After the three men accepted the prize, Mr. Jackson and Ms. Larson stepped back to the microphone to open the adapted screenplay envelope. A euphoric Mr. Jackson shouted Mr. Lee’s name for “BlacKkKlansman,” and the director jumped into his buddy’s arms when he got to the stage.
It was Mr. Lee’s first Oscar win. He shared the prize with his fellow writers Kevin Willmott, who is black, and Charlie Wachtel and David Rabinowitz, who are both white.
Speaking to reporters backstage after the ceremony, Mr. Lee at first declined to comment on his film’s losing best picture to “Green Book.” Then he compared “Green Book” to “Driving Miss Daisy,” the racial reconciliation fantasy that won for best picture in 1990, when Mr. Lee’s groundbreaking “Do the Right Thing” was not even nominated.
“I’m snakebit,” he said. “I mean, every time somebody is driving somebody, I lose.”
Mr. Lee also compared the best-picture win by “Green Book” to his beloved New York Knicks’ losing a close game.
“I thought I was courtside at the Garden, and the ref made a bad call,” he said.
Mr. Lee added, however, that the academy was changing, noting the organization’s aggressive efforts to diversify its membership after the #OscarsSoWhite outcries of 2015 and 2016. At least “BlacKkKlansman” was nominated this time, he said, so it wasn’t a complete example of history’s repeating itself.
“They opened up the academy to make the academy look more like America,” Mr. Lee said. “So that’s why three black women, if I’m counting correctly, won Oscars.” He was correct: Regina King won the supporting-actress award for “If Beale Street Could Talk,” while two “Black Panther” department heads, Hannah Beachler (production design) and Ruth E. Carter (costumes), became the first African-Americans to receive Oscars in their categories.
Mr. Willmott, who got his start in Hollywood two decades ago, summed up both the euphoria and disappointment.
“Tonight is a huge step forward, I think, in many different ways,” he said. “It’s still frustrating at times.”
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