Skip to content

Top Navigation

EW.com Entertainment Weekly EW.com Entertainment Weekly
  • TV
    • TV Reviews
    • TV Reunions
    • TV Recaps
    • Animated
    • Comedy
    • Crime
    • Drama
    • Family
    • Mystery
    • Reality
    • Sci-fi
    • Thriller
  • Movies
    • Movie Reviews
    • Trailers
    • Film Festivals
    • Movie Reunions
    • Movie Previews
  • Music
    • Music Reviews
  • Books
    • Book Reviews
    • Author Interviews
  • Theater
    • Theater Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • Gaming
  • Events
    • Comic-Con
  • Celebrity
  • Awards
    • Oscars
    • Emmys
    • Golden Globes
    • SAG Awards
    • Grammys
    • Tony Awards
  • Streaming

Profile Menu

Your Profile

Account

  • Join Now
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletter
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Order Past Issues this link opens in a new tab
  • Logout
Login
Subscribe

Explore EW.com

EW.com Entertainment Weekly EW.com Entertainment Weekly
  • Explore

    Explore

    • Every RuPaul's Drag Race season 13 runway look, ranked

      Every RuPaul's Drag Race season 13 runway look, ranked

      Read More Next
    • Spread the love with EW's Valentine's Day gift guide

      Spread the love with EW's Valentine's Day gift guide

      Read More Next
    • The Masked Dancer revealed: Every unmasked celebrity on season 1

      The Masked Dancer revealed: Every unmasked celebrity on season 1

      Read More Next
  • TV

    TV

    See All TV
    • TV Reviews
    • TV Reunions
    • TV Recaps
    • Animated
    • Comedy
    • Crime
    • Drama
    • Family
    • Mystery
    • Reality
    • Sci-fi
    • Thriller
  • Movies

    Movies

    See All Movies
    • Movie Reviews
    • Trailers
    • Film Festivals
    • Movie Reunions
    • Movie Previews
  • Music

    Music

    See All Music
    • Music Reviews
  • Books

    Books

    See All Books
    • Book Reviews
    • Author Interviews
  • Theater

    Theater

    See All Theater
    • Theater Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • Gaming
  • Events

    Events

    See All Events
    • Comic-Con
  • Celebrity
  • Awards

    Awards

    See All Awards
    • Oscars
    • Emmys
    • Golden Globes
    • SAG Awards
    • Grammys
    • Tony Awards
  • Streaming

Profile Menu

Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
Your Profile

Account

  • Join Now
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletter
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Order Past Issues this link opens in a new tab
  • Logout
Login
Sweepstakes

Follow Us

  1. Home Chevron Right
  2. Gallery Chevron Right
  3. Oscars 2016: Best Moments

Oscars 2016: Best Moments

By Mary Sollosi
Updated March 14, 2016 at 07:29 PM EDT
Skip gallery slides
Save FB Tweet

1 of 11

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Chris Rock's Opening Monologue

Chris Rock's Opening Monologue
Credit: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

Host Chris Rock didn’t dance around the elephant in the room (that would be #OscarsSoWhite): He stepped onstage and launched into a monologue about the controversy, first defending his choice to host (“They’re not going to cancel the Oscars because I quit, and the last thing I need is to lose another job to Kevin Hart”) while stars like Jada Pinkett Smith and Spike Lee were boycotting the ceremony. Then he got to the heart of it: “Is Hollywood racist?” he asked. “You’re damn right Hollywood’s racist,” he said, elaborating, “Hollywood’s sorority-racist; it’s like, ‘We like you, Rhonda, but you’re not a Kappa.’”

 

1 of 11

Advertisement
Advertisement

2 of 11

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Oscar-Nominated Films Get Diversified

Oscar-Nominated Films Get Diversified
Credit: ABC

Continuing his ridicule of the industry’s diversity problem, Rock explained, “If you’re a black actor, just getting the opportunity to be in a movie can be a struggle,” segueing into a pre-taped segment that edited black actors into Oscar-nominated films. Whoopi Goldberg appeared first, playing a janitor who gets annoyed with Jennifer Lawrence’s Joy Mangano, the inventor of the Miracle Mop, in Joy; next, Leslie Jones wrestled with Leonardo DiCaprio in a more inclusive version of The Revenant; and third, Tracy Morgan tried on a white slip in The Danish Girl. Finally, Chris Rock took over Matt Damon’s role in The Martian, while Kristen Wiig and Jeff Daniels debated whether it would be worth the considerable cost to rescue a stranded black astronaut, despite the PR problem it would mean to abandon him.

