The 88th Annual Academy Awards ceremony took place earlier this evening, with Chris Rock hosting the event at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. Mad Max: Fury Road took home 6 awards, while The Revenant snagged 3 and Spotlight picked up two wins, including Best Picture.
With 12 nominations, many expected The Revenant to have a much bigger night, but Mad Max dominated many of the technical categories. Sadly overlook was The Martian, which came into the evening with 7 nods and didn’t take home a single statue.
Here’s the full list of winners from tonight’s event:
- Best Picture – Spotlight
- Best Actress – Brie Larson, Room
- Best Actor – Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
- Best Director – Alejandro G. Iñárritu, The Revenant
- Best Supporting Actress – Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
- Best Supporting Actor – Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
- Best Animated Feature Film – Inside Out
- Best Documentary Feature – Amy
- Best Foreign Language Film – Son of Saul, Hungary
- Best Adapted Screenplay – Charles Randolph and Adam McKay, The Big Short
- Best Original Screenplay – Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy, Spotlight
- Best Original Score – Ennio Morricone, The Hateful Eight
- Best Original Song – “The Writing’s on the Wall” from Spectre
- Best Film Editing – Mad Max: Fury Road
- Best Production Design – Mad Max: Fury Road
- Best Sound Editing – Mad Max: Fury Road
- Best Sound Mixing – Mad Max: Fury Road
- Best Visual Effects – Ex Machina
- Best Cinematography – Emmanuel Lubezki, The Revenant
- Best Costume Design – Mad Max: Fury Road
- Best Makeup and Hairstyling – Mad Max: Fury Road
- Best Animated Short Film – Bear Story
- Best Live Action Short Film – Stutterer
- Best Documentary Short Subject – A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness
For more info on the ceremony, you can check out our live blog from earlier in the evening.
[ORIGINAL LIVEBLOG]
Missed the beginning of the show due to some connection issues, so picked up in the middle of Chris Rock’s opening monologue, which is off to a pretty great start:
- “We didn’t protest the lack of black nominees in the 50s and 60s because we had real things to protest. We were too busy getting raped and lynched to care about Best Cinematographer.”
- “Jada [Pinkett Smith] boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties: I wasn’t invited!”
- “Rocky takes place in a world where white athletes are as good as black athletes. So Rocky is a science fiction movie. There are things that happen in Star Wars that are more believable.”
Alright, here are Emily Blunt and Charlize Theron to present Best Original Screenplay. The nominess are:
- Matt Charman, Joel Coen, and Ethan Coen, Bridge of Spies
- Alex Garland, Ex Machina
- Pete Docter, Megg LeFauve, and Josh Cooley, Inside Out
- Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy, Spotlight
- Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff, Straight Outta Compton
And the winner is Spotlight. Hard to argue with this one.
Next up are Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe to give out the award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Some amusing interplay here, giving us a glimpse at what we can expect in The Other Guys. And the contenders are:
- Charles Randolph and Adam McKay, The Big Short
- Nick Hornby, Brooklyn
- Phyllis Nagy, Carol
- Drew Goddard, The Martian
- Emma Donoghue, Room
And The Big Short takes home the Oscar. Mildly surprised here, but not unpleasantly so.
Back from commercial break with a pretty humorous vignette about black actors with supporting roles in this year’s Oscar flicks. Chris Rock introduces the director of the Academy’s new minority outreach program: Stacey Dash. This was beyond awkward – but here comes Sarah Silverman to introduce the first nominee for Best Original Song – Writing’s on the Wall, from Spectre. But first, some thoughts on James Bond’s infamous promiscuity:
“I don’t want to say he’s terrible at sex, but he did sleep with 55 women in 24 films, and most of them tried to kill him afterward.”
Alright, here’s Sam Smith, so this is the perfect time to go pour another glass of whiskey.
Now that we’re done with that, here are Kerry Washington and Henry Cavill to introduce the first two Best Picture nominee: The Martian and The Big Short.
J.K. Simmons and his superb facial hair have arrived to present Best Supporting Actress. The nominees are:
- Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
- Rooney Mara, Carol
- Rachel McAdams, Spotlight
- Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
- Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs
As much as I would’ve loved to see Jennifer Jason Leigh take this one home, I can’t be mad about Alicia Vikander. She was absolutely superb in more than one film this year.
After a quip about Carol being the third best girl-on-girl movie that Chris Rock watched this year, Cate Blanchett is here to present the award for Best Costume Design. The playing field looks like this:
- Sandy Powell, Carol
- Sandy Powell, Cinderella
- Paco Delgado, The Danish Girl
- Jenny Beavan, Mad Max: Fury Road
- Jacqueline West, The Revenant
Mad Max: Fury Road takes home its first award of the evening. Hope this is a sign of things to come.
