The Academy Awards are the grand finale of the awards season, it is the most watched and the most important out of all the awards shows. As expected, this year the ceremony was filled with many controversies, scandals and surprises. Social media was filled with numerous winner predictions and debates about the lack of diversity among the nominees. However, despite the mass media coverage of the event, research shows that only 23.4% households watched the ceremony, which is a great decrease compared to the previous years, it was the lowest-rated Academy Awards in eight years.
The films with the most awards were Mad Max: Fury Road with six awards, The Revenant with three awards even though it had the most nominations, and Spotlight with two awards. Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu won an Oscar in two consecutive years, Brie Larson and Leonardo DiCaprio both won their first Oscars.
The Best Picture nominees were Spotlight, The Big Short, Bridge of Spies, Brooklyn, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian, The Revenant, and Room. Critics and fans believed that The Revenant was a certain winner due to its popularity but to everyone’s surprise, Spotlight received the award.
“I don’t think Spotlight should have won, I mean it wasn’t bad, it was a good movie but The Revenant was so much better,” senior Kenia Chavez said. “The storyline was really interesting, and the set design and special effects were amazing, not to mention Leonardo DiCaprio’s great performance. It was also a fan favorite, people loved it and everyone thought it was going to win for sure.”
Source: imdb.com
The nominees for Best Actress were Brie Larson, Cate Blanchett, Jennifer Lawrence, Charlotte Rampling, and Saoirse Ronan. Many people believed Jennifer Lawrence would win because of her performance in Joy and her loyal fanbase, however Brie Larson won for her heartbreaking and believable role in Room.
“Even though Joy wasn’t nominated for Best Picture I thought Jennifer Lawrence was going to win Best Actress because she did a great job of portraying her role,” junior Megan Pace said. “Brie Larson was good and she’s a great actress but she’s not as popular on social media and doesn’t have as many fans as Jennifer Lawrence.”
The Academy released a statement that next years ceremony will be much more diverse, by including more women and minorities in membership and hopefully even the nominees. Many people were disappointed with this years results, but there is nothing else left to do than wait for what next years Oscars bring.