 

2 of 11

3 of 11

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Jenny Beavan Wins for Best Costume Design

Jenny Beavan Wins for Best Costume Design
Credit: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

Mad Max: Fury Road took home the first of its many below-the-line awards with Best Costume Design, about 45 minutes into the ceremony. Costume designer Jenny Beavan, picking up the second Oscar of her long career (her first was for 1987’s E.M. Forster adaptation A Room with a View, which is about as far away from Mad Max, sartorially speaking, as a movie could possibly be). Beavan took the ceremony’s formal dress code into her own hands, wearing a leather jacket emblazoned with a flaming skull logo straight from Mad Max’s post-apocalyptic iconography. She concluded her gracious speech with a warning: “It could be prophetic, Mad Max,” she said, “if we’re not kinder to each other and if we don’t stop polluting our atmosphere.”

 

3 of 11

Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

4 of 11

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Surprise Guests

Surprise Guests
Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Rock introduced various surprise guests over the course of the night — some more shocking than others. After Jennifer Garner and Benicio Del Toro introduced The Revenant as one of the Best Picture nominees, the camera cut to the film’s star, Leonardo DiCaprio, as well as an enormous stuffed bear applauding in the audience. In another moment mocking the Oscars’ lack of diversity, Rock introduced the Academy’s new “director of the minority outreach program” Stacey Dash, who came out and waved with a huge smile on her face, in an evident attempt at self-aware humor (on her part) that did not go over well with the audience. Later, when giving a shoutout to the attendees who were portrayed onscreen in Oscar-nominated films, the camera cut to “Suge Knight” wearing a jumpsuit and strapped into a straitjacket.

 

4 of 11

Advertisement

5 of 11

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Stars Buy Girl Scout Cookies

Stars Buy Girl Scout Cookies
Credit: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

“I have been away from my two daughters at a very important time in their life,” Rock told the audience about halfway into the telecast. “I have missed most of Girl Scout cookie season.” He implored the audience to “reach into your millionaire pockets” and buy some Thin Mints from his daughters, so they could finally beat the girls’ competitor and perennial cookie-selling champion. In a moment reminiscent of Ellen Degeneres’ pizza party, a group of girls wearing Girl Scout sashes walked through the crowd and sold Tagalongs and Do-Si-Dos to celebrities with a sweet tooth. Later, Rock said his girls collected over $65,000, easily outselling their rival, and he thanked the Girl Scouts of Los Angeles for their participation.

 

5 of 11

6 of 11

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Inside Out Wins Best Animated Feature

Inside Out Wins Best Animated Feature
Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Animation had its moment, starting with the Minions presenting Best Animated Short (the award went to Bear Story), then Toy Story’s Buzz and Woody presented the Best Animated Feature statuette, to their fellow Pixar creation Inside Out. Director Pete Docter and producer Jonas Rivera accepted the award. “This film was really borne from watching our kids grow up — which is not easy,” Docter said of the movie, which personifies the emotions inside a preteen girl’s head. The director then addressed young people: “There are days you’re going to feel sad, you’re going to feel angry, you’re going to be scared. That’s nothing you can choose — but you can make stuff. Make films. Draw. Write. It will make a world of difference.”

 

6 of 11

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

7 of 11

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy Wins Best Documentary Short Subject

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy Wins Best Documentary Short Subject
Credit: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images

Documentarian Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy took home her second Oscar for her short film A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, which exposes the practice of honor killings in Pakistan. “This is what happens when determined women get together,” she said at the top of her inspiring speech. She dedicated the award to the woman who courageously shared her story in the short film as well as “all the brave men” in the world who also “want a more just society for women,” and she concluded, “This week, the Pakistani prime minister has said that he will change the law on honor killing after watching this film. That is the power of film. “

 

7 of 11

Advertisement
Advertisement

8 of 11

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Lady Gaga Sings "Til It Happens to You"

Lady Gaga Sings "Til It Happens to You"
Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Vice President Joe Biden came out to present the third Best Original Song-nominated performance: Lady Gaga singing “Til It Happens to You.” The pop star co-wrote the song with Diane Warren for the documentary The Hunting Ground, about sexual assault on college campuses. “We must and we can change the culture,” Biden said, “so that no abused woman or man ever has to ask themselves, ‘What did I do?’” He then introduced “my friend and a courageous lady,” Lady Gaga, who sat at an enormous white piano and gave an impassioned performance of the ballad, which insists, “Til it happens to you / you don’t know how I feel.” Toward the end of the song, she was joined onstage by survivors of sexual assault — both men and women — who had words like “survivor” and “unbreakable” written on their arms. Rachel McAdams and Kate Winslet, among other stars in the audience, were visibly moved.

 

8 of 11

Advertisement

9 of 11

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Jacob Tremblay and Abraham Attah Present

Jacob Tremblay and Abraham Attah Present
Credit: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images

Appropriately, the Academy brought out young stars Jacob Tremblay and Abraham Attah to present Best Live Action Short. Just as Attah said that “size doesn’t really matter” when it comes to great films, Rock ran out carrying crates for the actors to stand on. Adorable as ever, Tremblay told the host that he loved him in Madagascar. “He plays a zebra,” he told the audience after Rock left the stage. “He’s hilarious!”

