The 91st Academy Awards were surrounded in controversy before the ceremony even began. Decisions to add new categories, air existing categories during commercial breaks, and forgo the tradition of a host have each hyped up this year’s Oscars more than any in recent memory.

The night itself started off with relatively few bumps. The Academy had previously announced that, per tradition, a plethora of celebrity presenters would introduce each category and this year would be no different, except their task now was to pick up the slack of the host’s duties.

Queen, featuring Adam Lambert, started the night off by celebrating the surprising success of “Bohemian Rhapsody” which had five nominations. After their musical medley, SNL alums Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Maya Rudolph presented the first category with expected humor and a few jokes in particular aimed at the lack of a monologue this year. They had great chemistry and any audience hesitance at the unusual situation seemed to evaporate instantly.

The category they presented, Best Actress in a Supporting Role, went, as I predicted, to Regina King for, If Beale Street Could Talk. In fact, of the four acting categories, three of them went to the predicted front runners. Mahershala Ali waltzed his way onto the stage to accept for best supporting actor for Green Book (making him the winner of this prize two out of the last three years) and Rami Malek unsurprisingly took home the top prize for leading actor sealing off Bohemian Rhapsody’s fourth and final win of the night.

In my opinion, Malek had one of the most pleasing speeches of the night. Despite winning practically every award he was up for this season, he appeared humbled by the golden statue he was presented with. He thanked his family, his cast and crew, and the band Queen itself for all they had helped him with. However, most memorably, at the end, Malek spoke about how the success of the movie proved that the world was in need of stories of the underdog, tying himself to Freddie Mercury and how they both are immigrants and stand out from the crowd.

The fourth acting prize, Best Leading Actress, was where many betters lost their money. Almost everyone was anticipating seven-time nominee Glenn Close to finally win for the first time. She, along with the other three winners, had taken home most of the other similar awards this season. However, Olivia Colman from The Favourite won for her portrayal as Queen Anne.

The surprise on her face was genuine, and her acceptance speech was the most endearing of the night. Colman seemed so taken aback and even praised Close in her speech, waving any grudges the viewers might harbor against her. It was cheeky. It was flustered. It was delightfully British. If you only have time to watch one speech, this is the one I’d advise you choose.

The biggest award of the night, Best Picture, was perhaps the second biggest surprise. While there was no clear front runner, Roma, BlackkKlansman, or even The Favorite was anticipated to win before the actual winner Green Book. Many were in a state of disbelief, myself included. However, due to the way voting for the academy works, Green Book likely received many 3rd and 4th place votes across the board amongst a varying group of 1st and 2nd place winners, allowing it to advance to the top overall.

Both of these surprise winners were, in the grand scheme of things, not that surprising at all. Every year, there are dark horse winners that take the viewers by surprise, yet they continually happen on a regular basis year after year. So, the unpredictableness of Sunday’s show was not too alarming after all.

The show was, as a whole, entertaining and satisfied the needs of award show fanatics. The 91st Academy Awards were a solid way to end the 2018 award season.