Steven Spielberg’s great Cold War drama “Bridge of Spies” will be frozen out, although its Mark Rylance may take the best supporting actor prize.
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The 2016 Academy Awards tomorrow morning (Malaysian time) is set to be an extravagant production (despite being hosted by Chris Rock) with an elaborate set, incredible performances, and an immaculately dressed audience that will dictate water cooler talk in the office for months. This Sunday millions will tune in to see if Leonardo DiCaprio will finally win a Best Actor Oscar for The Revenant. The Academy Awards have been the topic of discussion and Leonardo DiCaprio’s ill fate with the awards has been hottest topic doing the rounds.
25% said they picked Leo over Eddie because it was about time he won the award, while 16% said he was just more talented. All Def Digital, a Russell Simmons venture, is hosting its own awards ceremony in a clear counter-programming snub at the Academy, where they’ll shout out the best of the best in categories like “Best Helpful White Person” and “Best Black Survivor in a Movie”.
Reign, the keynote speaker on Saturday at “The #BlackTwitter Conference” at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, is credited with launching the hashtag in January after last year’s nominees best actor nominees were published.
Also up for the directing Oscar are George Miller for “Mad Max”, Adam McKay for “The Big Short”, Lenny Abrahamson for “Room”, which is about a mother and young son held captive, and Tom McCarthy for “Spotlight”. “If he can fight a bear, surely he can win the fight for the Oscar”, noted a writer rooting for his win this year. After the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, ignited after no actors of color were nominated for the second year in a row, producers have kept the actual program details to a mere trickle. For the first 24 years of the Oscars, the award was given to the studio that distributed the winning film, not the producer. What better way than to reward Sylvester Stallone with a Best Actor in a Supporting Role Oscar for returning to the screen (for the eighth time) as aging former boxer Rocky Balboa in Creed?
“When I say I’m not watching (the Oscars) on Sunday night, it’s for my own self-respect”, Sharpton said.
The caliber of presenters is also high, with Vice President Joe Biden among them.
The big question for the 88th Academy Awards can be reduced to five letters: WWCRD? Based on those findings, doubling their numbers would require inviting at least 375 women and more than 130 people of color each year.
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Rock has been making unannounced appearances at the Comedy Store in West Hollywood in recent weeks to prepare for the show, and he’s hinted that the diversity debate prompted him to completely re-work his opening monologue. Additionally, from 7:30-8:30 p.m. EST, ABC is the only telecast broadcasting live and exclusively from the red carpet.