Steve Carell and Tina Fey are here for Best Production Design. The nominees:
- Bridge of Spies
- The Danish Girl
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- The Martian
- The Revenant
And another win for Mad Max: Fury Road! This is off to an excellent start.
Margot Robbie and Jared Leto are presenting the award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. A shame they’re not dressed as their Suicide Squad counterparts. Here are the nominees:
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- The 100-Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
- The Revenant
Three in a row! Something tells me this was on purpose. But nonetheless, no complaints here.
And now we get Benicio del Toro and Jennifer Garner to intro clips from The Revenant and (appropriately) Mad Max: Fury Road.
Chris Rock welcomes nominee Rachel McAdams and “should’ve been nominee” Michael B. Jordan to present the award for Best Cinematography.
- Ed Lachman, Carol
- Robert Richardson, The Hateful Eight
- John Seale, Mad Max: Fury Road
- Emmanuel Lubezki, The Revenant
- Roger Deakins, Sicario
This is a brutal category this year, with five very deserving films in the running. But Emmanuel Lubezki takes home the award – his third consecutive award in this category, after Gravity in 2016 and Birdman last year.
Best Film Editing is the next award, and this is another tough category to predict. The nominees are:
- The Big Short
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- The Revenant
- Spotlight
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens
And that’s four awards for Mad Max: Fury Road already. I don’t think it’ll take home Best Picture, but can it continue to dominate the rest of the show?
Captain America and Black Panther are here! Every time I see Chris Evans with a beard, it freaks me out a little bit. Anyway, they’re here to talk Best Sound Editing. The nominees are:
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- The Martian
- The Revenant
- Sicario
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Five Oscars for Mad Max: Fury Road now. Should we just assume it’s going to win the other categories, too? Can we just give out all the awards at once?
The superheroes remain on the stage for Best Sound Mixing. Here’s everyone in the mix:
- Bridge of Spies
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- The Martian
- The Revenant
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Mad Max: Fury Road is just DESTROYING all of the technical categories here. This is insane.
A nice little montage of Andy Serkis and his motion-capture work, as Serkis comes out to present the award for Best Visual Effects. The nominees are:
- Ex Machina
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- The Martian
- The Revenant
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Ex Machina with a very, very well-deserved win here. The other films looked great – but they also had considerably more money to work with. This is great.
R2-D2 and C-3PO are onstage, along with BB-8, who points out the similarity between the Oscar statuette and C-3PO. They’re paying tribute to John Williams, and it’s wonderful.
Chris Rock’s daughters are selling Girl Scout cookies to the crowd. This is super weird, but pretty entertaining – a different spin on Ellen ordering pizza for everyone a few years back.
The Minions are here to be annoying as hell – I mean, to present the award for Best Animated Short. The nominees are:
- Bear Story
- Prologue
- Sanjay’s Super Team
- We Can’t Live Without Cosmos
- World of Tomorrow
I’ve only seen one of these, so I don’t really have a horse in this race. Bear Story takes home the statue.
Woody and Buzz Lightyear are presenting the award for Best Animated Feature. This is much more palatable than the goddamn Minions. Here are the contenders:
- Anomalisa
- Boy and the World
- Inside Out
- Shaun the Sheep Movie
- When Marnie Was There
And Pixar adds another Oscar to their collection, as Inside Out grabs the win. With this year marking the 20th anniversary of Toy Story, having the award presented by its stars felt very fitting.
Kevin Hart with a very positive speech about not letting the lack of diversity define the future of what people of color bring to the table in the film industry. And now here’s the second offering from the Best Original Song category: Earned It, from Fifty Shades of Grey and performed by The Weeknd. Time for a refill.
Reese Witherspoon and Kate Winslet are introducing the best two Best Picture nominees: Bridge of Spies and Spotlight.
Chris Rock is really having fun with the whole #OscarsSoWhite thing. This is hilarious.
Patricia Arquette is here to present the award for Best Supporting Actor, and seems to be struggling to read from the teleprompter. The nominees are:
- Christian Bale, The Big Short
- Tom Hardy, The Revenant
- Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight
- Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
- Sylvester Stallone, Creed
Surprisingly, Mark Rylance gets the award. Really thought it would be Hardy, or Stallone as a dark horse. Not feeling this one at all.
Chris Rock welcomes Louis C.K. to present the award for Best Documentary Short Film, which he says is “the only award which can change someone’s life.” The nominees:
- Body Team 12
- Chau, Beyond the Lines
- Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah
- A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness
- Last Day of Freedom
Louis C.K. jokes about Mad Max winning another award, before announcing the winner as A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness.
