By: Katelyn Kohane
“Quellek, by Grabthar’s hammer, by the Suns of Worvan, you shall be avenged.” – Alan Rickman in Galaxy Quest.
The Academy hosted the 88th award ceremony at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles this past Sunday. Before we dive into this year’s ceremony, let’s go back to the first ever presentation.
The very first year the Awards were held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel right across the street from the Award’s present location. That first night, a ticket to the Awards cost $5 a piece, had only 270 people in attendance, and ended its ceremony in only 15 minutes.
Today, tickets are acquired by the movie studios and can cost up to $750, the Dolby Theater seats 3,400 people, and the ceremony lasts a whopping three hours. The Academy Awards has become a huge event not only in America, but around the world. The Oscar itself stands 13.5 inches tall and weighs 8.5 pounds.
I love watching the Academy Awards, but host Chris Rock was a little too outspoken about the lack of nominations for black actors and actresses. We all knew the commentary was coming, but it was mentioned too many times throughout the ceremony and felt like the beating of a dead horse.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I do love Chris Rock as an actor and a comedian. I loved him in the movie Grown Ups.
The attendance of the Girls Scouts came across as odd to me. It’s nice that many of the celebrities supported the Girl Scouts, but strange that they were at this caliber of an event. It had the same out-of-place feeling as the selfies and pizza from last year. Personally, I feel they should bring The Academy Awards back to its original grace with a more dignified evening.
The Awards had a few great performances from the category of Best Original Song. Sam Smith preformed his piece “Writing’s on the Wall” from James Bond Spectre. The Weeknd performed second and Lady Gaga put a final cap on the performances from Best Original Song.
Every year, the In Memorium segment is a nice touch on the evening. Many great people were lost in the past year including Christopher Lee, Alan Rickman, Gene Alan, and Leonard Nimoy.
While some presenters can leave you wanting more, I loved the inclusion of R2-D2. C-3PO, and BB-8 from Star Wars. The Minions, Buzz and Woody, Kevin Hart, and Whoopi Goldberg made for a good show as well. One I personally found funny was the presentation from Margot Robbie and Jared Leto because of their upcoming roles as Harley Quinn and the Joker in Suicide Squad.
It’s impossible to talk about the awards without congratulating Leonardo DiCaprio on finally getting his Oscar! Personally, I thought he should have had one long ago because of all of his great films. I had thought he would have received one last year either for The Great Gatsby or the Wolf of Wall Street, but he finally got one this year for The Revenant.
Upon receiving his award he was very proud, and I thought his speech was exceptional. He made mention to climate change, which was encouraging to hear him speak about because he has been working to support that cause.
Another year has come and gone for the Academy Awards. I can’t wait to see what this new year has in store for in regards to films, performances, and preparations for the 89th Academy Awards.
In Honor of Leonard Nimoy; “Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Her ongoing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life forms and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”
Congratulations to all the Oscar winners!
In case you missed it, the full list of categories and winners of the 88th Academy Awards are as follows:
Best Picture: Spotlight
Actor in a Leading Role: Leonardo DiCaprio for The Revenant
Actress in a Leading Role: Brie for Room
Actor in a Supporting Role: Mark Rylance for Bridge of Spies
Actress in a Supporting Role: Alicia Vikander for The Danish Girl
Animated Feature Film: Inside Out
Cinematography: The Revenant
Costume Design: Mad Max: Fury Road
Directing: The Revenant
Documentary (Feature): Amy
Documentary (Short Film): A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness
Film Editing: Mad Max: Fury Road
Foreign Language Film: Son of Saul
Makeup and Hairstyling: Mad Max: Fury Road
Music (Original Score): The Hateful Eight
Music (Original Song): “Writing’s On The Wall” from Spectre
Production Design: Mad Max: Fury Road
Short Film (Animated): Bear Story
Short Film (live Action): Stutterer
Sound Editing: Mad Max: Fury Road
Sound Mixing: Mad Max: Fury Road
Visual Effects: Ex Machina
Writing (Adapted Screenplay): The Big Short
Writing (Original Screenplay): Spotlight
Katie works in the film industry as a camera operator and has worked on films like ‘All You Can Dream’, ‘Set Up’ and a TV show called ‘American Fallen Soldier.’ She loves helping WKTV with the Citizen Journalism team and working as a tech at Amway Grand Plaza Hotel. Katie loves working in the film industry and loves watching movies just as much!
