Stallone, nominated a second time 39 years later for the role of Rocky Balboa, had been expected to win his first acting Oscar for the “Rocky” sequel “Creed”.
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Rock’s cryptic Tweets and Instagram photos leading up to the Oscars only heightened the speculation about his opening remarks.
And he wasted no time addressing the elephant in the room with a searing monologue that may well rank up there with the awards’ best: “I’m here at the Academy Awards, otherwise known as the White People’s Choice Awards”. For the second consecutive year, all 20 of the acting nominees were white.
He ended on an upbeat note, referencing criticism by some commentators that female Oscars attendees seem to spend more time discussing their gowns than pertinent topics on the red carpet.
“Is Hollywood racist? You’re damn right Hollywood’s racist”, Rock said.
“Hollywood is sorority racist. We like you, Rhonda, but you’re not Kappa”.
One of those years, Sidney [Poitier] didn’t put out a movie. He confessed that he deliberated over joining the Oscars boycott and bowing out as host, but concluded: “The last thing I need is to lose another job to Kevin Hart”. That includes the hits “The Martian” and “Mad Max: Fury Road”, but, alas, not “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”.
Early in the awards telecast, George Miller’s post-apocalyptic chase film took in six awards in technical categories for editing, makeup, production design, sound editing, sound mixing and costume design.
But it was not all celebration, as a row over the lack of ethnic minority acting hopefuls overshadowed Hollywood’s biggest night.
“We just wanted to show the world who she really was”, he said. This whole year he has been winning the awards in different shows but had never actually won as Oscar.
The 26-year-old Larson beat fellow nominees Cate Blanchett (“Carol”), Jennifer Lawrence (“Joy”), Charlotte Rampling (“45 Years”) and Saoirse Ronan (“Brooklyn”).
The Academy Awards, normally decorous and predictable, were charged with enough politics and uncertainty to rival an election debate.
The actor, 41, was composed but heartfelt in his best actor acceptance speech, in which he thanked mentor Martin Scorsese and urged viewers to combat climate change. “It is happening right now”, DiCaprio said. “It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating.” . “We must take action”. “I do not take tonight for granted”.
“This will be the last night of an all-white Oscars”, Sharpton vowed.
“The nominees restored “#OscarsSoWhite” to prominence and led Spike Lee (an honorary Oscar victor this year) and Jada Pinkett Smith to announce that they would not attend the show.
“We want opportunity. We want black actors to get the same opportunities as white actors”.
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“This year thing’s are going to be a little different…This year in the in memoriam package, it’s just going to be black people that were shot by the cops on their way to the movies”.