Daisy Ridley and Dev Patel are out for Best Documentary Feature. In the running for this one:
- Amy
- Cartel Land
- The Look of Silence
- What Happened, Miss Simone?
- Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom
The award goes to Amy, and since it was my favorite doc of last year, I have no problem with this decision.
Louis Gossett, Jr. introduces Dave Grohl to perform live musical accompaniment for the annual In Memoriam segment. A lot of great talents have been lost in the past year – many before their time.
Jacob Tremblay and Abraham Attah are presenting an award together, and my heart is so happy right now. The fact that neither of them were recognized for their performances is a tragedy, but seeing them onstage is still wonderful. They’re here to award Best Live-Action Short – as Jacob says, for obvious reasons. The nominees are:
- Ave Maria
- Day One
- Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut)
- Shok
- Stutterer
And the award goes to Stutterer. But seriously, can we just hang out with these two for a few more minutes?
Byung-hun Lee and Sofia Vergara are presenting Best Foreign Language Film. The nominees in this category are:
- Colombia: Embrace of the Serpent
- France: Mustang
- Hungary: Son of Saul
- Jordan: Theeb
- Denmark: A War
And Son of Saul is the winner. With all the recent buzz around Embrace of the Serpent, I thought it might steal this category, but apparently not.
Vice President Joe Biden is here to implore people to stand up for victims of sexual assault. He introduces Lady Gaga’s performance of Til it Happens to You, from The Hunting Ground.
Standing ovation for Lady Gaga and the survivors who joined her onstage. Lots of tears in the crowd. Incredibly powerful.
Also, if you haven’t seen Hunting Ground – change that immediately.
Best Original Score is up next, and the nominees are all pretty solid this year:
- Thomas Newman, Bridge of Spies
- Carter Burwell, Carol
- Ennio Morricone, The Hateful Eight
- Jóhann Jóhansson, Sicario
- John Williams, Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Ennio Morricone wins his first Oscar, after coming out of retirement to score The Hateful Eight. This is fantastic, and he gets a much-deserved standing ovation.
Next up is Best Original Song – no matter who wins this, that Gaga performance will be sticking with me for a long time. The nominees are:
- “Earned It” from Fifty Shades of Grey
- “Manta Ray” from Racing Extinction
- “Simple Song #3” from Youth
- “Til It Happens to You” from The Hunting Ground
- “Writing’s on the Wall” from Spectre
You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me. Writing’s on the Wall is one of the worst Bond theme songs of all time. I need another drink.
Olivia Wilde is here, along with Sacha Baron Cohen as Ali G. In a year fraught with so much controversy about the lack of diversity, maybe we shouldn’t showcase a white character who pretends to be black? Anyway, the into the last two Best Picture nominees: Room and Brookyln.
J.J. Abrams is welcomed to the stage with a bit of Star Wars music, to present the award for Best Director. Crossing fingers for George Miller, but here’s the full list of possibilities:
- Adam McKay, The Big Short
- George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
- Alejandro González Iñárritu, The Revenant
- Lenny Abrahamson, Room
- Tom McCarthy, Spotlight
Oh, fuck you, Academy.
And we were going so well, too. I’m incredibly disappointed in this choice – but there’s still hope that we can end on a strong note.
Eddie Redmayne is here to present the award for Best Actress. Brie Larson should have this one locked down, but here’s the nominee list, just in case:
- Cate Blanchett, Carol
- Brie Larson, Room
- Jennifer Lawrence, Joy
- Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years
- Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
Thank God. If Brie Larson hadn’t won, I might have thrown my TV off the balcony.
Julianne Moore is here to give out the Best Actor award. Is this finally Leo’s moment of glory? Here’s the competition:
- Bryan Cranston, Trumbo
- Matt Damon, The Martian
- Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
- Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
- Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl
No surprise here – after six nominations, Leonard DiCaprio finally takes home an Oscar, and gets a standing ovation, too.
A very gracious speech from DiCaprio, and he even used some of the spotlight to talk about climate change. Well done, sir.
And now here comes Morgan Freeman to announce the Best Picture of the 88th Annual Academy Awards. One more time, the nominees are:
- The Big Short
- Bridge of Spies
- Brooklyn
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- The Martian
- The Revenant
- Room
- Spotlight
And the award goes to Spotlight. A lot of folks had The Revenant pegged to win this category, so this may come as a surprise – but I definitely feel like Spotlight is much more deserving of the Best Picture award.
And that’s it for our Oscars 2016 live blog. Thanks so much for hanging out with us this year!