The 88th Academy Awards
Sunday, February 28, 2016 at 9:10PM Chris Rock's opening monologue will take some time to parse. We'll have time to parse tomorrow, okay? Like most Oscar opening monologues it had a combination of lame expected jokes and great curveball laughs but this time a super uncomfortable crowd, no one knowing when it was okay to laugh surely fearing the camera would be on them. Some of it was really inspired though, and an artful deflection and condemnation simultaneously.
To continue the racial themes he introduces Emily Blunt and "someone even whiter" Charlize Theron, who happens to actually be African. So funny. But in a thinky/smile about it later way if you realize. Both stars of that awful looking Snow White sequel look sensationally gorgeous. Charlize Theron's neckline dives deeper than the whole Best Actor field combined.
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Spotlight
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY The Big Short
Adam McKay's says his movie is about "financial esoterica" which is surely a first for an Oscar ceremony.
Another first (and last) for Oscar -- a Stacey Dash appearance. I actually do not get this joke unless... Or, rather, I get it (Stacey Dash being an awful person who wants black history month and the like abolished) but it's super unfunny.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl.
lots more after the jump
This is insane."
Why yes it is Alicia Leading Actress Vikander! She seems overwhelmed and happy and she is such a good actor so we shan't complain too much.
Cate Blanchett introduces the category she has so often been a part of for the men and women she has so often played muse to. Good choice.
BEST COSTUME DESIGN Jenny Beavan, Mad Max: Fury Road
She warns us that Fury Road won't be totally science fiction if we aren't kinder to each other and if we don't stop polluting the environment. Jenny Beavan is a great interview btw and I was horrified when they started playing her off. Stop it, stick man!
Tina Fey cracks everyone up with her drunk act. The Monimees are...
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN Colin Gibson, Mad Max: Fury Road
Margot Robbie & Jared Leto introducing Makeup and Hair. Leto makes a joke about merkins. Well done.
BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega, and Damian Martin Mad Max Fury Road
Pop the corks at home we're bringing gold.
Three Oscars already for Mad Max Fury Road. Remember when this moment seemed like an impossible dream that critics and journalists and pundits would really have to push and push for. We did it! This is a huge win for taking genre films seriously.
Benicio Del Toro and Jennifer Garner introduce clips for The Revenant and Mad Max Fury Road.
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY Emmanuel Lubezki The Revenant
This is his third consecutive win which has never happened before in Cinematography. John Toll won two back to back with Legends of the Fall (1994) and Braveheart (1995)
BEST FILM EDITING Margaret Sixel, Mad Max Fury Road
If she wins and George Miller doesn't this will be a bit like Catherine Martin taking Oscars for Baz Luhrmann pictures without Baz ever winning one! But damn the editing is great in that movie. GREAT SPEECH about forging a picture with minds, hands, and hearts.
Angela Basset with the "Oscar's Black History Minute" Hilarious But in a conceptual way again. Hmmm. Is this going well at Oscar parties?
Chris Evans and Chadwick Boseman arrive to introduce the Sound categories. Strangely they are welcomed by Disco music... "Staying Alive" to be precise.
What Glenn said:
I am offended that Chris Evans and Chadwick Boseman are presenting together and they're not naked. How rude.
— Glenn Dunks (@glenndunks) February 29, 2016
SOUND EDITING Mad Max Fury Road
SOUND MIXING Mad Max Fury Road
I'll let another Team Experience member take this one...
GEORGE MILLER HAS EATEN THE OSCARS YASSSS
— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) February 29, 2016
Andy Serkis is introduced via film clips of his performance capture work. He's here to talk Visual FX
VISUAL EFFECTS Ex-Machina
WOW. This was my choice but i never in a million years thought it would win. This prize was followed by a really strange unfunny Star Wars bit. Those weren't the droids I was looking for. Not after an Ex Machina win! But at least Jacob Tremblay liked it. He jumped up from his seat to see them better.
ANIMATED SHORT Bear Story
ANIMATED FEATURE Inside Out
I predicted Bear Story and it's a good short and the Chilean team behind it were so handsome/happy. But... I weep for We Can't Live Without Cosmos and World of Tomorrow which were both so brillant, funny, and also hard to shake emotionally.
Kevin Hart congratulates Chris Rock on a great hosting job, gets bleeped by worried censors -- but it didn't look like he was swearing so not sure what's going on there -- and complains that he hasn't had enough camera time. And ends with a great quip "I have a suit with shiny stuff on it so I still made a statement." Hee. Then The Weeknd performs "Earned It" from 50 Shades of Grey.
Chris Rock does his going to the movie theater shtick wherein people haven't even heard of movies that were hits! Bridge of Spies did pretty well!
