Olivia Colman, Green Book spring surprise wins in Oscars 2019

LONDON: British actress Olivia Colman defied the odds to scoop an Oscar on a night when Green Book also sprang a surprise by winning the award for best film.

Colman won best actress for her role in The Favourite and charmed viewers with a funny and tearful speech.

Green Book won three trophies in total, including best picture, which had been expected to go to Netflix’s Roma.

Bohemian Rhapsody won the most awards in total with four while Roma and Black Panther also won three each.

The star, who started out as a sidekick in TV sitcoms like Peep Show, was in shock when her name was called.

Glenn Close had been the firm favourite for her role in The Wife - and now has the unenviable record of seven nominations without a win.

The four awards for Bohemian Rhapsody, the authorised biopic of Queen and Freddie Mercury, included best actor for Rami Malek, who won rave reviews for playing the late singer.

Mahershala Ali won his second best supporting actor Oscar in three years. He won for Moonlight in 2017 and has now won for playing jazz pianist Don Shirley in Green Book.

The film tells the story of Shirley’s tour to the racially segregated US Deep South in the 1960s, but its chances had been thought to have been dented by a series of controversies.

Meanwhile, a tearful Regina King won best supporting actress for If Beale Street Could Talk, from what was her first Oscar nomination, the BBC news reported.