Diversity in limelight at Oscars
AP, LOS ANGELES
In an underdog win for a movie about an underdog profession, the newspaper drama Spotlight took best picture on Sunday at an Academy Awards riven by protest and outrage and electrified by an unflinching Chris Rock.
Tom McCarthy’s film about the Boston Globe’s investigative reporting on sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests won over the favored frontier epic The Revenant. McCarthy’s well-crafted procedural, led by a strong ensemble cast, had lagged in the lead-up to the Oscars, losing ground to the flashier filmmaking of Alejandro Inarritu’s The Revenant.
However, Spotlight took the night’s top honor despite winning only one other Oscar for McCarthy and Josh Singer’s screenplay.
Such a sparsely awarded best picture winner has not happened since 1952’s The Greatest Show On Earth.
“We would not be here today without the heroic efforts of our reporters,” producer Blye Pagon Faust said. “Not only do they effect global change, but they absolutely show us the necessity for investigative journalism.”
However, the night belonged to host Rock, who launched immediately into the uproar over the lack of diversity in this year’s nominees and did not let up.
“The white people’s choice awards,’’ he called the Oscars, which were protested beforehand outside the Dolby Theatre by the Reverend Al Sharpton.
Rock insured that the topic remained at the forefront throughout the evening, usually finding hearty laughs in the process.
In an awards show traditionally known for song-and-dance routines and high doses of glamor, Rock gave the 88th Academy Awards a charged atmosphere, keeping with the outcry that followed a second consecutive year of all-white acting nominees.
“Is Hollywood racist? You’re damn right it’s racist,” Rock said. “Hollywood is sorority racist. It’s like: We like you Rhonda, but you’re not a Kappa.”
After going home empty-handed four times previously, Leonardo DiCaprio won his first Oscar, for best actor in The Revenant in which he gave a gruff, grunting performance that traded little on the actor’s youthful charisma.
DiCaprio, greeted with a standing ovation, took the moment to talk about climate change.
“Let us not take our planet for granted,” DiCaprio said. “I do not take tonight for granted.”
Inarritu won back-to-back directing awards after the triumph last year of Birdman. It is a feat matched by only two other filmmakers: John Ford and Joseph Mankiewicz.
The Revenant also won best cinematography for Emmanuel Lubezki, who became the first cinematographer to win three times in a row — following wins for Gravity and Birdman.
Inarritu, whose win meant three consecutive years of Mexican filmmakers winning best director, was one of the few winners to remark passionately on diversity in his acceptance speech.
“What a great opportunity for our generation to really liberate ourselves from all prejudice and this tribal thinking and to make sure for once and forever that the color of our skin becomes as irrelevant as the length of our hair,” Inarritu said.
The night’s most-awarded film was George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, which sped away with six awards in technical categories for editing, makeup, production design, sound editing, sound mixing and costume design.
Best actress went to Brie Larson, the 26-year-old breakout of the mother-son captive drama Room.
The Sweden-born Alicia Vikander took best supporting actress for the transgender pioneer tale The Danish Girl.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2016/03/01/2003640577
Structure of the Lead:
WHO-McCarthy and Josh Singer’s
WHEN-Sunday
WHAT-Tom McCarthy’s film about the Boston Globe’s investigative reporting on sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests won over the favored frontier epic The Revenant.
WHY-not given
WHERE-Academy Awards
HOW-not given
Keywords:
1.unflinching 不畏懼的
2.procedural 程序
3.ensemble 總體
4.sparsely 稀少地
5.nominees 被提名者
6.glamor 迷人的美
7.consecutive 連續的
