Spotlight and The Revenant may have shared top honors at last night’s 88th Annual Academy Awards ceremony, but it was critical darling Mad Max: Fury Road that took home the most Oscars, winning six of the gold statuettes in total over a number of technical categories.
The investigative journalism drama Spotlight won Best Picture, while last year’s Best Director winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu repeated in that category thanks to his work on The Revenant. And as expected, Leonardo DiCaprio finally took home gold for his leading role in The Revenant, his sixth Academy Award nomination and first win. A hard-working climate change activist, DiCaprio used the majority of his acceptance speech as a platform to remind the audience in attendance at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles and the millions of viewers watching at home that this is an issue that is bigger than all of us:
“Making The Revenant was about man’s relationship with the natural world,” DiCaprio said. “A world that we collectively felt in 2015 was the hottest year in recorded history. Our production team needed to go to the southern tip of this planet just to be able to find snow; climate change is real, and it’s happening right now. It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species and we need to work together and stop procrastinating. We need to support leaders around the world who do not speak for the big polluters or the big corporations, but who speak for all of humanity; and for the indigenous people of the world; for the billions and billions of underprivileged people who will be most affected by this; for our children’s children; and for all the people out there whose voices have been drowned out by the politics of greed. Let us not take this planet for granted; I do not take tonight for granted.”
Other highlights included Brie Larson winning Best Actress for her lead role in Room, Alicia Vikander winning Best Supporting Actress for The Danish Girl, and Bridge of Spies‘ Mark Rylance upsetting Sylvester Stallone for the Best Supporting Actor. Not to mention Chris Rock’s outstanding opening monologue that took on the #OscarsSoWhite controversy head on with some scathing remarks. Seriously, watch the entire thing.
Here’s the full list of winners:
Best Picture: “Spotlight”
Direction: “The Revenant,” Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, “The Revenant”
Actress: Brie Larson, “Room”
Supporting Actor: Mark Rylance, “Bridge of Spies”
Supporting Actress: Alicia Vikander, “The Danish Girl”
Adapted Screenplay: “The Big Short,” Charles Randolph and Adam McKay
Original Screenplay: “Spotlight,” Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy
Cinematography: “The Revenant,” Emmanuel Lubezki
Production Design: “Mad Max: Fury Road,” Colin Gibson and Lisa Thompson (set decoration)
Film Editing: “Mad Max: Fury Road,” Margaret Sixel
Visual Effects: “Ex Machina,” Andrew Whitehurst, Paul Norris, Mark Ardington and Sara Bennett
Costume Design: “Mad Max: Fury Road,” Jenny Beavan
Makeup: “Mad Max: Fury Road,” Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega and Damian Martin
Sound Editing: “Mad Max: Fury Road,” Mark Mangini and David White
Sound Mixing: “Mad Max: Fury Road,” Chris Jenkins, Gregg Rudloff and Ben Osmo
Score: “The Hateful Eight,” Ennio Morricone
Song: “Writing’s on the Wall,” from “Spectre,” Jimmy Napes and Sam Smith
Foreign Language Film: “Son of Saul” (Hungary)
Animated Feature: “Inside Out”
Documentary Feature: “Amy”
Animated Short: “Bear Story”
Documentary Short: “A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness”
Live Action Short: “Stutterer”
