The 88th Academy Awards are underway at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. The ceremony is being hosted by Chris Rock, and among the presenters is Priyanka Chopra, India’s best-known face in Hollywood at the moment after Irrfan Khan.
Writing (Original Screenplay): Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer for ‘Spotlight’
The first predictable award for the evening was for Spotlight, directed by Tom McCarthy and co-written by the director along with Josh Singer. The contenders were Bridge of Spies by Matt Charman and Joel and Ethan Coen, Ex Machina by Alex Garland, Inside Out by Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve and Josh Cooley and Straight Outta Compton by Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff.
Spotlight is named after the team of investigative journalists at The Boston Globe newspaper whose efforts expose the repeated abuse of children by Catholic priests and its cover-up by members of the clergy. The sober and restrained movie highlights both the process of investigative journalism as well as the silence over sexual abuse.
Best Adapted Screenplay: Charles Randolph and Adam McKay for ‘The Big Short’
The Big Short by Charles Randolph and Adam McKay is an adaptation of Michael Lewis’s non-fiction book of the same name. The movie explores the build-up to the financial crisis of 2010 through a bunch of characters who realise that there is plenty of money is waiting to be made from somebody else’s misery. The Big Short beat Brooklyn by Nick Hornby, Carol by Phyllis Nagy, The Martian by Drew Goddard and Room by Emma Donoghue.
Best Supporting Actress: Alicia Vikander in ‘The Danish Girl’
Vikander beat Jennifer Jason Leigh in The Hateful Eight, Rooney Mara in Carol, Rachel McAdams in Spotlight and the strongest contender and awards veteran Kate Winslet in Steve Jobs. A case of giving encouragement to new talent?
Costume Design: Jenny Beavan for ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’
The first award for the evening for George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road was bagged by Jenny Beavan. She beat Sandy Powell, nominated for Carol and Cinderella, Paco Delgado for The Danish Girl and Jacqueline West for The Revenant.
Production Design: Colin Gibson (production design); Lisa Thompson (set decoration) for ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’
One more for George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, this time for production design. Gibson and Thompson beat Adam Stockhausen (production design) and Rena DeAngelo and Bernhard Henrich (set decoration) for Bridge of Spies, Eve Stewart (production design) and Michael Standish (set decoration) for The Danish Girl, Arthur Max (production design) and Celia Bobak (set decoration) for The Martian, and Jack Fisk (production design) and Hamish Purdy (set decoration) for The Revenant.
Makeup and Hairstyling: Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega and Damian Martin for ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’
The team beat Love Larson and Eva von Bahr for The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared and Sian Grigg, Duncan Jarman and Robert Pandini for The Revenant.
Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, ‘The Revenant’
And it’s a hat-trick. One of the safest bets this year, and richly deserved for providing an immersive and haunting experience of the brutality and poetry of mid-nineteenth century America. Lubezki is the only cinematographer in Oscar history to win three awards in a row. The 52-year-old Mexican has previously won for Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity and Alejandro G Inarritu’s Birdman.
Lubezki defeated Ed Lachman for Carol, Robert Richardson for The Hateful Eight, John Seale for Mad Max: Fury Road and Roger Deakins for Sicario. He has entered the record books for being only the seventh person to have won an Oscar three years in a row, including costume designer Edith Head and filmmaker Walt Disney.
Editing: Margaret Sixel for ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’
Margaret Sixel has never edited an action film before – which is probably why Mad Max: Fury Road feels so raw and fresh. Sixel beat Hank Corwin for The Big Short, Stephen Mirrione for The Revenant, Tom McArdle for Spotlight and Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Sound Editing: Mark Mangini and David White for ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’
More technical glory for Mad Max: Fury Road. Too bad for Oliver Tarney for The Martian, Martin Hernandez and Lon Bender for The Revenant, Alan Robert Murray for Sicario and Matthew Wood and David Acord for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Sound Mixing: Chris Jenkins, Gregg Rudloff and Ben Osmo for ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’
And... it is Mad Max: Fury Road again. Jon Taylor, Frank A Montano, Randy Thom and Chris Duesterdiek were tipped to win for The Revenant. The other contenders were Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Drew Kunin for Bridge of Spies, Paul Massey, Mark Taylor and Mac Ruth for The Martian and Andy Nelson, Christopher Scarabosio and Stuart Wilson for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Visual Effects: Andrew Whitehurst, Paul Norris, Mark Ardington and Sara Bennett for ‘Ex Machina’
A British feature beat Hollywood’s biggest and best for the Oscar for Visual Effects. Andrew Whitehurst, Paul Norris, Mark Ardington and Sara Bennett won for Alex Garland’s chilling and elegant sci-fi drama Ex Machina. Also nominated were Andrew Jackson, Tom Wood, Dan Oliver and Andy Williams for The Martian, Jon Taylor, Frank A Montaño, Randy Thom and Chris Duesterdiek for The Revenant and Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Neal Scanlan and Chris Corbould for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Short Film (Animated): ‘Bear Story’ by Gabriel Osorio and Pato Escala
A wordless 12-minute allegory about political exile in Chile by Gabriel Osorio and Pato Escala beat Sanjay’s Super Team, directed by Sanjay Patel and Nicole Grindle, for the Short Film (Animated) Oscar.