Patricia Arquette, woke from her nap, introduces the next category. You know what it is.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Why do they always show Mark Ruffalo's worst season in the movie. Way OTT for that movie, sorry. And i love the Ruff but tone it down man. Happy for Mark Rylance. He was just outside of my nominees in the category but he's such a brilliant actor. And now he's halfway to an EGOT. (Sly Stallone was not pleased obviously.)
DOCUMENTARY SHORT Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE Amy
My short predictions have been spot on. Not so much elsewhere!
Whoopi Goldberg introduces the Honorary Oscar clips. Insane that we don't get to see more than a split second of these legends on Hollywood's High Holy Night. Boo.
Cheryl Boone-Isaacs appears to talk about diversity and Louis Gossett Jr comes on to the tune of "Love Lifts Us Up (Where We Belong)" which I think is the first time someone has been introduced by music from a movie they were actually in. He's here to introduce Dave Grohl singing during "Blackbird" to In Memoriam. Maureen O'Hara forever (my heart)
LIVE ACTION SHORT Stutterer
FOREIGN FILM Son of Saul
ORIGINAL SCORE Ennio Morricone, The Hateful Eight
ORIGINAL SONG Sam Smith, The Writing's On the Wall from Spectre
BEST DIRECTOR Alejandro G. Iñárritu, The Revenant
Disappointing after all the Mad Max wins but what can you do? When they love someone they love them hard (and then they move on). And now Eddie Redmayne to hand out Best Actress
BEST ACTRESS Brie Larson, Room
She thanks festivals and fans for the platform and the moviegoing. There's my girl. Thanking moviegoers is too rare. YOU'RE WELCOME.
BEST ACTOR Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Great speech.
BEST PICTURE Spotlight
Fun surprise to end the night. I noticed that the (false) word was quickly spread that this is the least wins for a Best Picture. This is not true. Other Best Picture winners that only won 1 other Oscar are: ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930), REBECCA (1940), THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH (1952); and famously GRAND HOTEL (1932) won only Best Picture with no other nominations. (There were fewer categories back then but still...)
THE END
Obviously we'll celebrate the highs and lows of sideways moments over the next couple of days and then we're off to a whole new film year. Please stick around daily!
Reader Comments (106)
Maybe if they saw Gaga's performance she would've won. But I'm definitely happy Sam Smith was able to give that speech, and I'll bet Gaga was too.
I am disgusted by te presrntation of room! Disrespectful
Damn it....
And that's all the upsets the Academy could handle I guess.
Fuck this bullshit.
"We liked Mad Max's tech more in every way but here you go Inarritu!"
Disappointed for George Miller. Did not drink the Fury Road Kool-Aid but AGI's nasty response to the costume designer accepting her award is enough for me to want him to fail professionally in the future.
Well congrats Brie. She also hugged every and each one of the survivors from Gaga's performance, which is adorable.
Im happy for Brie! But urghhh.. what boring winners this year has churned out.
LOL at Dicaprio's smug look at the camera after his Oscar clip.
LEO!!!
YAY! BIG SHORT AND REVENANT LOST BP!
Did Morgan Freeman just say Spotlight?
Ugh do not understand the love for Writing on th Wall such an overrated song. Actually if I'm being completely honest I don't understand the love for Sam Smith. Radiohead's Spectre theme was way better. But if the Grammys can't pick the best music right, what hope do the oscars have?
BITCH IT IS SPOTLIGHT! Then why bother giving Alejandro another win if you will give best picture to Spotlight huh? Might as well make it George Miller.
Anyway, this has been a Great Oscars Night.
Thank you for your coverage this whole year Nat, and tomorrow we will begin with the race for next year! Woohoo!
Good night y'all!
I wish Academy voters could have seen that Innaritu plundered a decade-old Terence Malick film to create that "cinematic world" that inevitably led them to give him a completely undeserved BD award. The fact that they had the sense to award BP to Spotlight only underscores this injustice. That award should've gone to Miller or McCarthy.
Second big upset. Spotlight was truly Best Film of the Year.
Other than Inarritu winning, this was a pretty good night.
And I can't wait for all the uptight types bashing Chris Rock's hosting tomorrow morning.
Cheers to the film editors who assembled the clips for the nominated films. The clips in each category really showed why those films had been nominated. They were assembled with knowledge, enthusiasm, love, and fairness, making this one of the best Oscar telecasts I've seen.
And with only two awards, Spotlight's got to be the least awarded best picture of all-time correct?
@MDA: It's the lowest-awarded since The Greatest Show on Earth in 1952, which also won 2 (Picture and Story). There were a few winners in the 1920s-40s that had 2 or even 1 (i.e., won nothing other than Picture itself).
