It was one of the most anticipated moments in recent award show history: Chris Rock’s opening monologue at the 88th Academy Awards… and he didn’t hold back last night. The controversy surrounding the lack of black nominees in the running for this year’s awards was the subject and it was clear he was prepared. Some of his best lines…? Rock’s #OscarsSoWhite jokes:
“You realize if they nominated hosts, I wouldn’t even get this job! You’d all be watching Neil Patrick Harris right now.”
“No black nominees. People are like, ‘Chris you should boycott, Chris you should quit.’ How come it’s only unemployed people that tell you to quit something?
“I understand you’re mad. I’m not hating… Jada’s mad her man Will was not nominated for Concussion. I get it … It’s not fair that Will was this good and didn’t get nominated. You’re right. It’s also not fair that Will was paid $20 million for Wild Wild West, okay?”
“This year, things are going to be a little different. This year, in the In Memoriam package, it’s just going to be black people that were shot by the cops on their way to the movies … yes I said it!”
It didn’t stop there. It was a running theme throughout the night. Returning from a commercial, Rock opened with,
“We’re black!“
His full monologue is below and worth watching (again, if you already saw it.)
We posted 538.com’s predictions for the big 6 awards on Friday, which were pretty much what everyone was expecting too. The big winners of the night were Best Actor, Leonardo DiCaprio for The Revenant (after 6 noms, everyone was saying it was his night, and it was) Brie Larson won Best Actress for Room as she had done a clean sweep of every award, she had been nominated for, so the other actresses in the category must have held out little hope of winning. Alicia Vikander won Best Supporting Actress for The Danish Girl and Alejandro G. Iñárritu won the second year in a row for Best Director for The Revenant.
The two big upsets were Mark Rylance beating out the favorite Sly Stallone for Best Supporting Actor and Best Picture went to Spotlight. Director Tom McCarthy, who also won with Josh Singer for Best Original Screenplay, said of his film,
“We made this film for all the journalists who have, and continue to, hold the powerful accountable, and for the survivors whose courage and will to overcome is really an inspiration [to] us all.”
(On a side note, last year Michael Keaton lost Best Actor to Eddie Remayne, but was in the winning Best Picture, Iñárritu’s Birdman and this year ended up being in the Best Picture for the second year in a row. That’s a hat trick!)
The Academy’s President, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, made a great speech about Oscar diversity and changing the system and if has changed over the years, in terms of categories, if not inclusion. They’ve added more Best Picture nominees and and Animated Feature category. Mad Max: Fury Road picked up six awards, the most of any film, but they were all technical (boring) ones. So, sorry, it murdered the middle of the show to hand out ALL those awards. Talk about change, in the future they need to do those OFF CAMERA. They presented their honorary awards, this year going to Gena Rowlands, Debbie Reynolds and Spike Lee, off camera which I, and many others would MUCH prefer to have seen over Best Sound Editing. PLEASE.
Sam Smith sang Writing’s on the Wall from Spectre and later won for Best Song with Jimmy Napes. Accepting Smith said,
“Sir Ian McKellen … said that no openly gay man had every won an Oscar, and if this is the case, even if it isn’t the case, I want to dedicate this to the LGBT community all around the world. I stand here tonight as a proud gay man, and I hope we can all stand together as equals one day.”
Great sentiment and a proud moment, but there’s a list of gay winner of Best Song winners like Elton John, Stephen Sondheim and (although not a gay man) Melissa Etheridge, who have won, among others over the years. (Bill Condon, an openly gay filmmaker, won an Oscar in 1999 for writing the screenplay to Gods and Monsters, which he also directed. Before him, John Schlesinger won an Oscar in 1970 for directing Midnight Cowboy. True Blood creator Alan Ball, won an Oscar in 2000 for writing American Beauty.)
Nominee Lady Gaga (for Best Song) was introduced by Vice President Joe Biden who asked the audience to take a pledge against campus rape…
“I Pledge:
To recognize that non-consensual sex is sexual assault.
To identify situations in which sexual assault may occur.
To intervene in situations where consent has not or cannot be given.
To create an environment in which sexual assault is unacceptable and survivors are supported.”
Pretty powerful activism, which as a running theme, ran through the night. Gaga performing Til It Happens to You, accompanied by dozens of women and with phases ranging from “survivor” to “not your fault” written on their forearms was one of the night’s most emotional moments, and the crowd gave a standing-ovation in response.
The other moving music tribute was the amazing composer, 87 year-old Ennio Morricone who won Best Original Score for The Hateful Eight and trans actress Holly Woodlawn was honored with her own hard during the perplexing song and singer choice for In Memoriam. Dave Grohl sing The Beatles Blackbird? OK.
Rock’s food concession bit (to mirror Ellen’s famous pizza delivery moment last year) was raising $65,000 for his daughter’s Girl Scout Cookie drive. The crowd ate up his plea.
