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The Oscars are over for another year, with the 88th Awards taking place today at the Dolby Theatre. It was one of the weirdest (and longest) ceremonies in recent years. The order of the presentation this year was meant to represent the journey through a film’s production, but that made sense for a mere two awards, and the ceremony was broken up by satirical clips, bizarre interludes, a troupe of girl scouts selling cookies to the audience, and live performances of the three nominated songs. Chris Rock did a stellar job as host, tackling the criticism about this year’s lack of diversity head on from his opening monologue, and crossing the line on several other occasions. Many of the presenters and winners took the opportunity to voice their concerns about diversity, equal opportunity, climate change and sexual assault awareness.
Mad Max: Fury Road led the way with six wins, cleaning up the technical categories including Best Editing and Best Production Design. I am sure everybody wondered if this would also be George Miller’s day too. The Revenant claimed three – including Best Director for Alejandro G. Inarritu in addition to Leonardo DiCaprio (Best Actor) and Emmanuel Lubezki (Best Cinematography), who were all-but sure things. Brie Larson claimed a win for Room (Best Actress), Mark Rylance landed Best Supporting Actor for Bridge of Spies and Alicia Vikander was deemed the Best Supporting Actress for The Danish Girl. The Big Short won Best Adapted Screenplay and Ennio Morricone won his very first Oscar, at age 87, for The Hateful Eight. As many predicted Inside Out, Amy and Son of Saul were honoured for Best Animated, Documentary and Foreign Language Films respectively.
But, it was Spotlight that won the first and last awards – Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture – coming through the preferential ballot on top to become one of only a handful of films to win Best Picture with only one other victory. The film’s tremendous ensemble, its important and topical subject, and the fact that it is almost universally admired contributed.
Some personal highlights from the ceremony and the complete list of winners can be found after the jump:
- Mark Rylance’s speech – what a guy!
- Jacob Tremblay and Abraham Attah announcing the winners of Best Live Action Short. Rock brings them platforms to stand on and Tremblay, the cutest, most confident little kid says: “Thanks Chris, I loved you in Madagascar”.
- After Mark Mangini and David White won Best Sound Editing for Fury Road and acted like awestruck Aussie hooligans on stage Chris Evans, before announcing the next winner says, looking amused, “Alright! Why not?”
- Leo’s speech – it has been a long time coming, but what a well-articulated, compelling and inspiring acceptance it was.
- Margaret Sixel winning Best Editing for Fury Road. Was there a more deserved winner on the night?
- Ex Machina winning Best Visual Effects over The Force Awakens. Talk about a David v. Goliath tale.
- The ‘Black History Month Minute: Oscars Edition’. Amazing.
- The Danish Girl spoof with Tracy Morgan.
- Louis C.K’s introduction to Best Documentary: Short Subject.
BEST PICTURE
“Spotlight”
ACTOR
Leonardo DiCaprio, “The Revenant”
ACTRESS
Brie Larson, “Room”
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Mark Rylance, “Bridge of Spies”
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Alicia Vikander, “The Danish Girl”
DIRECTOR
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, “The Revenant”
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
“The Big Short,” Charles Randolph and Adam McKay
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
“Spotlight,” Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
“Amy”
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
“Son of Saul”
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
“Inside Out”
CINEMATOGRAPHY
“The Revenant,” Emmanuel Lubezki
COSTUME DESIGN
“Mad Max: Fury Road,” Jenny Beavan
FILM EDITING
“Mad Max: Fury Road,” Margaret Sixel
MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
“Mad Max: Fury Road,” Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega and Damian Martin
ORIGINAL SCORE
“The Hateful Eight,” Ennio Morricone
ORIGINAL SONG
“Writing’s on the Wall”from “Spectre,” music and lyrics by Jimmy Napes and Sam Smith
PRODUCTION DESIGN
“Mad Max: Fury Road,” Colin Gibson (production design); Lisa Thompson (set decoration)
SOUND EDITING
“Mad Max: Fury Road,” Mark Mangini and David White
SOUND MIXING
“Mad Max: Fury Road,” Chris Jenkins, Gregg Rudloff and Ben Osmo
VISUAL EFFECTS
“Ex Machina,” Andrew Whitehurst, Paul Norris, Mark Ardington and Sara Bennett
ANIMATED SHORT FILM
“Bear Story”
DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
“A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness”
LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
“Stutterer”