Oscar winners and nominees

“He is just such a gracious person – we love him to bits”. “We want black actors to get the same opportunities”. In addition to best picture, which was the last award of the ceremony, the film also took the first award of the night for best original screenplay.

It was a huge win for one of the year’s most innovative, critically-acclaimed, and all-around badass movies.

Leonardo DiCaprio received the first Oscar of his career winning Best Actor for “The Revenant“. Alejandro G. Iñárritu was given the Achievement In Directing for The Revenant.

“Our production needed to move to the southern top of this planet just to find snow”.

While best pal Kate Winslet shed a few tears in the audience, the actor proceeded to thank pretty much everyone he’d ever worked with in an emotional acceptance speech. “I do not take tonight for granted”.

Do you have any bets this year?

Previous South African winners at the Oscars include director Gavin Hood for the movie Tsotsi, winning Best Foreign Language film in 2006, and producer Eric Abraham for the Polish film Ida, which won Best Foreign Language film a year ago. Sylvester Stallone was hotly expected to win his first Oscar for his heartbreaking performance as Rocky Balboa in Creed.

Also presenting an award at the event was British actor of Indian origin Dev Patel, while London-based filmmaker of Indian origin Asif Kapadia bagged the Best Documentary Feature Oscar for “Amy”, based on the life of late singer Amy Winehouse.

Priyanka Chopra, left, and Liev Schreiber, right, pose in the press room with Margaret Sixel, victor of the award for best film editing for “Mad Max: Fury Road“, at the Oscars.

The film was shot on a budget of $150 million – the most expensive film out of this year’s Best Picture nominees – and is also nominated for Best Visual Effects, Best Cinematography, Best Picture and Best Director.

Hollywood hits the Oscars red carpet for its annual show of glitz and pageantry honoring cinema’s finest.

Addressing the diversity issue, Rock continues his monologue – “I thought about quitting…”

His mix of humor and seriousness continued as he said, “No black nominees, people are like, “Chris you should boycott” …” “Everyone in the Hollywood community has a role to play in bringing about the vital changes the industry needs so we can accurately reflect the world today”.

White turned down the volume in his thanks, saying, “I’m so proud, so proud, to work on this loud, loud, loud film that actually had silence in it!”

The big awards of the night Best Actor and Best Actress were a sign that the ceremony which is clocking in a little over 3 hours is near the end.

Oh, what a lovely day!