The film was nominated for 10 Oscars, winning six, including Best Production Design, Costume Design and Sound Editing. There were few surprises Sunday, but the supporting actor win for Mark Rylance drew gasps.
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Australia’s film industry had an absolute banner night at today’s Oscars ceremony, which became our most successful ever.
The finale award of the night Best Picture was presented by Morgan Freeman to “Spotlight”.
But the wins at times felt secondary to the sharp, unflinching host.
Yet voters in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences chose Open Road Films’ “Spotlight”, which traces the Boston Globe’s 2003 Pulitzer Prize winning investigation of child sex abuse by Catholic priests, for best picture.
And Vice President Joe Biden will introduce a song by Oscar nominee Lady Gaga to push an initiative tackling sexual assault on United States university campuses.
Leonardo DiCaprio has finally won his first Oscar for survival epic “The Revenant”.
For the second year running, all 20 nominees in the main acting categories are white, and an angry social media backlash under the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite has grabbed the awards season headlines. The actor, who has been nominated six times since 1994, took the opportunity to thank those who impacted his career and also speak on the issue of climate change. The journalism drama won the Oscar for the best original screenplay.
Margaret Sixel (R) accepts the award for Best Film Editing for “Mad Max: Fury Road” from Priyanka Chopra at the 88th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California February 28, 2016.
The ambitious 20th Century Fox Pioneer-era tale, shot in sub-zero temperatures, also brought a first Oscar win for its star Leonardo DiCaprio, who got a standing ovation from the A-list Hollywood audience.
“This is insane”, a visibly moved Vikander said, hailing her co-star Eddie Redmayne: “Thank you for being the best acting partner”. Best documentary went to Asif Kapadia’s Amy Winehouse portrait, “Amy“.
The nominees restored the hashtag “OscarsSoWhite” to prominence and led Spike Lee (an honorary Oscar victor this year) and Jada Pinkett Smith to announce that they wouldn’t attend the show. Several top African American filmmakers, Ryan Coogler (“Creed”) and Ava DuVernay (“Selma”) spent the evening not at the Oscars but in Flint, Michigan, raising money for the water-contaminated city.
Beaven has previously won an Oscar for Room With A View. A chorus of academy members challenged the reforms.
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“It’s not enough to listen and agree”, said Boone Isaacs.