Overall quite pleased. Loved that MM won the most. Happy for Leo and Revenant cinematography. Happy for Ex Machina VFX. Was ok with Spotlight winning. Not happy George missed out.
Congratulations Mad Max Fury Road winner of 6 Academy Awards!!!
I'm still fuming about the lousy presentation of both the BP nominees, Room and Brooklyn.
Every other Best Picture nominee got an the A list actors and actresses, and then Room got stuck with Ali G & Olivia Wilde - that sucked, really sucked.
The Revenant got more than I would have liked but fewer awards than I feared.
I'm happy for Spotlight, which just shows that the preferential ballot really does make a difference.
Although Sam Smith is mediocre, so was the song by Diane Warren. Having Gaga get a writing credit for changing 1 line was pretty LOW, so Karma was a bitch.
I liked Sam Smith's performance and I am happy he won When Morgan Freeman said Spotlight I looked and it looked like he didn't even open the envelope I was worried for a moment there.
Dicaprio can now retire from show biz...
Heh, I just realized, Spotlight won the first and last awards handed out, and nothing in between.
happy there were some surprises, and the show was entertaining enough. the bits with whoopi and leslie jones were particularly good.
highs were cate's costume design presentation and the clips for so many of the awards (although I didn't think the screenplays were well presented. just seemed odd). The original songs were bad. I used to live this category, but not this year. And the intro for Room was terrible. Also, neither Brooklyn nor Carol got any sound during the opening montage, but so many forgettable films did. Surely there was something that could be picked out. Saoirse and Cate looked amazing. I just wish there was more attention paid to Hollywood's sexism. And Sam, learn your own history. Doofus.
Just realised that Mad Max tied with Star Wars for most wins without pic or director. I agree Spotlight was a wonderful film (my mum just rang me saying I told you so) but I don't get how such an amazingly jaw dropping cinematic experience like Mad Max could be beaten. Obviously the Academy as a whole still don't credit genre films.
Also want to thank Nathaniel for providing such a wonderful site for following the Academy Awards. I'm a long time follower ( from the MR days) but rarely comment because I'm in Australia and by the time I get here the conversation has moved on :) Today the time zone was actually in my favour. So thanks Nathaniel 👏
Also, the music selections tonight were random and bizarre and not in a good way.
@ Mikey67 I know right? "Mrs Robinson" for Julianne Moore?
Think this was a pretty great year overall for the Oscars. Except the revolting win for Inarritu (he surely doesn't deserve the honour of two back-to-back Oscars) and the undeserved one for Sam Smith, this was actually a year when the wins made sense. Also with all the Oscars-So-White backstory, I felt that Chris Rock was clever and astute enough to keep it the focus of the night while also slowly loosening the tight vice.
We will never know for sure, but with Iñarritu taking director, I am confident we can credit That Spotlight upset to the preferential ballot.
It is a shame Miller could not win Director, after all the Mad Max wins, especially editing and costume design, that could have easily gone elsewhere.
Happy Leo won, may this push him towards trying different roles and more challenging ones. I will forever be in the camp who believes he's a great actor, regardless of snark about his preferences for somber projects, but I hope lifting this albatross off his shoulders will allow him to lighten up from time to time and give us a full star power fun performance like Damon did in the Martian.
Rylance was a sort of upset, but not really? A strong Supp Actress 2007 vibe for this win, with all precursors splitting and the respected foreign thespian who took Bafta prevailing. Rylance is the new Tilda, they should work together, the Gods have so commanded. Shame that Creed went home empty handed, and poor Stallone, once again the bridesmaid. Warner really dropped the ball with this one.
My least fave awards were Original Song and Supp Actress. I hated everything in Spectre, except the cute mouse scene, and the /Filmcast tearing it apart (look it up, it is guaranteed fun, Tasha Robinson and Dave Chen were on fire). And Supp Actress makes me angry because if she had won for Ex Machina it would still be category fraud, but it would mean peeps from decades on would have a reason to watch it, and now Oscar completists are stuck with The Danish Girl, and that is not bound to age well. At all.
Jacob Tremblay is the cutest thing! Prayer circle he escapes a Hollywood childhood mostly unscathed. Come on, hunky dad! Make sure you protect him! We're counting on you!
I know they've told people to stop clapping during the in memoriam because apparently disrespectful to show some dead people more love than others, but I miss trying to guess who was going to get the biggest applause.
But how could people at that theater not have heard of Bridge of Spies (it's a Tom Hanks and Stephen Spielberg film) or the Martian. There aren't that many movies that are only black. that theater probably has 12 screens.