“Leo! You made $30 million! Come on!“
It went on WAY too long (get rid of those live tech awards!) but Rock delivered and activism was front and center, so it could have been worse, right? Here’s a full list of all the nominees…
Best Picture
“The Big Short”
“Bridge of Spies”
“Brooklyn”
“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“The Martian”
“The Revenant”
“Room”
“Spotlight”
Best Actor
Bryan Cranston, “Trumbo”
Matt Damon, “The Martian”
Leonardo DiCaprio, “The Revenant”
Michael Fassbender, “Steve Jobs”
Eddie Redmayne, “The Danish Girl”
Best Actress
Cate Blanchett, “Carol”
Brie Larson, “Room”
Jennifer Lawrence, “Joy”
Charlotte Rampling, “45 Years”
Saoirse Ronan, “Brooklyn”
Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale, “The Big Short”
Tom Hardy, “The Revenant”
Mark Ruffalo, “Spotlight”
Mark Rylance, “Bridge of Spies”
Sylvester Stallone, “Creed”
Best supporting Actress
Jennifer Jason Leigh, “The Hateful Eight”
Rooney Mara, “Carol”
Rachel McAdams, “Spotlight”
Alicia Vikander, “The Danish Girl”
Kate Winslet, “Steve Jobs”
Best Director
“The Big Short,” Adam McKay
“Mad Max: Fury Road,” George Miller
“The Revenant,” Alejandro G. Iñárritu
“Room,” Lenny Abrahamson
“Spotlight,” Tom McCarthy
Best Original Screenplay
“Bridge of Spies,” by Matt Charman and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
“Ex Machina,” by Alex Garland
“Inside Out,” by Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve and Josh Cooley; original story by Pete Docter and Ronnie del Carmen
“Spotlight,” by Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy
“Straight Outta Compton,” by Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff; story by S. Leigh Savidge & Alan Wenkus and Andrea Berloff
Best Adapted Screenplay
“The Big Short,” Charles Randolph and Adam McKay
“Brooklyn,” Nick Hornby
“Carol,” Phyllis Nagy
“The Martian,” Drew Goddard
“Room,” Emma Donoghue
Best Costume Design
“Carol,” Sandy Powell
“Cinderella,” Sandy Powell
“The Danish Girl,” Paco Delgado
“Mad Max: Fury Road,” Jenny Beavan
“The Revenant,” Jacqueline West
Best Production Design
“Bridge of Spies,” production design by Adam Stockhausen; set decoration by Rena DeAngelo and Bernhard Henrich
“The Danish Girl,” production design by Eve Stewart; set decoration by Michael Standish
“Mad Max: Fury Road,” production design by Colin Gibson; set decoration by Lisa Thompson
“The Martian,” production design by Arthur Max; set decoration by Celia Bobak
“The Revenant,” production design by Jack Fisk; set decoration by Hamish Purdy
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
“Mad Max: Fury Road,” Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega and Damian Martin
“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
Best Cinematography
“Carol,” Ed Lachman
“The Hateful Eight,” Robert Richardson
“Mad Max: Fury Road,” John Seale
“The Revenant,” Emmanuel Lubezki
“Sicario,” Roger Deakins
Best Film Editing
“The Big Short,” Hank Corwin
“Mad Max: Fury Road,” Margaret Sixel
“The Revenant,” Stephen Mirrione
“Spotlight,” Tom McArdle
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey
Best Sound Editing
“Mad Max: Fury Road,” Mark Mangini and David White
“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
Best Sound Mixing
“Bridge of Spies,” Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Drew Kunin
“Mad Max: Fury Road,” Chris Jenkins, Gregg Rudloff and Ben Osmo
“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
Best Visual Effects
“Ex Machina,” Andrew Whitehurst, Paul Norris, Mark Ardington and Sara Bennett
“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
Best Animated Short Film
“Bear Story,” Gabriel Osorio and Pato Escala
“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
Best Animated Feature Film
“Anomalisa,” Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson and Rosa Tran
“Boy and the World,” Alê Abreu
“Inside Out,” Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera
“Shaun the Sheep Movie,” Mark Burton and Richard Starzak
“When Marnie Was There,” Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Yoshiaki Nishimura
Best Documentary, Short Subject
“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
“A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness,” Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
“Last Day of Freedom,” Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman
Best Documentary Feature
“Amy,” Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees
“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
Best Live-Action Short Film
“Ave Maria,” Basil Khalil and Eric Dupont
“Day One,” Henry Hughes
“Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut),” Patrick Vollrath
“Shok,” Jamie Donoughue
“Stutterer,” Benjamin Cleary and Serena Armitage
Best Foreign-Language Film
“Embrace of the Serpent,” Colombia
“Mustang,” France
“Son of Saul,” Hungary
“Theeb,” Jordan
“A War,” Denmark
Best Original Song
“Earned It” from “Fifty Shades of Grey”
Music and lyric by Abel Tesfaye, Ahmad Balshe, Jason Daheala Quenneville and Stephan Moccio
“Manta Ray” from “Racing Extinction”
Music by J. Ralph and lyric by Antony Hegarty
“Simple Song #3” from “Youth”
Music and lyric by David Lang
“Til It Happens To You” from “The Hunting Ground”
Music and lyric by Diane Warren and Lady Gaga
“Writing’s on the Wall” from “Spectre”
Music and lyric by Jimmy Napes and Sam Smith
Best Original Score
“Bridge of Spies,” Thomas Newman
“Carol,” Carter Burwell
“The Hateful Eight,” Ennio Morricone
“Sicario,” Jóhann Jóhannsson
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” John Williams
Click here to watch Chris Rock’s monologue at the 88th Academy Awards.
