Hollywood’s biggest night was a lovely day for Spotlight, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Leonardo DiCaprio.
George Miller’s apocalyptic Road Warrior movie Mad Max scored six awards at Sunday’s Oscars, the most of the night. Mad Max won best editing, best costumes, best production design, best makeup and hairstyling, best sound editing, and best sound mixing. Mad Max came into the night with 10 total nominations, second only to The Revenant, which led the way with 12.
That film, directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, won three awards: best director for Iñárritu (his second straight win in the category, the first time a director has done that since 1951), best cinematography for Emmanuel Lubezki (the third straight time Lubezki has taken home that honor), and best actor for DiCaprio (his first-ever Oscar win).
But it was Spotlight which took the night’s biggest honor: best picture. The journalism drama, about the Boston Globe reporters who uncovered the systemic abuse inside the Catholic Church, won both the first and last awards of 2016 Oscars. Co-writers Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy (who also directed the film) were rewarded with best original screenplay at the beginning of the telecast.
In addition to DiCaprio, the acting trophies were all awarded to first-time winners. Brie Larson won best actress for Room, Alicia Vikander grabbed best supporting actress for her role in The Danish Girl, and Mark Rylance won best supporting actor for Bridge of Spies – a shocker as Creed star Sylvester Stallone was expected to earn the honor.
OSCARS 2016: Winners | Red Carpet | Best & Worst Dressed | Best Speeches | Chris Rock | Best Moments
Chris Rock hosted the Oscars, and took aim at Hollywood’s diversity issues – a conversation that dominated the headlines after the Oscar nominations were announced last month. (For the second straight year, every acting nominee at the Oscars was white.)
“No black nominees. People are like, ‘Chris you should boycott, Chris you should quit, ’ Rock joked. “How come it’s only unemployed people that tell you to quit something? … I thought about quitting. I thought about it really hard. But I realized they’re gonna have the Oscars anyway. They’re not gonna cancel the Oscars because I quit. And the last thing I need is to to lose another job to Kevin Hart, okay?”
Rock added, “Why are we protesting this Oscars? It’s the 88th Academy Awards, which means this ‘no black nominees’ thing happened at least 71 other times. You got to figure that it happened in the ’50s, in the ’60s. One of those years, Sidney [Poitier] didn’t put out a movie. I’m sure there were no black nominees some of those years, say ‘62 or ‘63. Black people did not protest. Why? Because we had real things to protest at the time. We were too busy being raped and lynched to care about who won best cinematography. When your grandmother’s swinging from a tree, it’s really hard to care about best documentary foreign short.”
It was a night of political statements: DiCaprio called out climate change in his speech (“Climate change is real”), Sam Smith, who won for best original song, dedicated his award to the LGBT community, and Rock kept up with the diversity jabs throughout the ceremony. He closed the show calling out the Black Lives Matter movement.
Check out the full list of Oscars 2016 winners below.
Best Picture
The Big Short
Bridge of Spies
Brooklyn
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Room
WINNER: Spotlight
RELATED: Team Spotlight on their best picture winner
Best Actress
Cate Blanchett, Carol
WINNER: Brie Larson, Room
Jennifer Lawrence, Joy
Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years
Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
RELATED: Our interview with best actress winner Brie Larson
Best Actor
Bryan Cranston, Trumbo
Matt Damon, The Martian
WINNER: Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl
RELATED: Our interview with best actor winner Leonardo DiCaprio
Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
Rooney Mara, Carol
Rachel McAdams, Spotlight
WINNER: Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs
RELATED: Our interview with best supporting actress winner Alicia Vikander
Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale, The Big Short
Tom Hardy, The Revenant
Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight
WINNER: Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Sylvester Stallone, Creed
Best Director
The Big Short, Adam McKay
Mad Max: Fury Road, George Miller
