Steve Golin, Blye Pagon Faust, Nicole Rocklin and Michael Sugar, winners of the award for best picture for “Spotlight”. (AP)
LOS ANGELES —In an underdog win for a movie about an underdog profession, the newspaper drama “Spotlight” took best picture Sunday at an Academy Awards riven by protest and outrage, and electrified by an unflinching Chris Rock.
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.” McCarthy’s 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 Alejandro 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.”
“We would not be here today without the heroic efforts of our reporters,” said producer Blye Pagon Faust. “Not only do they effect global change, but they absolutely show us the necessity for investigative journalism.”
The night, however, belonged to host Rock, who launched immediately into the uproar over the lack of diversity in this year’s nominees, and didn’t let up. “The White People’s Choice Awards,” he called the Oscars, which were protested beforehand outside the Dolby Theatre by the Rev. Al Sharpton, and saw some viewers boycotting the broadcast.
Rock insured that the topic remained at the forefront throughout the evening, usually finding hearty laughs in the process. In an award show traditionally known for song-and-dance routines and high doses of glamour, Rock gave the 88th Academy Awards a charged atmosphere, keeping with the outcry that followed a second straight year of all-white acting nominees.
“Is Hollywood racist? You’re damn right it’s racist,” said Rock. “Hollywood is sorority racist. It’s like: We like you Rhonda, but you’re not a Kappa.”
Streaks, broken and extended, dominated much of the evening. After going home empty-handed four times previously, Leonardo DiCaprio won his first
Oscar, for a best actor in “The Revenant”—a gruff, grunting performance that traded little on the actor’s youthful charisma. DiCaprio, greeted with a standing ovation, took the moment to talk about climate change.
“Let us not take our planet for granted,” said DiCaprio. “I do not take tonight for granted.”
Leonardo DiCaprio with the award for best actor in a leading role for “The Revenant”. (AP)
His director, Inarritu won back-to-back directing awards after the triumph last year of “Birdman.” It’s a feat matched by only two other filmmakers: John Ford and Joseph L. Mankiewicz. “The Revenant” also won best cinematography for Emmanuel Lubezki, who 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, whose win meant three straight years of Mexican filmmakers winning best director, was one of the few winners to remark passionately on diversity in his acceptance 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.
The night’s most-awarded film, however, went to neither “Spotlight” nor “The Revenant.” George Miller’s post-apocalyptic chase film, “Mad Max:
Fury Road” sped away with six awards in technical categories for editing, makeup, production design, sound editing, sound mixing and costume design.
“Us Mad Maxes are doing OK tonight,” said editor Margaret Sixel, who’s married to Miller. The flurry of wins brought a parade of Australian craftsmen
onstage in an Oscars that was at least internationally diverse.
Best actress went to Brie Larson, the 26-year-old breakout of the mother-son captive drama “Room.” The Sweden-born Alicia Vikander took best supporting actress for the transgender pioneer tale “The Danish Girl.”
But the wins at times felt secondary to the sharp, unflinching host. Rock confessed that he deliberated over joining the Oscars boycott and bowing out as host, but concluded: “The last thing I need is to lose another job to Kevin Hart.”
Gasps went around the Dolby when Mark Rylance won best supporting actor over Sylvester Stallone. Nominated a second time for role of Rocky Balboa
39 years later, Stallone had been expected to win his first acting Oscar for the “Rocky” sequel “Creed.” But the famed stage actor who co-starred in Steven Spielberg’s “Bridge of Spies” won instead.
Adam McKay and Charles Randolph took best adapted screenplay for their self-described “trauma-dy,” “The Big Short,” about the mortgage meltdown of 2008. Best known for broader comedies like “Anchorman” and “Step Brothers,” McKay gave an election-year warning of the sway of “big money” and “weirdo billionaires” in the presidential campaign.
Talk of election was otherwise largely absent the ceremony, though Vice President Joe Biden (whose presence added even greater security to the Dolby Theatre) was met by a standing ovation before talking about sexual assault on college campuses in an introduction to best-song nominee Lady Gaga.
The composer John Williams (“Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” which went away empty-handed despite being the biggest box-office hit of the decade) came in with his 50th nod, but lost to Ennio Morricone, who, at 87, landed his first competitive Oscar for Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight.” (He was given an honorary one in 2009.)
Sam Smith and songwriting partner Jimmy Napes picked up the Academy Award for best song for “Writing’s on the Wall,” from the James Bond film “Spectre.”
“I stand here tonight as a proud gay man and I hope we can all stand together as equals one day,” said Smith.
Best animated feature film went to “Inside Out,” Pixar’s eighth win in the category since it was created in 2001. Asif Kapadia’s Amy Winehouse portrait, “Amy,” took best documentary. Hungary scored its second best foreign language Oscar for Laszlo Nemes’ “Son of Saul,” a harrowing drama set within a concentration camp.
