Compared to the BAFTA Film Awards earlier in the month, last night’s Academy Awards 2016 were a little on the sedate side, despite presenter Chris Rock’s best efforts and the controversy surrounding the lack of black nominees in the 88th Awards Ceremony. However, there was at least one major surprise, which didn’t really happen at the BAFTAs, as Spotlight beat The Revenant to the Best Picture award, despite Best Actor going to Leonardo DiCaprio and Best Director going to Alejandro G. Iñárritu.
The comedy highlight for the show was Rock himself, who delivered some strong jokes targeting everyone from the Academy itself for its lack of black nominations and the industry for not doing more to promote diversity, to Jada Pinkett Smith for boycotting the Oscars this year. However, outside of this there weren’t too many talking points to enjoy, which resulted in a slightly staid night when Rock wasn’t at his best.
More than anything else we’d have to say that the overriding take-away we have of the 2016 Academy Awards Ceremony is that we were just a little bored. While the awards season does provide a little barometer on some of the important movies to watch, if you’ve managed to miss them already, it does distract from the sheer enjoyment of the movies themselves and the very personal reaction we have to the films we watch.
In terms of the criticism the 88th Academy Awards has received for the lack of black nominations, the reality is that the world has a lot of different races that merge and diversify as the years go by. Complaining that there was a lack of black nominations in an American Awards ceremony which had its most significant Native American attendee back in 1973 is like bemoaning Hugh Hefner for the lack of gay men running around the Playboy Mansion in bunny outfits.
If we’d had our way, we’re not sure if Will Smith should have been nominated for Concussion, because if we’re honest his lines drop just a few too many times compared to the faultless performances of Leonardo DiCaprio, but then we’d also be inclined question Matt Damon and Michael Fassbender’s inclusion. However, there is pleny of talent from Straight Outta Compton who should have been in the mix. The most important point though is that all awards ceremonies need to be about genuine quality first, not an attempt at all-inclusive equality.
With that in mind, we are infinitely disappointed that neither Forest Goodluck, Duane Howard, Melaw Nakehk’o or Arthur Redcloud weren’t among the nominees, but then there’s not much room for maneouvre in either of the Supporting Role awards, which could be a part of the problem in itself. The Academy Awards only has five nominees for the majority of the categories, but the movie world has moved on significantly in the last twenty years or so with more movies being released each year and more diversity in the films that are being created. Maybe the only way to truly be able to credit such a large body of production is to increase the number of nominees in each category.
Our final word on the race issue when it comes to the movie industry is that there is undoubtedly something to it and there’s a lot more for the industry to improve upon. The responsibility sits with both the industry to develop and feature more diverse talent and with the Academy to recognise it when it arrives on the big screen.
That said, there was an element of diversity to the list of 2016 Academy Award winners and nominees; Leonardo DiCaprio’s parents have German and Italian origins, Alejandro G. Iñárritu is Mexican, Christian Bale is Welsh, Alê Abreu is Brazilian, Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Yoshiaki Nishimura are Japanese and Jóhann Jóhannsson is Icelandic, to name but a few. Equally, when you look over a longer period of time there has been a lot more diverse races featured in the list of winners and nominees. Things are rarely black and white and there’s a lot of complexity to solving true racial equality in any industry, let alone the movie game, but then with sexual equality and other issues to deal with we’re still a fair way away from equilibrium.
What the race controversy also does is detract from what the Academy Awards should be about; celebrating the best movies for doing something exceptional. This year it detracts from the importance of Spotlight taking the Oscar for Best Picture, the genuine brilliance of everyone involved in The Revenant and the impressive haul for Mad Max: Fury Road. It’s something that the Academy needs to address for next year to get things back to focusing on the positives.
2016 Academy Award winners and nominees:
Best Picture
Winner – Spotlight – Michael Sugar, Steve Golin, Nicole Rocklin and Blye Pagon Faust
Nominees:
The Big Short – Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner
Bridge of Spies – Steven Spielberg, Marc Platt and Kristie Macosko Krieger
Brooklyn – Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey
Mad Max: Fury Road – Doug Mitchell and George Miller
The Martian – Simon Kinberg, Ridley Scott, Michael Schaefer and Mark Huffam
The Revenant – Arnon Milchan, Steve Golin, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Mary Parent and Keith Redmon
Room – Ed Guiney
Directing
Winner – The Revenant – Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Nominees:
The Big Short – Adam McKay
Mad Max: Fury Road – George Miller
Room – Lenny Abrahamson
Spotlight – Tom McCarthy
Actor in a Leading Role
Winner – Leonardo DiCaprio – The Revenant
Nominees:
Bryan Cranston – Trumbo
Matt Damon – The Martian
Michael Fassbender – Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne – The Danish Girl
Actor in a Supporting Role
Winner – Mark Rylance – Bridge of Spies
Nominees:
Christian Bale – The Big Short
Tom Hardy – The Revenant
