Also see: Oscars observations — sea of hate, red carpet so black, ‘Who are you wearing?’
If the 2016 Oscars were a basketball game, we’d say the first half was convincingly won by “Mad Max: Fury Road,” but “The Revenant” came back to even things up in the second half. And neither ended up winning the tournament.
“Revenant” took home three trophies, including director Alejando Gonzalez Inarritu and actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who won on his sixth Oscar nomination. Both “Fury Road” and “Revenant” were bested in best picture voting, though, by “Spotlight,” the drama about journalists uncovering the story of abusive priests in the Roman Catholic Church, which won a total of two awards.
DiCaprio cited his film’s difficulty in finding snowy shooting locations because “we collectively felt 2015 as the hottest year in recorded history” and thanked directors who worked with him early in his 25-year movie career.
In the technical categories presented early in the evening, “Fury Road” cleaned up, scoring more wins — six — than any other film, including editing, production design and costume design.
The best actress trophy went to first-time nominee Brie Larson, who swept nearly all of the pre-Oscar awards for her performance as a kidnapped woman raising a son in captivity in “Room.” She thanked young co-star Jacob Tremblay, moviegoers and the film festivals that helped launch her movie.
Bloomington Kennedy graduate Pete Docter won his second Oscar for the animated feature, “Inside Out” (he previously won for “Up”). Docter dedicated his award to young people who, like the main character in “Inside Out,” are feeling depressed or lost: “There are days you’re going to feel sad, angry. That’s nothing you can choose, but you can choose to make stuff,” said Docter, singing the praises of creative endeavors. “It’s going to make a difference.”
Docter wasn’t the only winner with Minnesota ties. Guthrie Theater veteran Mark Rylance, already a two-time Tony Award winner, earned his first Oscar for appearing opposite Tom Hanks in “Bridge of Spies.” Rylance was in “Nice Fish” (now playing in Brooklyn), “Peer Gynt,” “Twelfth Night” and “Measure for Measure” at the Guthrie. (St. Louis Park natives Joel and Ethan Coen were nominated for co-writing “Bridge of Spies” but did not get to add to their shelf of Oscars.)
Alicia Vikander earned the lone award for “The Danish Girl,” continuing the supporting actress category’s recent history of rewarding foreign-born ingenues such as Lupita Nyong’o, Juliette Binoche and Penelope Cruz.
Hungary’s “Son of Saul” won the foreign film award.But there was a “foreign” feel to the entire evening, with many Australian winners for “Mad Max: Fury Road,” foreign winners in both supporting categories (Mark Rylance was born in Milwaukee but has spent most of his time in England), cinematography, directing, all three of the short film categories and musical score.
The winner for his “The Hateful Eight” score, Ennio Morricone, who is 87, gave his speech in Italian, with the assistance of a translator. A six-time nominee but first-time recipient, his first film credit is 1959’s “Death of a Friend.”
Throughout the evening, the most-discussed subject wasn’t who was winning but who wasn’t: people of color. Host Chris Rock addressed the fact that, for the second year in a row, the 20 acting nominees were all white in a hilarious and pointed opening monologue (while also drawing criticism that his bit about three Asian-American children was itself racist). The subject recurred throughout the evening, including in a message from Cheryl Boone Isaacs, president of the motion picture academy, who noted that diversity simply makes economic sense in an industry whose audience is so vast and diverse.
As usual, the year’s top grossers — “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” “Jurassic World” and “Avengers: Age of Ultron” — did not win awards, but a few box office hits, including “Fury Road” and “Revenant” also were hits with Oscar voters.
