On Sunday night, February 28 the Oscars 88th Academy Awards started as always with Ryan Seacrest on the Red Carpet welcoming movie stars, directors, and the biggest names in the film industry.
The show was hosted by comedian/actor Chris Rock and it was set up to honor the best films and productions of the year. After a long-awaited monolog from Rock regarding the #OscarsSoWhite campaign to boycott the Oscars as there were no African-American nominees, the prize ceremony kicked off with surprising outcomes.
The film about the Boston Globe’s investigation into priest abuse Spotlight won the prize for best picture and it was considered as the surprise of the night. Now, after 4 years of having to clap other actors winning the Oscar, the fifth time was the charm for Leonardo DiCaprio who won an Oscar for best actor. DiCaprio was the people’s favorite to win for lead actor in the movie The Revenant and honestly, it was about time for Leo to take home a golden statue.
After the announcement for DiCaprio’s win, he received a massive standing ovation as he delivered an eloquent speech where he addressed his stand against environmental degradation. The director of The Revenant, Alejandro G. Iñarritu won his second Oscar for best film director in a row and celebrated alongside Leonardo. The Mexican filmmaker Alejandro Iñarritu is also the first director to win two Oscars in a row for Best Director since 1951.
Strong Hispanic presence in the 88th Academy Awards
Iñarritu’s film was one of the most acclaimed motion pictures in the Academy Awards as it came into the night with 12 nominations and won three. However, the most awarded film of the night was without a doubt Mad Max: Fury Road winning a total of six golden statuettes from 10 categories. It’s worth mentioning that Mad Max also won the bragging rights for the year as the movie not only won 6 out of 10 prizes but also included Best Editing and Best Costume Design.
Emmanuel Lubezki also surprised the crowd as he took home his third Oscar in a row for Best Cinematographer with the movie The Revenant. This marks and unprecedented achievement in the Academy Awards history as Lubezki is the first cinematographer to win the golden statue three times in a row.
Oscars So White
Overall, the night was a bit confusing and off tone as Chris Rock addressed the elephant in the room constantly. This year’s Oscar received much criticizing after celebrities such as Will Smith and Wesley Snipes condemned the show for not having a single black nominee.
Chris Rock called Hollywood out on its racism and, as a genius comedian; Rock seized every chance he got to make a witty commentary on the matter. On the opening monolog, host Chris Rock immediately addressed the subject of race and jokingly said the reason black people complain about the Oscars is because they’ve moved from bigger struggles.
The winners of Sunday’s 88th Academy Awards were:
The movie Spotlight took home the prize for Best Picture as well as Best Writing and Original Screenplay from heavily favored nominees such as The Revenant and Mad Max.
The Revenant won three golden statues and, considering it gave Leonardo DiCaprio his first Oscar ever, it was pretty much the center of attention on Sunday night. The Revenant also attributed a back-to-back Oscar win for Best Director to Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu with his second prize in a row. And also helped Emmanuel Lubezki break the record for Best Cinematography as he won his third Oscar in a row in this category.
Mad Max: Fury Road was on a rampage on Sunday night as it took home 6 out of 10 prizes including Best Editing, Best Costume Design, Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Production Design, Best Sound Editing and Sound Mixing.
Brie Larson also won the Oscar for Best Actress in the movie Room amongst celebrities such as Cate Blanchett for the movie Carol and Jennifer Lawrence in the film Joy.
Mark Rylance took the award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in Bridge of Spies as well as Alicia Vikander who won Best Supporting Actress in the film The Danish Girl.
The Big Short won Best Writing and Adapted Screenplay amongst movies like Carol, Room, and The Martian. And the animated movie from Pixar, Inside Out won Best Animated Feature Film. The award for Best Visual Effects was given to the science fiction movie Ex Machina.
Source: NBC News