There may not have been much diversity in the 88th Academy Awards, but there were plenty of jokes about it. Host Chris Rock excoriated the Academy right from the opening bell and continued to rip them throughout the night with startling regularity. It was one way to break up a show that mostly fell into line with expectations, which should make a lot of moviegoers happy.
It was a lovely day indeed for George Miller's apocalyptic Mad Max: Fury Road, which had racked up six wins before the show had passed the 10 o'clock hour. While they were all in technical categories, such as Best Sound, Best Film Editing, and Production Design, it was enough to give the film enough momentum that the bigger categories became more interesting. Ultimately it couldn't top Tom McCarthy's journalism drama, Spotlight, which came away with Best Picture. That completes McCarthy's admirable comeback after The Cobbler, which ended up on a lot of "Worsts" lists.
And of course, it finally happened. Leonardo DiCaprio finally got his first Oscar, winning for The Revenant, which also earned Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu his second Best Director victory in a row. DiCaprio was one of the final winners of the night, and to mark the occasion he was the only one allowed an extended speech (mostly about climate change) and not get run off by exit music. If they would have interrupted him there might have been a riot.
There was one little twist in the acting categories and that veteran actor Mark Rylance winning Best Supporting Actor for Bridge of Spies. He defeated the odds-on sentimental favorite, Sylvester Stallone, who had been the frontrunner to win for his work on Creed. The rest of the awards went as expected with Alicia Vikander with a Best Supporting Actress win for The Danish Girl, and Brie Larson's powerful performance in Room earning her Best Actress in a very competitive field.
Full list of winners is below, followed by Dicaprio's acceptance speech:
- Best Picture – Spotlight
- Best Actress – Brie Larson, Room
- Best Actor – Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
- Directing – Alejandro G. Iñárritu, The Revenant
- Best Supporting Actress – Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
- Best Supporting Actor – Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
- Animated Feature Film – Inside Out
- Documentary Feature – Amy
- Foreign Language Film – Son of Saul, Hungary
- Adapted Screenplay – Charles Randolph and Adam McKay, The Big Short
- Original Screenplay – Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy, Spotlight
- Original Score – Ennio Morricone, The Hateful Eight
- Original Song – “The Writing’s on the Wall” by Sam Smith
- Film Editing – Mad Max: Fury Road
- Production Design – Mad Max: Fury Road
- Sound Editing – Mad Max: Fury Road
- Sound Mixing – Mad Max: Fury Road
- Visual Effects – Ex Machina
- Cinematography – Emmanuel Lubezki, The Revenant
- Costume Design – Mad Max: Fury Road
- Makeup and Hairstyling – Mad Max: Fury Road
- Animated Short Film – Bear Story
- Live Action Short Film – Stutterer
- Documentary Short Subject – A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness
