The crowd rose in a standing ovation as Spike Lee won the best adapted screenplay gong for his white supremacist drama BlacKkKlansman
THE Oscars made history this year as a record seven black artists took home gongs in a ceremony awash with wins for diversity.
Regina King and Mahershala Ali won the two supporting actor categories for If Beale Street Could Talk and Green Book, respectively.
And writer-director Spike Lee’s win for best adapted screenplay for his white supremacist drama BlacKkKlansman gave the ceremony a signature moment.
The crowd rose in a standing ovation, Lee leapt into the arms of presenter Samuel L. Jackson and even the backstage press room burst into applause.
Lee, whose film includes footage of President Donald Trump following the violent white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, spoke about the upcoming election.
"The 2020 election is around the corner. Let's all mobilize. Let's be on the right side of history," said Lee, who was given an honorary Oscar in 2015.
"Let's do the right thing! You knew I had to get that in there."
His BlackKklansman co-writers include another African American winner, Kevin Willmott.
Black Panther costume designer Ruth Carter and production designer Hannah Beachler became the first black winners in their categories.
"It just means that we've opened the door," Carter said backstage. "Finally, the door is wide open."
Director Peter Ramsey also took home a gong after Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was named Best Animated Feature.
Two years after winning for his role in Moonlight, Mahershala Ali won again for his supporting performance in the interracial road-trip drama Green Book a role many said was really a lead.
Ali is the second black actor to win two Oscars following Denzel Washington, who won for Glory and Training Day.
Ali dedicated the award to his grandmother.
Green Book, a film hailed by some as a throwback and criticised by others as retrograde, was also crowned best picture at the Academy Awards.
The historic year stands in stark contrast to the #OscarsSoWhite controversy in 2015.
It also marks a leap from the previous record for black Oscar winners in 2016, when five black artists won.
Bohemian Rhapsody, which kicked off the ceremony with a performance by Queen, won four awards despite pans from many critics and sexual assault allegations against its director, Bryan Singer.
Its star, Rami Malek, won best actor for his full-bodied performance and the film was honoured for editing, sound mixing and sound editing.
"We made a film about a gay man, an immigrant who lived his life unapologetically himself," said Malek.
"We're longing for stories like this. I am the son of immigrants from Egypt. I'm a first-generation American, and part of my story is being written right now."
Both Maya Rudolph and Spanish actor Javier Bardem took aim at Donald Trump’s border wall with Mexico in a ceremony that saw big wins for diversity.
Although the US President’s name was not spoken, the recognition given to immigrants and regular shout-outs to Mexico implied a strong anti-Trump sentiment.
Rudolph kicked things off noting of this year’s awards ceremony: “There is no host, there won’t be a Popular Movie category – and Mexico is not paying for the wall.”
The Bridesmaids actress was not the only star to make a dig at the controversial border wall that Trump promised during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Spanish actor Javier Bardem also made a subtle reference while introducing the nominees for best foreign language film.
Speaking in his native tongue, he said: "There are no borders or walls that stop ingenuity and talent.
“In each region there are stories that move us and tonight we celebrate the excellence and importance of the language of different countries."
There was a huge cheer when Mexican film Roma was announced as the winner in that category.
The black-and-white Netflix film, directed and written by Alfonso Cuaron, marked Mexico's first Oscar victory in the category.
Cuaron also won for best director and used his moment in the spotlight to recognise immigrants.
In his acceptance speech, Cuaron thanked the stars Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira, saying “they are the film”.
He then continued to thank the Academy “for recognising a film centred around an immigrant woman – one of the 70m people around the world without workers’ rights”.
He described Roma as a film that brings to the fore the sort of character more often relegated to the background in films, “at a time when we are being encouraged to look away”.
The film was inspired by Cuaron's childhood and a domestic worker who helped raise him. It features a largely unknown or amateur cast.
The title is taken from the Mexico City Colonia Roma neighborhood where Cuaron grew up.
"Roma" stars Yalitza Aparicio as a domestic worker named Cleo who becomes pregnant as she cares for a family with four children as the parents are splitting up.
Political turmoil in Mexico serves as a backdrop, with Cleo witnessing a 1971 massacre of protesters that marked the beginning of a "dirty war" against dissenters.
The film depicts her character speaking in the indigenous language of Mixtec.
Earlier on the red carpet, Bardem said that Roma sends the message that “the cinema includes and does not exclude".
"Undoubtedly the message that is being sent today with 'Roma' with so many nominations and the possibility of winning many of them and important is how the cinema unifies, beyond sexual orientation, the country where you are born, the language you speak, the colour of your skin,” he said, according to reports.
Introducing a clip of Roma, Trump critic Jose Andres described it as a “this beautiful intimate film, one that gives voice to the voiceless, reminds us of understanding and compassion we all owe to the invisible people in our lives, immigrants and women, who move humanity forward.”
