The 88th annual Academy Awards are over and done with. Twitter has been blowing up since the exclusively vanilla Oscar nominations were announced in January. Apparently the institution is still oh so very white. No actors of color were nominated and host Chris Rock did a solid job explaining that the problem is not a lack of minority talent, but a lack of opportunity. The comedian accurately stated that Hollywood (and the world) is the way it is because executives will not hire black people: “What I’m trying to say is, you know, it’s not about boycotting anything. It’s just, we want opportunity. We want black actors to get the same opportunities as white actors.” The same can be argued for Latinos in front of the camera which he unfortunately glossed over. Still, this year, Mexican filmmakers broke records and gave Leonardo DiCaprio his two-decades-overdue Academy Award #anythingyoucandowecandobetter.
Having one of the funniest humans on earth host, one would think the Oscars would be funny, but one would only be half right. The times are changing. And influential peeps are utilizing their voice to effect change. From climate change to sexual abuse, to the inconsequential length of your hair, the 2016 Oscars were serious business. They shall forever remain as the ceremony where Chris Rock tacitly became the voice of the black community in Hollywood and yes, the year Leo finally got to sleep with the bronze man of his dreams thanks to Alejandro González Iñárritu. #boom
Read below for highlights and lowlights from the 88th Annual Academy Awards.
Chris Rock’s opening monologue.
The whole thing is great. “Welcome to the Oscars, otherwise known as the white People’s Choice Awards.” Call ‘em out, Chris. Call ‘em out.
Emmanuel “El Chivo” Lubezki broke an Oscar record.
Ok, Oscar history. In an era of Trump’s immigrant bashing — doesn’t it feel great that a dude with an accent won his third consecutive Oscar? And it makes him the first person ever to be in a three-year winning spree for cinematography. #elchivolesomete.
Winner
Best Cinematography
Emmanuel Lubezki
The Revenant
Chi-Chi-Chi le-le-le!
Chile’s Historia de un oso (Bear Story) won Best Animated Short Film.
Psst…psst, you…yes you, Hollywood. Hi, we’re slowly taking over. #brega.
Winner
Best Animated Short Film
Bear Story
Pato Escala, Gabriel Osorio
A U.S.-born Latino finally wins something.
The Bay Area-bred Pixar producer Jonas Rivera won alongside director Pete Docter. Their bromance is pure #lindura. Fingers crossed that one day, we’ll have just as many American Latinos and Latin Americans winning awards for telling stories about our collective experience in the U.S.
Winner
Best Animated Feature Film
Inside Out
Jonas Rivera
Alejandro González Iñárritu’s acceptance speech.
Quoting a line from The Revenant, Iñárritu said: “They don’t listen to you. They see the color of our skin.” He continued, “What a great opportunity to our generation to really liberate ourselves from all prejudice and this tribal thinking and make sure for once and forever that the color of our skin becomes as irrelevant as the length of our hair.”
This dude right here… my heart is all sorts of awake. With this win, Iñárritu is now the Mexicano with the most Oscars.
Winner
Best Director
Alejandro González Iñárritu
The Revenant
Lowlights: Diversity was the butt of the joke.
Some wondered whether Chris Rock would use the opportunity to broaden the discussion on diversity to other underrepresented groups.
Especially in light of the Op-Ed he wrote last year that took on Hollywood’s complete shut out of the Latino community, even though it’s based in a city that is so heavily populated with Mexicans, Mexican-Americans, and others.
As the night went on, it became clear that Rock would only focus on the lack of African Americans in the industry, and that diversity in general would end up being the butt of some unfortunate jokes.
And there was that WTF moment with Stacey Dash.
See you next year. Congratulations, errbody.