Did a movie about a gay black guy win over a movie about 2 good looking young white people singing about how awesome Hollywood is because the Academy wanted to make a statement in the first year of the 1000 year Trumpenreich? I don't know, maybe. I haven't seen either one of them and don't plan to because neither appeal to me, Hell or High Water and Hacksaw Ridge were the only 2 nominees I've seen this year actually, the lowest number in a long time.
But politics generally rules the Oscars in one way or another. If there is one thing I agree with George Lucas on its that the Oscars are politics(though he only believes that because the prequels and Red Tails were dog shit and is bitter). Remember when a romantic comedy beat Spielberg's genre redefining masterpiece Saving Private Ryan that all war movies are still measured against to this day? Thats because at the time Spielberg already won recently for Schindler's List. FOTR and TTT didn't win because they felt like giving it to ROTK would be good enough. The Artist won because the Academy wanted to tell people how cool black and white silent films once were even though film as an art form has dramatically evolved(for the better) since the 20s. I don't like using the word pretentious very often but The Artist was definitely a pretentious win, you couldn't pay me to sit through a silent black and white film. The Hurt Locker won because it was a weak year. The Dark Knight didn't win because the Academy wasn't comfortable with the idea of giving BP to a CBM about a guy dressing up as a bat.