Spotlight, a Boston Globe investigative reporting about the clerical abuses in the Catholic church swept under the rug in the Vatican got the Oscar voter's nod and was named the year's Best Picture winner besting seven other nominees: The Big Short, Bridge of Spies, Brooklyn, Room and the blockbuster hits Mad Max: Fury Road and The Revenant.
Finally on his sixth nomination Leonardo DiCaprio wins the Best Actor award for the film The Revenant for portraying the role of a winter survivor forsaken by his friend and mauled by a bear with a standing ovation from the audience while delivering his speech of gratitude and message for a call to address the climate change, its impact and adverse effect most especially on the underprivileged countries and people. Brie Larson, on the other hand, won the Best Actress award for the film, Room. Director Alejandro Inarritu won his second consecutive Oscar trophy for the film The Revenant, - the first in 65 years after Joseph L. Mankiewicz win in A Letter for Three Wives (1949) and All About Eve (1950).
One of the most surprising win of the night was that of Mark Rylance for winning the Best Supporting Actor trophy for Bridge of Spies while the young Alicia Vikander winning the Best Supporting Role for an actress. Mad Max: Fury Road went home with the most Oscars trophy with six from the following: Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Production Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Costume Design and Best Film Editing.
Filipino co-director Ronnie del Carmen rejoices with co-director Pete Docter and producer Jonas Rivera for winning the Best Animated Feature Film for Inside Out, dedicated to the Philippines and Filipinos. Del Carmen was specifically nominated for the Best Original Screenplay but lost the category to Spotlight. László Nemes' Son of Saul won the Best Foreign Language Film category for Hungary.
Ennio Morricone won the Best Original Score for The Hateful Eight while Sam Smith with songwriter Jimmy Napes won the Best Original Song for Writing's on the Wall for the film Spectre, a James Bond film series.
Performances include Sam Smith, The Weeknd and a poignant performance of Lady Gaga featuring survivors of sexual assaults while United States Vice President Joe Biden made his appearance to deliver a message.
Chris Rock hosted the 88th Academy Awards popularly called Oscars 2016 in a year of controversy for lacking in diversity due to the obvious absence on nominees of the people of color and as a shout out to Hollywood and the Academy Awards made some witty monologues at the start of the ceremonies in reaction to the controversy.
Photo Sources:
Academy Awards Official Website - www.oscar.go.com
Coming Soon - www.comingsoon.net
Latino Review.com - www.latino-review.com
