Oscars shines on Spotlight

By: Reham Essam

After years of nominations and no wins Leonardo Di Caprio finally walked away from the stage with a statuette in hand. Di Caprio won the Oscar for Best Actor in a leading role for his performance in the Revenant.DiCaprio's portrayal of Hugh Glass in The Revenant (2015) also won his second Golder Globe Award for Best Actor-Motion Picture Drama. In addition, he won his first BAFTA this year. Prior to tonight's win, Dicaprio was nominated for Best Actor in The Aviator, Blood Diamond, and The Wolf of Wall Street, and Best Supporting Actor in What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

Di Caprio in Oscars 2016

When he accepted the award, Leo did the usual rundown of thanks-parents, costars, and his director. He then focused his attention to the issue of Global warning, urging those in positions of power (and not) to take the cause seriously.

Spotlight Won the coveted Oscar for best picture when the 88th Academy Awards were handed out Sunday night in Hollywood, upsetting The Revenant and Mad Max: Fury Road, which entered the night with 12 and 10 nominations respectively.

Mad Max: Fury Road just about swept the early categories, winning six Oscars, but The Revenant also took two of the top awards. Alejandro Gonzalez won the prize for best director, giving him his second consecutive Oscar, and Leonardo DiCaprio won the Oscar for best actor in a leading role, his first.

Brie Larson won her first Oscar, taking the award for best leading actress for her role in Room. Best supporting actress went to Alicia Vikander for The Danish Girl, and best supporting actor was won by Mark Rylance for his role in Bridge of Spies.

This year's event is not without some controversy. When the nominations were announced on Jan. 14 several media outlets reported a lack of diversity among the nominees. Some celebrities even called for viewers to boycott Sunday's airing of the Academy Awards, and the overall outrage over the exclusion of people's color got hashtag #OscarSoWhiteTrending on Twitter.

These reactions ultimately led the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to make modifications to its voting process and declare, "The Board goal is to commit to doubling the number of women and diverse members of academy by 2020."

Host Chris Rock didn't shy away from commenting on the issue in his opening monologue. He joked that the Oscars are otherwise known as "the white people's choice awards" and said that if hosts were nominated, he wouldn't have gotten the job that it would have instead gone to Neil Patrick Harris.

Oscars ceremony 2016

In the list below, I've marked the winners in each category in bold.

Picture

The Big Short

Bridge of Spies

Brooklyn

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Martian

The Revenant

Room

Spotlight

Actor in a Leading Role

Bryan Cranston, Trumbo

Matt Damon, The Martian

Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant

Micheal Fassbender, Steve Jobs

Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl

Director

Adam McKay, The Big Short
George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road

Alejandro González Iñárritu, The Revenant

Lenny Abrahamson, Room

Tom McCarthy, Spotlight

Visual Effects

Ex Machina
Mad Max: Fury Road

The Martian

The Revenant

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

The Big Short
Brooklyn

Carol

The Martian

Room