In a surprise win, Peter Farrelly's biographical comedy-drama "Green Book", received the Best Picture honour at the 91st Academy Awards upstaging award season favourite "Roma".
The film, featuring Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali, was based on the real-life story of Dr Don Shirley, an African-American jazz pianist and composer, who embarks on a cross-country tour that necessitates hiring a white driver Tony Vallelonga(Mortensen) to assist him as a bodyguard while he travels through America's racially-divided Southern states.
"Green Book" stopped "Roma", Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron's black-and-white love letter to his childhood, from making a clean sweep at the Oscars where it had already won Best Cinematography, Best Director and Best Foreign Language Film trophies.
Other films nominated in the category were "Black Panther", "Vice", "BlacKkKlansman", "Bohemian Rhapsody", "The Favourite" and "A Star Is Born".
Hollywood star Julia Roberts presented the top honour of the ceremony to the cast and crew of the film including director Farrelly, actors Mortensen, Ali and Linda Cardillini.
"The whole story is about love. This is about loving each other despite our differences and finding out about the truth of who we are, we are the same people," Farrelly said while accepting the award.
He gave a shout out to Mortensen, saying, "We have no movie (without you). All these awards are because of Viggo and Mahershala and Linda but it all started with Viggo. I give you this my friend."
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