Katie Cameron
A&E Editor
Sunday marked the 88th Academy Awards. As always, it was a night of beautiful gowns (and beautiful tuxes — looking at you, Mark Ruffalo), speeches ushered to hasty conclusions by orchestra music and praise for movies 90 percent of America hasn’t seen. But for those who missed the Oscars this year, here’s a quick rehash of all the important moments.
Chris Rock’s Opening Monologue
Comedian Chris Rock was this year’s host, and used his opening monologue to address the elephant in the room: the lack of black nominees in any of the four major acting categories. The snub — for the second year in a row — triggered the #OscarsSoWhite movement, and Rock referenced the #BlackLivesMatter movement and the boycotts made by black actors and actresses in protest against the Academy in his discussion of this issue. While Chris Rock’s monologue addressed the issues in the most direct way possible (“You’re damn right Hollywood’s racist,” Rock said) the closeup shots of all the forced, nervous smiles on the faces of half the oh-so-white audience’s faces only helped to reinforce his message.
The Big Winners
George Miller’s post-apocalyptic Mad Max: Fury Road won the most awards of the night, with six Oscars, though Spotlight still snagged Best Picture overall. Alejandro González Iñárritu took home the Academy Award for Best Director for The Revenant, his second win in a row in the category following his win last year for Birdman. With the consecutive victories, Iñárritu joins a narrow list of only two other directors to ever do so.
In the major acting categories, Alicia Vikander won Best Supporting Actress for The Danish Girl, while Mark (*Mark Ruffalo’s face lights up*) Rylance (*Mark Ruffalo’s face falls*) won Best Supporting Actor for his role in Bridge of Spies. Later, Brie Larson of Room took home the Oscar for Best Actress, and then some guy named Leonardo DiCaprio won Best Actor for The Revenant.
And by some guy, I mean five time Academy Award nominee Leonardo DiCaprio. DiCaprio mounted the stage to claim his award, causing middle-aged women everywhere to swoon and finally putting an end to the blitzkrieg of “WHERE IS LEO’S OSCAR?” internet memes. Leo then made a very very well-rehearsed speech thanking two decades worth of people that he had been waiting to thank.
The Cookies
In a moment of advertising genius, Chris Rock’s daughters Lola and Zahra brought their Girl Scout troop to the Oscars, selling more cookies than you ever did in your mom’s office. Kate Winslet and Steve Carell both wisely chose Tagalongs, while Sylvester Stallone opted for Savannah Smiles and consequentially lost all the respect he had gained from his performance in Creed. Morgan Freeman did what any of us would do and shoved a bunch of Thin Mints into his mouth after announcing Spotlight as the winner of Best Picture before peacing out and walking offstage. Though Chris Rock joked that his daughters had raised $65,243 through cookie sales, he later actually had to publicly announce that the figure was made up after some initial confusion about just how much more money Hollywood celebrities have to burn than the rest of us.