Spike Lee's prophetic Oscars warning: 'Black Twitter is going to be on fire'

The actor was visibly angry as the film won the evening's top prize

Spike Lee predicted the fallout from Green Book's Best Picture Oscar win on the red carpet ahead of the ceremony.

The BlacKkKlansman director was visibly angry after learning that the Peter Farrelly-directed comedy drama had won Best Picture at this year’s Oscars, later saying that “the ref made a bad call”.

The director, whose film was nominated in the same category, waved his hands in disgust and seemingly tried to walk out of the Dolby Theatre.

Before the ceremony began, he told CNN: "All you know is, if things don't work out a certain way, black Twitter's going to be on fire."

Sure enough, after Julia Roberts announced that Green Book had beaten films including Black Panther, Roma and The Favourite, social media was awash with people expressing their disbelief.

One user who questioned the film's win was journalist Jemele Hill.

Green Book, which stars Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali, has been widely criticised for falling foul to the “white saviour” trope. Its victory was a shock with many believing Netflix drama Roma would win the main prize.

The film also won Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor for Ali, who won the same award in 2017 for Moonlight.

Earlier in the evening, Lee won Best Adapted Screenplay for BlacKkKlansman.

Elsewhere, The Favourite star Olivia Colman won Best Actress shortly after Rami Malek took home Best Actor for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury in Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. Mahershala Ali won Best Supporting Actor for Green Book, while Regina King won Best Supporting Actress for her performance in If Beale Street Could Talk. 

The films vying for success at this year’s ceremony included Alfonso Cuarón's Netflix drama Roma, the Bradley Cooper-Lady Gaga musical A Star is Born and BlacKkKlansman. The former led with 10 alongside Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite, with Adam McKay’s political satire Vice following close behind with eight.

You can find a full list of winners here.