Tag Archives: Oscar winners

Leo, ‘The Revenant’ & ‘Mad Max’ win big at 88th Oscars

Let’s not bury the lead here. Last night at the 88th Annual Academy Awards, audiences were witness to a feat once thought maddeningly impossible: Leonardo DiCaprio won the Oscar for Best Actor. We did it! His movie, Revenant, went into this years Oscars with 12 nominations and came away with 3; in addition to Leo’s momentous win, the Academy also awarded the painstakingly gritty film’s director Alejandro G. Iñárritu with his second consecutive Best Director win (see last year’s Birdman) and it also won for Best Cinematography. The film with the most wins of the night was Mad Max: Fury Road. It swept the majority of technical categories including Best Sound Mixing and Editing, Film Editing, Makeup and Hairstyling, and Production and Costume Design. Spotlight surprised at the end of the ceremony when it was crowned Best Picture; earlier in the night it won Best Original Screenplay. Elsewhere, Inside Out was named Best Animated Feature, 87-year-old composer Ennio Morricone was recognized for his already iconic score set to Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, and Ex Machina deservedly managed to beat out Star WarsMad MaxThe Martian, and The Revenant for Best Visual Effects. Click here for the full list of winners.

The show itself, though it ran long by 30+ minutes, was relatively entertaining throughout. Host Chris Rock ran with the #OscarsSoWhite diversity problems surrounding the telecast leading into it. No doubt his controversial monologue resonated with audiences; muted laughs and applause told the story well. Personal highlights throughout the night included surprise appearances from Star WarsToy Story, and The Minions characters and a powerfully emotional musical performance by Lady Gaga. And of course, Leo is now an Oscar-winning actor.