The 2019 Oscars race is heating up and blazing the trail is the controversial film Green Book.
Ahead of the February ceremony, the film, which stars Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen, has been racking up plenty of award wins, the most recent being a Best Picture win at the Producer’s Guild Awards, Variety reports.
But with so much controversy swirling around Green Book, could it really take top honours on Hollywood’s biggest night? All signs are starting to point towards yes.
According to IndieWire, PGA-members “tend to vote for the movie they like best, as opposed to the best-produced movie,” which in simple terms means historical inaccuracies aren’t necessarily a dealbreaker. And since the PGA’s inception in 1990, 21 of the best film winners have gone on to win Best Picture at the Oscars — a success rate of about 72% — making a Green Book win almost inevitable.
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Green Book is loosely based on the story of and friendship between Dr. Don Shirley, a world-class African-American pianist and his driver Tony Lip Vallelonga, a tough, Italian-American bouncer from the Bronx. However, Dr. Shirley's family called the movie a “symphony of lies” in an interview with Shadow & Act. Additionally, Mortenson used the N-word during a press event and Green Book writer (and Vallelonga’s real-life son) Nick Vallelonga recently apologized for resurfaced anti-Muslim tweets, bringing more scrutiny to the film, which some critics have called a “white saviour” story.
Despite all of this the PGA still awarded the film with its top prize, the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures. Other critically-acclaimed films vying for the top Oscar are Roma, Black Panther, Bohemian Rhapsody and Lady Gaga’s breakout hit, A Star Is Born.
Academy Award nominations will be announced Tuesday 22nd January.