OSCARS 2016: AN INTERESTING EVENING OF MANY "FIRSTS"!

Hi Friends,

How are you? And how was Valentine's Day? How did you spend that day in February which comes once in four years? Yep I'm talking of the leap year i.e. 29th February...hope you partied hard! ;-) Even if you didn't, Hollywood sure did when the film fraternity converged together once again to celebrate,honor and reward the finest talents among them at the Oscars.And we too celebrated in their joy as we cheered and rooted for our favorites while sitting in front of our television sets!

While the curtains on the awards season may have come down with the grand finale culminating at the Oscars but at the outset this year has been a mixed bag indeed especially when it came to predicting the winners! And perhaps for some it may even be disappointing to say the least with Sylvester Stallone not winning the Best Supporting Actor award, the lack of diversity clearly visible in the list of nominees and subsequent to it #Oscarsowhite trending across different social networks.

With the exception of the Best Actor and Best Actress trophy of which we were 100% sure would land in the laps of Leonardo DiCaprio and Brie Larson after having swept away the top honors at all the major award functions this year,however the four other main categories of this year's awards could have been any film/trade pundits best bet!

Now to make my point, let's take a look at the winners across the Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Director and Best Film/Motion Picture categories.

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Let's take a look at the winners for the Best Supporting Actress across different awards ceremonies -

1. BAFTA - Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs)

2. Golden Globe - Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs)

3. Critics' Choice - Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl)

4.SAG Award - Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl)

There was a 50-50 chance between Kate Winslet and Alicia Vikander to take home the Oscar that evening with both actresses picking two awards each at the four major awards function.Even though it is widely believed among film circles that those who win at the BAFTA's win at the Oscars too however,this time around both the BAFTA's and Golden Globes got it wrong while the Critics' Choice and SAG Award could rejoice in their choice when 27 year old,Alicia Vikander trumped over Kate Winslet to take home her first Oscar for The Danish Girl in her first nomination itself!

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Let's take a look at the winners for the Best Supporting Actor across different awards ceremonies -

1. BAFTA - Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies)

2. Golden Globe - Sylvester Stallone (Creed)

3.Critics' Choice - Sylvester Stallone (Creed)

4. SAG Award -  Idris Elba (Beasts of No Nation) 

Though Sylvester 'Rocky' Stallone was a clear favorite after having won two awards at different awards function,however it was Mark Rylance,the dark horse of the Oscar race (since Idris Elba was overlooked) which incidentally the BAFTA's alone got it right as he pipped the veteran actor to win his first award in his first outing at the Oscars! 

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Let's take a look at the winners for the Best Director across different awards ceremonies -

1. BAFTA -  Alejandro Iñárritu (The Revenant)

2. Golden Globe - Alejandro Iñárritu (The Revenant)

3. Critics' Choice - George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road)

4. SAG Award -  (No award segment in this category)

Will he or won't he was the big question when it came to placing our bets on Alejandro Iñárritu and more importantly whether the jury would grant him a second consecutive win was the cloud of doubt we had in our minds. After all let's not forget,George Miller's Mad Max:Fury Road was a clear favorite too when it swept away six awards out of ten nominations in the the technical awards category at the Oscars! But with Alejandro Iñárritu's two successive wins for the Best Director,a golden chapter in the history of Oscars was once again written that evening.

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Let's take a look at the winners for the Best Film/Motion Picture across different awards ceremonies -

1. BAFTA - The Revenant

2. Golden Globe - The Revenant

3. Critics' Choice - Spotlight

4. SAG Award - Spotlight 

Just like we saw it happen in the Best Supporting Actress category where the competition was clearly between Kate Winslet and Alicia Vikander,here again the verdict was split between The Revenant and Spotlight in the Best Film/Motion Picture category as well. And then it was the Spotlight, a church scandal biographical crime drama that quite literally stole the spotlight from The Revenant when it bagged the Best Film/Motion Picture award that evening!

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On summing up the Oscars 2016 across the six awards segments, there were many 'firsts' that evening.

1. Leonardo DiCaprio finally notched the big win of his career which had eluded him so long when he picked his first ever Oscar! He broke the Oscar jinx (or curse!) of having been a frequent nominee all this while and thus put an end to the Oscar jokes, memes and computer games that he was subjected to across social medias.

2. And it was not just Leonardo DiCaprio who had a good reason to celebrate - Brie Larson,Alicia Vikander and Mark Rylance too picked their first award at the Oscars! Interestingly, the three winners that evening - namely Brie Larson, Alicia Vikander and Mark Rylance took home the coveted trophy in their first nomination itself!

3. Did you observe that during the last three years Mexican directors have been ruling the Oscar charts?Here's how...carefully take a look at the nominees and winners in the Best Director and Best Film/Motion Picture categories and you'd find that it was Alfonso Cuarón who set the ball rolling when he became the first Mexican to win the Best Director trophy at the Oscars for his film,Gravity in 2014. In 2015,Mexicans dominated this category once again when Alejandro Iñárritu lapped it up with yet another win for Best Director for the film Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) and also went on to become the first Mexican to win an award in the Best Film/Motion Picture category for the same film as well. And the party was not over yet for Alejandro Iñárritu when in 2016 he set a new benchmark for film maker's to come when once again he picked his second Best Director trophy for The Revenant and thus became the first director to win the Best Director trophy twice in a row. Though he lost out the Best Film/Motion Picture award to Spotlight(just as Alfonso Cuarón lost out to Boyhood in 2014),else this would have been yet another outstanding record of sorts in the history of the Oscars! Mexican directors have definitely come of age with their powerful storytelling skills and cinematic excellence.

4. Over the years we have had a number of relatively younger actors like Jennifer Lawrence,Lupita Nyong'o, Eddie Redmayne,Anne Hathaway,Natalie Portman etc. take home the golden statuette so early in their career. It is quite heartening to see young talents recognized and rewarded for their hard work and dedication by the jury which is quite rare indeed considering that many a times actors land up their first nomination and win in their mid forties,late fifties and some others even get their due recognition in their twilight years! In this context, I can't help but make a mention of the versatile Peter O'Toole who gave us so many memorable performances and despite having eight nominations under his belt,yet he was never awarded an Oscar!All he finally got was an Honorary Award which according to me was simply unfair and unjust to this fine actor's talent for being repeatedly snubbed by the jury.

However, this year the positive trend continued when we once again saw a first happening of sorts at the Oscars where we had even younger nominees and winners all under the age bracket of thirty contending for the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories namely Brie Larson,Jennifer Lawrence,Saoirse Ronan,Alicia Vikander and Rooney Mara. 

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Hope you enjoyed reading my compilation, observations and analysis of this year's Oscar!

Since I am traveling on work, I hope I can make it in time for April's blog post otherwise I shall definitely see you in May! I shall miss you all!

Take care and ciao!

Love,

Sonyaa