88th Annual Oscar Winners

Well, the dust has settled from what turned out to be a surprisingly decent showing.  Chris Rock hosted and did a much better job this time, mostly by playing to his strengths.  The Academy overcompensated for not having any black nominees by inviting pretty much every famous black person to be a presenter, a variation on the old standby defense of "I'm not racist, I have a black friend."

The idea of having a thank-you crawler at the bottom of the screen was interesting.  I don't necessarily like it as a trend because it seems like a push to just get the winners off-stage faster, but seeing as the ceremony ran half an hour long, I understand it.  They also had little pop-ups about the presenters, listing upcoming or recent projects, which reminded me of the Westminster Kennel Club dog show for some reason.

Only the three commercially popular songs rated a musical number.  Sam Smith was uncharacteristically awful.  The staging for "Earned It" was sexier than the entirety of the movie in which it was featured.  I'm pretty sure the only one people will be talking about is Lady Gaga's emotional performance of "Till It Happens to You", which brought tears to the eyes of the assembled.

I was wrong on nearly every single prediction I made, which is why I am not a gambler.  Winners are below.

Best Picture:  Spotlight  (I know, right?  Came outta nowhere.)
Best Director:  Alejandro Inarritu (Guessed this correctly.)

Best Actor:  Leonardo DiCaprio  (I was hoping for Matt Damon but I figured it would have been Eddie Redmayne again.)
Best Actress:  Brie Larson (This one I actually got right.)
Best Supporting Actor:  Mark Rylance (I really wanted it to be Tom Hardy.)
Best Supporting Actress:  Alicia Vikander (I'm happy about this but I thought they were going to give it to Kate Winslet again.)

Best Original Screenplay:  Spotlight
Best Adapted Screenplay:  The Big Short

Best Animated Feature:  Inside Out (Really, this was a gimme.)
Best Foreign Film:  Son of Saul (I only saw one in this category but I knew the Academy wouldn't pass up a chance to praise yet another movie about fighting the Nazis.)
Best Documentary Feature:  Amy (I was really hoping for Winter on Fire.)

Best Cinematography:  The Revenant (I thought for sure Mad Max.)
Best Editing:  Mad Max:  Fury Road (And for this I thought The Revenant.)
Best Production Design:  Mad Max:  Fury Road (I said The Martian, which didn't end up winning anything.)
Best Visual Effects:  Ex Machina (This one I guessed right.  It was damned impressive effects.)

Best Costume Design:  Mad Max:  Fury Road  (I said Cinderella.)
Best Hair and Makeup:  Mad Max:  Fury Road  (I said The 100-Year-Old Man.)

Best Original Score:  The Hateful Eight  (I said Star Wars Episode 7.)
Best Original Song:  "The Writing's on the Wall" from Spectre  (This one I knew.)
Best Sound Mixing:  Mad Max:  Fury Road  (I said Star Wars.)
Best Sound Editing:  Mad Max:  Fury Road (Again with Star Wars.)

Best Documentary Short:  A Girl in the River  (I didn't see any of these so I abstained.  Louis C.K. was the best presenter because of this category, however.)
Best Animated Short:  Bear Story (I said World of Tomorrow but this was Chile's first win ever so I can't be mad at it.)
Best Live Action Short:  Stutterer (I thought it would go to Ave Maria but I'm pleasantly surprised because I liked Stutterer more.)

So I got 6 out of 24.  That's 25% accuracy.  I suck at this game.