Also in the running were Konstantin Bronzit’s We Can’t Live Without Cosmos, Don Hertzfeldt’s World of Tomorrow and Prologue by Richard Williams and Imogen Sutton.
Best Supporting Actor: Mark Rylance for ‘Bridge of Spies’
Christian Bale was quirky in The Big Short, Tom Hardy menacing in The Revenant, Mark Ruffalo earnest and gritty in Spotlight and Sylvester Stallone solid in Creed. But merit won the day: Mark Rylance was superb as a Russian spy in Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies.
Best Documentary (Feature): Asif Kapadia’s ‘Amy’
Asif Kapadia’s Amy pays tribute to the troubled singer who died in 2011 from drug and alcohol abuse. Constructed entirely out of archival footage of interviews and concerts and mobile phone images captured by Winsehouse’s friends, Amy is a major achievement for the talented British director. Kapadia introduced the world to the talents of Irrfan Khan in the indie feature The Warrior (2001) and has also directed Senna (2010), the documentary on Ayrton Senna.
Documentary (Short Subject): Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s ‘A Girl in the River’
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s A Girl in the River, about honour killings in Pakistan, won the Oscar for Documentary (Short Subject). The Pakistani filmmaker has previously won an Oscar for Documentary (Short Subject) for her film on acid attacks on women in Pakistan, titled Saving Face. She beat Body Team 12 by David Darg and Bryn Mooser, Chau, Beyond the Lines by Courtney Marsh and Jerry Franck, Adam Benzine’s Claude Lanzmann and Last Day of Freedom by Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman.
Short Film (Live Action): ‘Stutterer’ by Benjamin Cleary and Serena Armitage
An online relationship helps a man conceal his speech impediment in Stutterer by Benjamin Cleary and Serena Armitage. The competition was Ave Maria by Basil Khalil and Eric Dupont, Henry Hughes’s Day One, Patrick Vollrath’s Everything Will Be Okay and Jamie Donoughue’s Shok.
Best Foreign Film: ‘Son of Saul’ by Lazslo Nemes
The clear front-runner in the category, Son of Saul, beat Embrace of the Serpent, Mustang, Theeb and A War. The widely acclaimed Holocaust-era drama from Hungary follows Saul (Geza Rohrig), a prisoner at the Auschwitz concentration camp inmate whose job is to cremate the dead. One of the bodies he comes across might be his son.
Music (Original Score): Ennio Morricone for ‘The Hateful Eight’
The legendary Italian composer Ennio Morricone won his first Oscar for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. He beat John Williams for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Thomas Newman for Bridge of Spies, Johan Johansson for Sicario and Carter Burwell for Carol.
Music (Original Song): ‘Writing’s On The Wall’ by Sam Smith for ‘Spectre’
Lady Gaga’s “Till It Happens To You” from the documentary The Hunting Ground seemed to be a shoo-in. But Sam Smith beat her to it with “Writing’s On The Wall” for the James Bond movie Spectre (which won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song in January). The other contenders were the operatic “Simple Song #3 by David Lang for Youth and the BDSM-themed “Earned It” by The Weeknd for Fifty Shades of Grey (the winner of a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance.
Achievement in Directing: Alejandro G Inarritu for ‘The Revenant’
Only the second award of the evening for The Revenant, but one of the most prestigious. Alejandro G Inarritu beat Adam McKay for The Big Short, George Miller for Mad Max: Fury Road, Lenny Abrahamson for Room, Tom McCarthy for Spotlight. The richly deserved honour marks the second consecutive win for Inarritu after Birdman.
Actress in a Leading Role: Brie Larson for ‘Room’
Andrew Haigh’s quietly powerful marital drama includes a fabulous performance by veteran British actress Charlotte Rampling. The arthouse movie earned a single nod at the Oscars, and 45 Years didn’t resonate beyond Rampling’s performance as did Room. Brie Larson, the actress from Short Term 12 has been widely appreciated for the conviction and sensitivity she brought to her role as a woman imprisoned along with her son by a sex maniac in Room. Larson also beat Cate Blanchett in Carol, Jennifer Lawrence in Joy and Saoirse Ronan in Brooklyn.
Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio for ‘The Revenant’
Bryan Cranston and Matt Damon gave committed and memorable performances in Trumbo and The Martian respectively, Michael Fassbender was spell-binding in Steve Jobs and Eddie Redmayne was 100% convincing in The Danish Girl. But this is DiCaprio’s year, and he has finally, finally won for a performance that demanded tremendous physical rigour and tremendous hardship. DiCaprio should have arguably won for playing the foul-mouthed and unscrupulous broker Jordan Belfort in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street in 2014, but better late than never.
Best Picture: ‘Spotlight’
The big one of the evening was also the biggest upset. Spotlight beat The Revenant for Best Picture. The other nominations were The Big Short, Bridge of Spies, Brooklyn, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian and Room.
