Categories: ENTERTAINMENT

Leonardo DiCaprio finally gets his Oscar!

After four previous misses, Leonardo DiCaprio won his first Oscar for his grunting, gruff performance in The Revenant.

Leonardo Dicaprio holding the Oscar Award he won

‘Making The Revenant was about man’s relationship to the natural world…climate change is real,’ said DiCaprio as he used his acceptance speech to deliver a lecture on the environment. ‘It is happening right now. It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating.’

‘Let us not take our planet for granted,’ he concluded. ‘I do not take tonight for granted.’

While an advocate for addressing the threat of climate change, 41-year-old DiCaprio was reported to have taken six private jet flights in just six weeks in 2014. It may prove hard for the actor to justify the need to avail himself of more than $200,000 worth of private travel between LA and New York in such a short period of time.

Meanwhile, Oscar gold has previously eluded the celebrated star, who has won plenty of other honours over his two decade long career.

Leo earned his first Oscar nomination in 1994 for What’s Eating Gilbert Grape when he was just 20 years old.

He was then nominated for Best Actor (The Aviator) in 2004. He later earned a Best Actor nod for Blood Diamond in 2006. And most recently for the Wolf Of Wall Street in 2013.

Alejandro Inarritu took best director for a second straight year, a feat matched by only two other filmmakers: John Ford and Joseph L. Mankiewicz.

His brutal frontier epic The Revenant, which came in with a leading 12 nods and the favorite for best picture, also won best cinematography for Emmanuel Lubezki. Renowned for his use of natural light in lengthy, balletic shots, Lubezki became the first cinematographer to win three times in a row (following wins for Gravity and Birdman), and only the seventh to three-peat in Oscar history.

Inarritu, the Mexican director of last year’s best-picture winner Birdman, was one of the few winners to remark passionately on diversity in his speech.

‘What a great opportunity for our generation to really liberate ourselves from all prejudice and this tribal thinking and to make sure for once and forever that the color of our skin becomes as irrelevant as the length of our hair,’ said Inarritu.

She has swept the awards season with her tour de force in Room.

And on Sunday night Brie Larson took home Best Actress in a Leading Role, beating out Jennifer Lawrence and Cate Blanchett for the top honour.

She went on to thank her nine-year-old co-star in Room while onstage: ‘Jacob Tremblay [you were] my partner through this… and to my real partner Alex Greenwald: I love you… the whole thing!’

In an underdog win for a movie about an underdog profession, the newspaper drama Spotlight took Best Picture.

Tom McCarthy’s film about the Boston Globe’s investigative reporting on sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests won over the favored frontier epic The Revenant.

The well-crafted procedural, led by a strong ensemble cast, had lagged in the lead-up to the Oscars, losing ground to the flashier filmmaking of Inarritu’s film.

But Spotlight – an ode to the hard-nose, methodical work of a journalism increasingly seldom practiced – took the night’s top honor despite winning only one other Oscar for McCarthy and Josh Singer’s screenplay. Such a sparsely-awarded Best Picture winner hasn’t happened since 1952’s The Greatest Show On Earth.

Meanwhile, it was supposed to be his big night, But Sylvester Stallone was left heartbroken as he lost out in the Best Supporting Actor category to Mark Rylance, who took gold for his performance in Bridge Of Spies.

Rylance, 56, thanked his director Steven Spielberg before adding: ‘If you ever asked if acting with Tom Hanks helps [your career] the answer is ‘yes it does!”

Rylance was a first time nominee and won for his portrayal of Russian spy Rudolf Abel, who becomes part of a high-stakes prisoner exchange during the Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union.

It was the first time Stallone had been in Oscar contention since 1977 when Rocky, which he starred in, wrote and produced, was nominated for 10 statuettes and won three, including Best Picture and Best Director for John G. Avildsen.

Sly missed out on the Best Actor and Screenplay honours, which appears to be making this round of honours doubly sweet.

In the film Creed, Sylvester plays an ageing Rocky, who comes out of retirement to train promising young boxer Adonis Johnson, played by Michael B. Jordan, who is the son of his former rival, Apollo Creed.

Earlier in the evening, newcomer Alicia Vikander won Best Supporting Actress for The Danish Girl at the 88th annual Academy Awards on Sunday night.

She beat out the likes of Kate Winslet to take the gong for her role in the historical true story about a transgender woman (played by Eddie Redmayne) and his supportive wife (Vikander).

The 27-year-old took the stage and breathlessly delivered a heartfelt speech: ‘Thank you so much to the Academy for this recognition. And Eddie – where are you? – there you are! Thank you for being the best acting partner. You raised my game!’

She then added: ‘And my mum and dad – thank you for giving me the belief that anything can happen. Even though I would never have believed this!’

The Swedish born actress beat out previous winner Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs), Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight), Rooney Mara (Carol), and Rachel McAdams (Spotlight).

Pixar’s Inside Out is the winner of the best animated feature film Academy Award.

The film tells the story of a young girl’s emotions as her family relocates from Minnesota to San Francisco. Director Pete Docter has said the film, which mixes science with his experience, has also resonated with the parents of special needs children.

The film features an all-star vocal cast including Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Lewis Black and Mindy Kaling. The win is the studio’s eighth in the category.

Bear Story won the best animated short Academy Award during Sunday’s ceremony.

An intimate look at the life of late singer Amy Winehouse was the winner of the best feature documentary Academy Award.

Amy won the documentary honor at Sunday’s ceremony. Director Asif Kapadia used archival footage and testimonials to offer new insights into Winehouse, who died in 2011 from accidental alcohol poisoning.