 

9 of 11

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

10 of 11

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Brie Larson and Leonardo DiCaprio Win Big

Brie Larson and Leonardo DiCaprio Win Big
Credit: Steve Granitz/WireImage

To little surprise, frontrunners Brie Larson and Leonardo DiCaprio won Best Actress and Best Actor for their performances in Room and The Revenant, respectively. Larson got a hug and a high-five from her pint-sized costar Jacob Tremblay before taking the podium, where she thanked the festivals where the film first screened, Room’s indie distributor A24, the creative team, and the fans.

Best Actor was presented next, and finally, after six nominations (five for acting, and one as a producer), Leo took an Oscar home. The room exploded when Julianne Moore announced DiCaprio’s name, and the actor began his speech to an enthusiastic standing ovation. He gave a shoutout to Tom Hardy, “my brother in this endeavor,” and the night’s Best Director winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu, who DiCaprio said has “forged his way” into “the history of cinema.” DiCaprio, a noted environmentalist, ended his speech with a call to action. “Climate change is real, and it’s happening right now. It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species,” he said (as the camera cut to Kate Winslet, who was in tears). “Let us not take this planet for granted. I do not take this night for granted.”

 

10 of 11

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

11 of 11

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Spotlight Wins Best Picture

Spotlight Wins Best Picture
Credit: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

It was a tight race for the industry’s biggest honor, but in the final award of the night, Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight took home Best Picture. The cast and creative team behind the newsroom drama gathered onstage, and producer Michael Sugar took the podium. “This film gave a voice to survivors, and this Oscar amplifies that voice, which we hope will become a choir that will resonate all the way to the Vatican.” He then addressed the Vatican directly: “Pope Francis, it’s time to protect the children and restore the faith.” Producer Blye Pagon Faust spoke next about the importance of reporters like the Boston Globe’s Spotlight Team. “We would not be here today without the heroic efforts of our reporters,” she said. “Not only do they effect global change, but they absolutely show us the necessity for investigative journalism.”

 

11 of 11

Advertisement
Advertisement
Replay gallery

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook

Up Next

  • By Mary Sollosi @missollosi

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook
Trending Videos
Advertisement
Skip slide summaries

Everything in This Slideshow

Advertisement

View All

1 of 11 Chris Rock's Opening Monologue
2 of 11 Oscar-Nominated Films Get Diversified
3 of 11 Jenny Beavan Wins for Best Costume Design
4 of 11 Surprise Guests
5 of 11 Stars Buy Girl Scout Cookies
6 of 11 Inside Out Wins Best Animated Feature
7 of 11 Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy Wins Best Documentary Short Subject
8 of 11 Lady Gaga Sings "Til It Happens to You"
9 of 11 Jacob Tremblay and Abraham Attah Present
10 of 11 Brie Larson and Leonardo DiCaprio Win Big
11 of 11 Spotlight Wins Best Picture

Share options

Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message
EW.com Entertainment Weekly

Magazines & More

Learn More

  • Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
  • Content Licensing this link opens in a new tab
  • Sitemap

Connect

Follow Us
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Other Meredith Sites

Other Meredith Sites

  • 4 Your Health this link opens in a new tab
  • Allrecipes this link opens in a new tab
  • All People Quilt this link opens in a new tab
  • Better Homes & Gardens this link opens in a new tab
  • Bizrate Insights this link opens in a new tab
  • Bizrate Surveys this link opens in a new tab
  • Cooking Light this link opens in a new tab
  • Daily Paws this link opens in a new tab
  • EatingWell this link opens in a new tab
  • Eat This, Not That this link opens in a new tab
  • Food & Wine this link opens in a new tab
  • Health this link opens in a new tab
  • Hello Giggles this link opens in a new tab
  • Instyle this link opens in a new tab
  • Martha Stewart this link opens in a new tab
  • Midwest Living this link opens in a new tab
  • More this link opens in a new tab
  • MyRecipes this link opens in a new tab
  • MyWedding this link opens in a new tab
  • My Food and Family this link opens in a new tab
  • MyLife this link opens in a new tab
  • Parenting this link opens in a new tab
  • Parents this link opens in a new tab
  • People this link opens in a new tab
  • People en EspaƱol this link opens in a new tab
  • Rachael Ray Magazine this link opens in a new tab
  • Real Simple this link opens in a new tab
  • Ser Padres this link opens in a new tab
  • Shape this link opens in a new tab
  • Siempre Mujer this link opens in a new tab
  • Southern Living this link opens in a new tab
  • SwearBy this link opens in a new tab
  • Travel & Leisure this link opens in a new tab
Meredith © Copyright 2021 Meredith Corporation. Entertainment Weekly is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. Entertainment Weekly may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Privacy Policythis link opens in a new tab Terms of Servicethis link opens in a new tab Ad Choicesthis link opens in a new tab California Do Not Sellthis link opens a modal window Web Accessibilitythis link opens in a new tab
© Copyright . All rights reserved. Printed from https://ew.com

View image

Oscars 2016: Best Moments
this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines.