Leonardo DiCaprio finally wins “Best Actor” at 2016 Oscar Awards

Leonardo DiCaprio finally wins Best Actor at Oscars. Photo courtesy Photopin

By Molly Maschka

Sunday, February 28, Oscar night I found myself sitting in the lazy boy chair at my parents’ home, popcorn popped, the Oscar ballot filled out, wondering who was going to win the golden statue man (plus a bet with Mom and Dad, getting a blizzard from Dairy Queen). Researching earlier that day on the Hollywood Reporter with Dad, the “Revenant” was supposedly going to be the big star of the night. Yet, there were big surprises on this Oscars night.

My favorite part of watching the Oscars was seeing the dresses. Cate Blancett, Charlize Theron, Saoirse Ronan, even Whoopi Goldberg to name a few, had the most amazing dresses of the night. Each woman brought classiness to the Red Carpet in their own unique style. The most outstanding dress was Alicia Vikander’s, she looked like Belle from “Beauty and the Beast.” Her dusty-yellow, high-low gown shined in the spotlight, and I would name her the top best dressed of the evening.

Throughout the entire event, from the nominations to the Red Carpet, the biggest issue has been diversity. Boy did Oscar host Chris Rock make sure everyone knew with his big monologue at the beginning of the show. Yet the annoying part was he kept bringing it up every time he had a chance to talk. We GET it, many of the African American actors and actresses were snubbed, a lot of people were snubbed at this year’s Oscars awards. Will Smith, Tom Hanks, Idris Elba, Michael B. Jordan and even Johnny Depp. This issue happens every year, but it was upsetting not seeing equality within the nominations. You would think the Oscars would be about who has the best acting ability, best visual effects, best directing; not just about the color of skin. Hopefully within the coming years, Oscars will be more diverse. But Chris Rock, we got it in your monologue, you didn’t have to go further. At least you gave the Girl Scouts a huge helping hand with making $65,852 for cookie season.

Then came the bigger part – would Leonardo DiCaprio win Best Actor for his movie “The Revenant?” Well, his 20+ year reign of never winning has finally come to an end and DiCaprio has won. He was long overdue, and his performance in “The Revenant” was outstanding. What was also outstanding was his speech on protecting nature from global warming and other dangers. Thank you Leo for being a classy man.

Speaking of messages, Lady Gaga should be given an outstanding award for singing “Till It Happens to You” from the documentary “The Hunting Ground.” The documentary is based on young college women who have been sexually assaulted on campus and have been campaigning for the safety of victims. Honestly I haven’t had chills since Adele sang “Skyfall” at the Oscars a few years back. Lady Gaga sang her heart out, and the best part was when students came on stage to stand with her. I hope her message about sexual assault on college campuses got to university faculty members that there must be something done to protect victims. Something must be done because everyone has a right to feel safe and be a student during the college years. Thank you Lady Gaga, for standing up for yourself, and everyone else who is a survivor of sexual assault.