That’s a wrap! The 88th Academy Awards are history, with Spotlight shockingly winning Best Film, but at least Leonardo DiCaprio finally getting his first Oscar!

And here’s how it went down:

​Chris Rock opened with a monologue focused on the #OscarSoWhite controversy, avoiding the traditional mentions to the films nominated.  Killer lines like “This year, the In Memoriam package is just going to be black people who were shot by the cops on their way to the movies”, made the audience numb but supportive and the occasional Kevin Hart joke here and there was always a hit. In the end, all agreed that as Rock said, it’s not about boycott – it’s about opportunity given to black artists.

The ceremony started in a different award raw, starting with the screenplay awards with winners Spotlight for Original Screenplay and The Big Short for Adopted Screenplay.

The show continued with a black actor video featuring Woopy Goldberg was funny but rather awkward following with a more awkward appearance by Stacey Dash to recreate her controversial comment on Black History month

Shocker in the Actress in a Supporting Role category with Alicia Vikander winning for The Danish Girl , beating Kate Winslet.

Following the commercial break Chris Rock announces that we’re black (instead of we’re back) which shows us that he’s far from done from the #OscarSoWhite jokes and the awards continue with Costume Design, going to Mad Max: Fury Road And I still can’t get over of the thank you names strolling down the screen; it’s like watching CNN breaking news…

Production Design Oscar goes to Mad Max: Fury Road again as well as for Make Up & Hair Style, who is give by non other that Harley Quinn and The Joker themselves, aka Margot Robbie and Jared Leto.

Next award is for Cinematography and the Oscar goes to The Revenant.

The Film Editing Oscar goes to Mad Max: Fury Road again! That’s 4 till now!

And again an awkward video about Black History Month that seems to be targeted to Will Smith, only to reveal that it’s Jack Black who’s honored…

Two more Oscars for Mad Max: Fury Road, this time for Sound Editing and Sound Mixing!
Visual Effects went surprisingly to Ex Machina (how did Mad Max: Fury Road lose that?)

Chris Rock pulls an Ellen by inviting the audience to buy Girl Scout cookies to help his daughters sell more cookies than their fellow Girl Scouts

In a full animated moment, with special appearance by Woody and Buz from Toy Story, Inside Out wins best Animated Feature  

And it’s time for the Oscar for Actor in a Supporting Role: the winner is Mark Rylance for Bridge of Spies! That’s a surprise! These supporting actors are really ruining my predictions…

The Oscar for Documentary Feature goes to Amy, about the life of Amy Winehouse
 
The In Memoriam section could not be more moving without Dave Grohl performing Black Bird
Best Foreign Language Film goes to Hungary for Son of Saul

In the music category, Original Score goes to the legend Ennio Morricone for The Hateful Eight, who of course gives a speech in Italian and Original Song goes to Writing’s On the Wall for Spectre – ok, can I say it? Just cause it’s a song from a Bond film, it doesn’t mean it’s a good one…. Damn good speech from Sam Smith though…

So, we reached the final (big) awards: Directing goes to Alejandro G. Iñárritu for The Revenant (no shocker there), Actress in a Leading Role Brie Larson for Room, Actor in a Leading Role: Leonardo DiCaprio for The Revenant (FINALLY) and at a jaw dropping moment, Spotlight winning Best Picture!
 
So, that’s it for this year. Let’s hope for less controversy next year and less air time – at least less than 3,5 hours…. 

Well, it’s that time of the year again: it’s Oscar time! And what a year! The #OscarsSoWhite controversy, the boycott, the will-he-won’t-he-win-the-Oscar Leo controversy and here we are again, guessing who will win and who will lose, when we all know how it’s going to go down…. Face it guys: these awards are more or less pre-decided... It would be nice to see a variety of nominations, an open-mindedness on the winner selection, but unfortunately this is not how the Film industry works. The issue is not the Academy; it’s Hollywood and how it imposes certain selected artists (Jennifer Lawrence ringing any bells?), without giving chances to the rest to shine.
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Not to bring you down now, the Oscars are a spectacle, a fun show to watch, so once again, let’s see what are my predictions for this year, along with my wish list:

Best Picture:
Who will win: The Revenant
Who I would want to see winning: Well, for sure I loved The Revenant and I will be more than happy to see Iñárritu win the Oscar, but come on: how awesome would it be to to see Mad Max win Best Picture?

Actor in a Leading Role
Who will win: Leonardo DiCaprio for the Revenant   
Who I would want to see winning: Leonardo DiCaprio for the Revenant (You’ve seen my post on The Revenant – do I need to say more?)

Actress in a Leading Role:
Who will win: Brie Larson for Room
Who I would want to see winning: Brie Larson for Room (I have a soft spot for her after Scott Pilgrim; plus she was amazing in the Room)

Actor in a Supporting Role
Who will win: Sylvester Stallone for Creed
Who I would want to see winning: Tom Hardy for The Revenant (Anyone but Stallone and why not Hardy? He was such a great villain in The Revenant!)

Actress in a Supporting Role
Who will win: I am 90% sure that Kate Winslet for Steve Jobs will win, but I leave a 10% for Jennifer Jason Leigh for The Hateful Eight, in case the Academy want to redeem themselves for this year by awarding a more controversial role
Who I would want to see winning: To be honest I don’t have a particular favorite here, so I would go with the craziest out of the 5, Jennifer Jason Leigh for The Hateful Eight

Directing:
Who will win: Alejandro G. Iñárritu for the Revenant   
Who I would want to see winning: Alejandro G. Iñárritu for the Revenant   

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
Who will win: The Big Short
Who I would want to see winning: Room    

Writing (Original Screenplay)
Who will win: Spotlight
Who I would want to see winning: Straight Outta Compton 

You may see here the full list of the nominees http://oscar.go.com/nominees 

Regarless of whether Leo wins, the Academy will overcome the controversy issues, the actors will boycott the awards, be sure to enjoy the ceremony and have fun! After all, it's only an award show! 

Talking about The Revenant, one cannot help but to realize that it is by far one of the most important films of our time.

Iñárritu’s takes on a true, remarkable story and delivers a masterpiece, showing the mental and physical journey of a huntsman who is attacked by a bear during a fur trading expedition, barely survives and after witnessing his son being murdered, is left behind for dead by his companions.

The director’s commitment to the craft is remarkable and this time he delivers a visual piece of art, in rather hard filming circumstances and difficult locations. The cast is of course overshadowed by DiCaprio’s performance, which simply cannot be questioned, once again proving that he is a true artist. It is a film that is very much centered on the leading character and the difficulties that he must overcome to survive and seek revenge and it is obvious that without this performance, the film would not be the same. The secondary characters and especially the villain, who is portrayed by Tom Hardy, deliver equally great, emotional performances, with Hardy following closely DiCaprio’s footsteps in becoming one the best actors of his generation.

The Revenant is a tough film, that not all audiences going to like. It takes on issues like genocide, racism, humanity and survival and despite the brutality of the character’s actions, the result is a cinematic diamond that will sure be remembered and treasured by future generations.

Needless to say that it is a “must see” film and an Academy Award frontrunner, having already won 3 Golden Globes, 5 BAFTA Awards and 43 more awards.