The film won the Grammy Award for best music film earlier this month.

The best documentary short Oscar was awarded to the film, A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness.

Sam Smith won Best Original Song for Writing’s On The Wall for the film Spectre.

He beat out Lady Gaga. Smith said: ‘I actually cannot breathe right now. Oh my god! I read an article last week where Sir Ian McKellen said no openly gay man has ever won an Oscar. Whether true or not I want to dedicate this award to the LGBT community.’

Celebs gathered at the Dolby Theater to toast another year in movies as they were honoured by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Chris Rock opened the ceremony with a rollicking monologue.

The show kicked off with a montage of the films from 2015 and the 51-year-old comedian referenced the clip as he took the stage.

‘Man I counted at least 15 black people in that montage. I am here hosting at the Academy Awards otherwise known as the White People’s Choice Awards. If they nominated hosts I wouldn’t be your host. It’d be Neil Patrick Harris. People be like, ‘Chris you should boycott. You should quit.’ Only people without jobs say to quit something. And the last thing I need is to love another job to Kevin Hart. Porno stars don’t make movies that fast!’

‘The big question is why are we protesting this year’s Oscars?’ Rock continued. ‘It is the 88th Academy Awards…. At least 71 of them didn’t have black actors nominated in the past.’

‘Black people didn’t protest because we had real things to protest. Too busy being raped and lynched to worry about who won best cinematography. When your grandma’s hangin from a tree…’

He then went on to poke fun at Jada Pinkett who had said she was boycotting the Oscars ahead of the ceremony on Sunday: ‘Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties! I wasn’t invited.’

He concluded: ‘Is Hollywood racist? You’re damn right it’s racist! Hollywood is sorority racist. It’s like: ‘We like you Wanda, but you’re not a Kappa.”

Actress and Fox News personality Stacey Dash says she wants to bring a different kind of diversity to Hollywood – and that’s why she participated in one of the oddest Oscar moments.

The former Clueless actress has attracted attention lately for her conservative viewpoints, including suggesting on Fox that there should not be a Black History Month. Dash, who is black, also spoke out against people complaining that the Oscars didn’t reflect diversity.

She was jokingly introduced by host Rock as director of the Oscar’s minority outreach program. Dash strode onstage to say ‘I cannot wait to help my people out. Happy Black History Month!’

The joke fell flat, perhaps because many people in the audience didn’t understand the reference.

Dash explained online why she did it, saying ideological diversity is much harder to achieve in Hollywood.

Later in the shohttp://umuseke.rw/en/wp-admin/post-new.phpw the comedian some local Girls scouts sell cookies. He called out some celebs to put there money on the line as he said, ‘C;mon, Leo you made $30 million!’

But he gave one actor some trouble for buying the cookies: ‘Oh Lou Gossett watch out now! You got diabetes!’ He revealed that he pulled in $65,243 in earnings from the cookie sales.

Later in the show Rock shared a video of asking people on the street in Compton, California. Interviewees had never heard of the nominees for Best Picture but all of them had seen Straight Outta Compton.

Vice President Joe Biden took the stage to a standing ovation as he introduced Lady Gaga for her performance of Til It Happens To You which was nominated for Best Original Song for the film The Hunting Ground.

Biden addressed sexual abuse on college campuses: ‘I urge you to take the pledge, ‘I will intervene when consent cannot or will not be given.’ Let’s change the culture so that no woman or man will ever have to ask ‘what did I do?”

‘They did nothing wrong,’ he added firmly. ‘Folks I really mean this go online and take the pledge. Welcome my friend Lady Gaga.’

Lady Gaga produced and performed the haunting track, which she is said to have co-wrote with Diane Warren, for the soundtrack of documentary film The Hunting Ground which tackles issues surrounding campus rapes in American educational institutions.

Best original screenplay went to the newsroom drama Spotlight, an ode to hard-nose, methodical investigative journalism penned by Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer. Backstage, a cord from a light suddenly fell behind the winners, prompting McCarthy – whose film shows the discovery of extensive sex abuse by Catholic priests – to exclaim in mock paranoia: ‘That is the power of the Catholic Church, ladies and gentlemen!’

Adam McKay and Charles Randolph took best adapted screenplay for their self-described ‘trauma-dy’ about the mortgage meltdown of 2008. McKay thanked Paramount Pictures for taking a risk on a movie about ‘financial esoterica.’

McKay, best known for broader comedies like Anchorman and Step Brothers, gave an election-year warning to power of ‘big money’ in the presidential campaign and government.

‘Big money is taking over our government,’ said McKay backstage.

Room’s Jacob Tremblay and Beasts Of No Nation’s Abraham Attah presented the award for Best Live Action Short Film. Rock brought out crates for the two young actors to reach the microphone.

‘Thanks, Chris,’ nine-year-old Tremblay began. ‘I loved you in Madagascar! He was great. He played the Zebra.’

Meanwhile, a good awards speech can echo through the generations but a bad one can mar an entire broadcast.

The Academy Awards decided to create some new rules as this year they no longer allowed winners to name those they felt indebted to during their speeches.

Instead, the Oscars rolled a screen ticker behind the honoree naming each person they wanted to thank.

In addition, speeches were cut down to just 45 seconds, in an effort to keep the running time of the ceremony within an acceptable domain, as the show has famously gone overtime.

For a show that has been plagued with often self-indulgent oratory performances, it is actors and showbusiness people after all, the new rule set was intended to ensure a smoother running broadcast that has often been criticized for being boring.

Daily Mail

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