathan King (Lincoln), along with Cinetic Media’s John Sloss (Boyhood) and Steve Farneth, as well as Kwame Parker (Kill Bill series). Linda Cardellini (The Founder) co-stars.

Green Book is now available on Digital HD, and hits Blu-ray March 12.