I'll bet Rock picked a handful from the crowd to augment his case that black people know nothing about what films are making?
Pretty satisfied with these wins! The only one that bummed me out was George Miller missing out on director. And I was rooting for Mad Max for BP. But Spotlight is soooo good!! One of the better Oscars in a while.
Also, Ex Machina for Visual Effects?! Yes, please!
Terrible and awkward show. Painful.
Aliciia Vikander welcome to the: "I won a Supporting Actress Oscar and now I will be forget for ever" ...
Thrilled for Mark Rylance, the Ex-Machina visual effects win and Spotlight for best pic.
Sad for the lack of Carol love, the Best Song choice and also Alicia Vikanders dress.
Now that Leo had finally won an Oscar, we can all relax!! Lol
It's great they ended the night on a high surprise note; the biggest prize going to Spotlight (YAY!!) instead o The Revenant or The Big Short!
Its sad that Carol won zilch award
Ex Machina & Rylance are nice surprises!
Great wins overall, except for Best Supp Actress (Poor Kate!!), Best Song (that Sam Smith song IS really terrible!!) & Best Dir (I'm so glad he LOST BP, imagine the size of his EGO if he had won!! Lol)
Hate The Revenant and be happy that it lost if you want, but I think Spotlight is a pretty lame winner in its place. It's a good movie but I think people will have completely forgotten about it by next year. If the preferential ballot is just going to push this towards blander more "inoffensive" movies like Spotlight, The King's Speech, Argo, and even The Artist that's ultimately not a good thing. Aside from 12 Years a Slave and maybe Birdman all the Oscar winners of the 2010s have tended towards the "oh right, that movie existed, didn't it" direction... more than even before I guess.
Yeah have to agree with MJS.
I think Spotlight will fall in The King's Speech and Argo category of good but forgettable movies.
But I do find The Artist and Birdman as masterpieces.
Haven't seen 12 Years A Slave.
Spotlight is miles better than Argo and The King's Speech--a true ensemble piece about one of the most disturbing and shameful cover-ups of modern history. Hardly "safe" territory if you ask me. And it's a truly relevant piece too, in my opinion, about normal, smart, driven people doing their job to the absolute best of their abilities.
But the worst win of the night was undoubtedly Best Song. Sam Smith's speech was lovely but that song and performance was atrocious, sorry. That's a huge head scratcher.
Bummed Kate Winslet lost. Thrilled for Mark Rylance. What a truly lived-in performance. Was not rooting for Sly. Good god I couldn't even understand anything he was saying in that 30 second clip!
I just don't like Sam Smith's singing voice,nice speech though,he's succumbed to the "You gotta be a thin in Hollyweird",Will anyone remember Vikander's win,seems so odd to me,winnning for a film no one liked with bad reviews,hell if that's the case Juila Roberts shoulda won for Secret In Their Eyes.
A night of surprises, right up until the end. Other than MMFR or Room, there honestly there wasn't a BP winner I would have been truly satisfied with. Spotlight is a good movie, nothing more. My feeling is that we should wait 5 years and see how it has aged after a bit. My sense is that it will be regarded as a middling winner (which is what it feels like now). Agree that Vikander should have won for Ex Machina, a movie that will likely stand the test of time, unlike Danish Girl, which will fade quickly. I too was glad (and very surprised) that Rylance pulled it out but actually felt for Stallone (of whom I've never been a fan). I only pray Rylance doesn't end up playing a super villain in a superhero franchise in 3 years (if worse comes to worst he can play Uncle Ben when they reboot Spiderman for the umpteenth time). The big hero of the night was Jacob Tremblay. Migosh is he just adorable. I hope they keep an eye on him and don't let Hollywood mess with him.
did the 'bear story' winners bring their dates onstage with them?
It only belatedly occurred to me last night, since it slipped my mind that George Miller already has an Oscar (Best Animated Feature for Happy Feet), but with Margaret Sixel's win for Film Editing they join the club of married couples who both have competitive Oscars. All of the other examples I can think of (Bardem/Cruz, Douglas/Zeta-Jones, Jolie/Pitt, Leigh/Olivier) involve movie stars (though in some cases there were wins for producing), so I was wondering, are there any other cases one can think of involving people who work solely behind the camera?
Pakistani filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid Chonnoy winning her 2nd Oscar for documentary short... Bring that gold home baby!
In answer to my own question, Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh.
Sean C., Spike Jonze and Sofia Coppola, but they're divorced.
I'm sure Sam was wrong about his being the only gay man to win an Oscar,Dustin Lance Black in 08 or the costume design Tim Chappell winner for Priscilla,Mckellen he misquoted,typical lack of research,actually Mckellen has always stated no openly gay actor has won.