Mark Ruffalo – Spotlight
Sylvester Stallone – Creed
Actress in a Leading Role
Winner – Brie Larson – Room
Nominees:
Cate Blanchett – Carol
Jennifer Lawrence – Joy
Charlotte Rampling – 45 Years
Saoirse Ronan – Brooklyn
Actress in a Supporting Role
Winner – Alicia Vikander – The Danish Girl
Nominees:
Jennifer Jason Leigh – The Hateful Eight
Rooney Mara – Carol
Rachel McAdams – Spotlight
Kate Winslet – Steve Jobs
Animated Feature Film
Winner – Inside Out – Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera
Nominees:
Anomalisa – Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson and Rosa Tran
Boy and the World – Alê Abreu
Shaun the Sheep Movie – Mark Burton and Richard Starzak
When Marnie Was There – Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Yoshiaki Nishimura
Cinematography
Winner – The Revenant – Emmanuel Lubezki
Nominees:
Carol – Ed Lachman
The Hateful Eight – Robert Richardson
Mad Max: Fury Road – John Seale
Sicario – Roger Deakins
Costume Design
Winner – Mad Max: Fury Road – Jenny Beavan
Nominees:
Carol – Sandy Powell
Cinderella – Sandy Powell
The Danish Girl – Paco Delgado
The Revenant – Jacqueline West
Film Editing
Winner – Mad Max: Fury Road – Margaret Sixel
Nominees:
The Big Short – Hank Corwin
The Revenant – Stephen Mirrione
Spotlight – Tom McArdle
Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey
Foreign Language Film
Winner – Son of Saul (Hungary)
Nominees:
Embrace of the Serpent (Colombia)
Mustang (France)
Theeb (Jordan)
A War (Denmark)
Makeup and Hairstyling
Winner – Mad Max: Fury Road – Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega and Damian Martin
Nominees:
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared – Love Larson and Eva von Bahr
The Revenant – Siân Grigg, Duncan Jarman and Robert Pandini
Production Design
Winner – Mad Max: Fury Road – Colin Gibson and Lisa Thompson
Nominees:
Bridge of Spies – Adam Stockhausen, Rena DeAngelo and Bernhard Henrich
The Danish Girl – Eve Stewart and Michael Standish
The Martian – Arthur Max and Celia Bobak
The Revenant – Jack Fisk and Hamish Purdy
Sound Editing
Winner – Mad Max: Fury Road – Mark Mangini and David White
Nominees:
The Martian – Oliver Tarney
The Revenant – Martin Hernandez and Lon Bender
Sicario – Alan Robert Murray
Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Matthew Wood and David Acord
Sound Mixing
Winner – Mad Max: Fury Road – Chris Jenkins, Gregg Rudloff and Ben Osmo
Nominees:
Bridge of Spies – Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Drew Kunin
The Martian – Paul Massey, Mark Taylor and Mac Ruth
The Revenant – Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño, Randy Thom and Chris Duesterdiek
Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Andy Nelson, Christopher Scarabosio and Stuart Wilson
Visual Effects
Winner – Ex Machina – Andrew Whitehurst, Paul Norris, Mark Ardington and Sara Bennett
Nominees:
Mad Max: Fury Road – Andrew Jackson, Tom Wood, Dan Oliver and Andy Williams
The Martian – Richard Stammers, Anders Langlands, Chris Lawrence and Steven Warner
The Revenant – Rich McBride, Matthew Shumway, Jason Smith and Cameron Waldbauer
Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Neal Scanlan and Chris Corbould
Music (Original Score)
Winner – The Hateful Eight – Ennio Morricone
Nominees:
Bridge of Spies – Thomas Newman
Carol – Carter Burwell
Sicario – Jóhann Jóhannsson
Star Wars: The Force Awakens – John Williams
Writing (Original Screenplay)
Winner – Spotlight – Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy
Nominees:
Bridge of Spies – Matt Charman and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
Ex Machina – Alex Garland
Inside Out – Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley, Pete Docter and Ronnie del Carmen
Straight Outta Compton – Jonathan Herman, Andrea Berloff, S. Leigh Savidge & Alan Wenkus and Andrea Berloff
Documentary (Short Subject)
Winner – A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness – Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
Nominees:
Body Team 12 – David Darg and Bryn Mooser
Chau, beyond the Lines – Courtney Marsh and Jerry Franck
Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah – Adam Benzine
Last Day of Freedom – Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman
Documentary (Feature)
Winner – Amy – Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees
Nominees:
Cartel Land – Matthew Heineman and Tom Yellin
The Look of Silence – Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen
What Happened, Miss Simone? – Liz Garbus, Amy Hobby and Justin Wilkes
Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom – Evgeny Afineevsky and Den Tolmor
Short Film (Animated)
Winner – Bear Story – Gabriel Osorio and Pato Escala
Nominees:
Prologue – Richard Williams and Imogen Sutton
Sanjay’s Super Team – Sanjay Patel and Nicole Grindle
We Can’t Live without Cosmos – Konstantin Bronzit
World of Tomorrow – Don Hertzfeldt
Short Film (Live Action)
Winner – Stutterer – Benjamin Cleary and Serena Armitage
Nominees:
Ave Maria – Basil Khalil and Eric Dupont
Day One – Henry Hughes
Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut) – Patrick Vollrath
Shok – Jamie Donoughue
Music (Original Song)
Winner – Spectre – Writing’s On The Wall – Jimmy Napes and Sam Smith
Nominees:
Fifty Shades of Grey – Earned It – The Weeknd, Ahmad Balshe, Jason Quenneville and Stephan Moccio
Racing Extinction – Manta Ray – Racing Extinction, J. Ralph and Anohni
Youth – Simple Song #3 – David Lang
The Hunting Ground – Til It Happens To You – Diane Warren and Lady Gaga
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
Winner – The Big Short – Charles Randolph and Adam McKay
Nominees:
Brooklyn – Nick Hornby
Carol – Phyllis Nagy
The Martian – Drew Goddard
Room – Emma Donoghue
