'Green Book' Wins Best Picture Oscar Despite Controversy

“Green Book” took home the Best Picture Oscar on Sunday night. 

“The whole story is about love,” director Peter Farrelly said while accepting the award. “It’s about loving each other despite our differences and finding out the truth about who we are. We’re the same people.”

The film, starring Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali , was inspired by a true story of a white nightclub bouncer Tony “Lip” Vallelonga (Mortensen) protecting a black concert pianist Don Shirley (Ali) in the deep South in the 1960s. 

The film had come under criticism for its careless and historically inaccurate approach to racism in the Jim Crow era. Additionally, Shirley’s family took issue with several aspects of the movie, calling the script a “symphony of lies .” The family said that no one from the film had reached out to them during production.

Filmmaker Spike Lee was “visibly angry” with “Green Book’s” win, and was reportedly “waving his arms in disgust and appearing to try to storm out of the Dolby Theatre before he was stopped at the doors,” according to AP reporter Andrew Dalton.

People on Twitter were also very unhappy with the academy’s pick for Best Picture, especially since “Roma” and “Black Panther” were widely believed to be the top choices.