IÑÁRRITU MAKES HISTORY, BUT LEO STEALS THE SPOTLIGHT

Alejandro G Iñárritu picked up his second Best Director Oscar for “The Revenant” (making him only the third director with back to back wins) but his film “The Revenant” lost out to “Spotlight” in the Best Picture Race, and Leonardo DiCaprio ended a 23-year wait since his first nomination to pick up an Oscar, on his sixth nod, for his gritty, grimacing role of Hugh Glass in Iñárritu's revenge film.

Brie Larson won Best Actress for “Room”, ahead of heavyweights Cate Blanchett and Jennifer Lawrence, British theatre great Mark Rylance picked up the Best Supporting Actor for “Bridge of Spies” while Alicia Vikander's role in “The Danish Girl” won her Best Supporting Actress.

Chris Rock returned after over a decade to host the ceremony, held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, and gave a punch-packed opening monologue addressing the diversity controversy that had shrouded this year's nominations. Calling it the “White People's Choice Awards”, Rock went on to point out that the overlooking of actors of colour was not a new phenomenon. He kept the show alive with his wit, characterized by the fact it was never without substance. Despite that, the show ran well over three and a half hours, nearly an hour longer than the longest movie in nominations (“The Revenant”).

DiCaprio, who had brought his mother a date to the ceremony, seized his moment to make a statement about climate change. “Making 'The Revenant' was about man's relationship to the natural world, the world that we collectively felt in 2015 as the hottest year in reported history — our production needed to move to the southern tip of this planet just to be able to find snow,” DiCaprio said. “Climate change is real. It is happening right now. It's the most urgent threat facing our entire species and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating. We need to support leaders around the world who do not speak for the big polluters, but who speak for all of humanity, for the indigenous people of the world, for the billions and billions of underprivileged people out there who would be most affected by this.”

“Let us not take this planet for granted. I do not take tonight for granted,” he closed.

 “Spotlight”, the Tom McCarthy-directorial featuring a heavyweight cast of Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Stanley Tucci, Liev Schreiber and John Slattery, earlier won the Best Original Screenplay. The biographical crime drama focuses on The Boston Globe newspaper's eight-month investigative journalism in 2001 to uncover cases of child molestation by Roman Catholic priests. “The Big Short”, which had five nods including for Best Director and Best Picture, had its consolation win in Best Adapted Screenplay.

Pixar's “Inside Out” won Best Animated Feature; “Amy”, the documentary on singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse, won best Documentary Feature and “Son of Saul” from Hungary was named Best Foreign Language Film. “A Girl in the River” won Best Short Documentary; “Stutterer” was named Best Live Action Short Film, while “Bear Story” was named Best Animated Short.

However, it was Australian director George Miller's “Mad Max: Fury Road” that took home the highest number of statuettes, six. All the awards came in technical categories --      Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Production Design, Makeup, Costume Design and Film Editing, a testament to the stunning aesthetics of the film. “The Revenant”, which competed in each of the categories again the Tom Hardy-Charlize Theron starrer, however took home Best Cinematography, making it Mexican cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki's third Oscar in a row. “Ex Machina” took the only other technical award, for Best Visual Effects.

Marquee rock star Dave Grohl was a special performer at the ceremony, performing Beatles classic “Blackbird” on an acoustic guitar as part of the ceremony's “In Memoriam” segment to pay tribute to those deceased in the last year. The list included names like Sir Christopher Lee, Leonard Nimoy, Alan Rickman and David Bowie. As per tradition, nominees Sam Smith and Lady Gaga also sang their nominated songs.

 “The Hateful Eight” won Best Original Score, while Sam Smith's Bond theme song “Writing's On The Wall” (from “Spectre”) won Best Song, seeing off what many thought were stronger contenders, especially Lady Gaga's “'Till It Happens To You” (for the documentary “The Hunting Ground”, that deals with sexual assault on campus in the USA).

The biggest snub this year was Ridley Scott's “The Martian”, which went home empty-handed despite coming into the ceremony with seven nominations. “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” was also nominated in five technical categories, but failed to score any.