Leonardo DiCaprio uses belated Oscar win to lecture on climate change (2024)

Leonardo DiCaprio finally won his first Oscar for his performance in The Revenant on Sunday night, after four previous unsuccessful nominations, then used his moment on stage to warn about his favorite cause - climate change.

The 41-year-old actor used his lengthy acceptance speech to deliver a lecture on the subject, and was able to speak for a longer period than other winners when the producers failed to play 'wrap-it-up' music as he went well past his allotted time of 45 seconds.

He told the audience, 'Climate change is real, it's the most urgent threat facing our species. We need help around the world.'

DiCaprio led the winners at the glittering 88th Academy Awards in Beverly Hills, which saw Room's Brie Larson take home Best Actress andSpotlight scooping the coveted Best Picture prize.

Leo's win prompted a standing ovation at the awards, and also became the most Tweeted about Oscar's minute - overtaking Ellen's group selfie from 2014. Speaking to GMA anchor Robin Roberts immediately after the show, DiCaprio said he was 'very moved' by the reaction.

The other main winners were big budget blockbuster Mad Max: Fury Road, the biggest success of the night with six accolades. Best Supporting Actor went to Mark Rylance for Bridge Of Spies and The Danish Girl's Alicia Vikander was awarded Best Supporting Actress.

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Addressing the star-studded audience, he said: 'Making The Revenant was about man's relationship to the natural world...climate change is real.

'It is happening right now. It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating. We need to support leaders around the world who do not speak for the big polluters or the big corporations but for all people.'

'Let us not take our planet for granted,' he concluded. 'I do not take tonight for granted.'

However, despite this stance, it has been noted that DiCaprio has still maintained quite the jet-setting lifestyle for both business and pleasure. He is known to frequently charter private planes and hire enormous party yachts - including one owned by a UAE oil tycoon.

He has tried to counteract this with other measures not quite so fitting of a Hollywood A-lister including driving electric cars and riding bicycles.

Speaking with Robin Roberts after the ceremony, DiCaprio, 41, reacted to the standing ovation he recieved from his contemporaries.

He said: 'I was very moved,' according to ABC News.

His director in the film, Alejandro González Iñárritu, stood by him in the interview, responded:' He deserved it'.

DiCaprio also took the opportunity to add to his climate change speech. He told Miss Roberts: 'Simultaneously, while I was doing this movie, I did a film, I've been doing a documentary for two years about climate change.

'As I said in the speech, it is the most urgent crisis that we've ever faced as a civilization and the more people that talk about this and get involved and, as I said, vote for leaders who really want to make a difference, you know, we can actually tackle this problem.

“We have the capacity to go 100 percent renewable using existing technologies, we just have to have the political will. Our very existence is at stake.”

But after winning big and completing his red carpet durites on Sunday night, DiCaprio had other things on his mind - most importantly his mother. 'Where's my mom?' Leonardo was heard yelling when he and his entourage arrived at the Academy Awards Governors Ball held on the top deck of the Dolby Theatre.

As aides went in search of the newly-minted Best Actor Oscar winner's mother Irmelin Indenbirken, DiCaprio tucked into a slice of chicken pizza.

'I'm so hungry', he was heard to say.

Then he begged to be allowed to eat in peace as his table was swarmed by well-wishers and photographers. Soon security officers ringed his table to keep onlookers at bay. 'Leo is asking for a little bit of privacy', one of the security detail said.

Meanwhile, Oscar gold has previously eluded the celebrated star, who has won plenty of other honors over his two decade long career. But it was this year's portrayal of frontiersman Hugh Glass in the revenge tale The Revenant that earned him the milestone.

Leo earned his first Oscar nomination in 1994 for What's Eating Gilbert Grape when he was just 20 years old.

He was then nominated for Best Actor (The Aviator) in 2004. He later earned a Best Actor nod for Blood Diamond in 2006. And most recently for the Wolf Of Wall Street in 2013.

Alejandro Inarritu took best director for a second straight year, a feat matched by only two other filmmakers: John Ford and Joseph L. Mankiewicz. His brutal frontier epic The Revenant, which came in with a leading 12 nods and the favorite for best picture, also won best cinematography for Emmanuel Lubezki.

Renowned for his use of natural light in lengthy, balletic shots, Lubezki became the first cinematographer to win three times in a row (following wins for Gravity and Birdman), and only the seventh to three-peat in Oscar history.

Inarritu, the Mexican director of last year's best-picture winner Birdman, was one of the few winners to remark passionately on diversity in his speech.

'What a great opportunity for our generation to really liberate ourselves from all prejudice and this tribal thinking and to make sure for once and forever that the color of our skin becomes as irrelevant as the length of our hair,' said Inarritu.

While the other big winner of the night was relative newcomer Brie Larson, who took home Best Actress in a Leading Role, beating out Jennifer Lawrence and Cate Blanchett for the top honour.

She went on to thank her nine-year-old co-star in acclaimed independent feature Room while onstage: 'Jacob Tremblay [you were] my partner through this... and to my real partner Alex Greenwald: I love you... the whole thing!'

In an underdog win for a movie about an underdog profession, the newspaper drama Spotlight took Best Picture.

Tom McCarthy's film about the Boston Globe's investigative reporting on sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests won over the favored frontier epic The Revenant.

The well-crafted procedural, led by a strong ensemble cast, had lagged in the lead-up to the Oscars, losing ground to the flashier filmmaking of Inarritu's film.

But Spotlight - an ode to the hard-nose, methodical work of a journalism increasingly seldom practiced - took the night's top honor despite winning only one other Oscar for McCarthy and Josh Singer's screenplay. Such a sparsely-awarded Best Picture winner hasn't happened since 1952's The Greatest Show On Earth.

'We would not be here today without the heroic efforts of our reporters,' said producer Blye Pagon Faust when the film took Best Picture. 'Not only do they effect global change, but they absolutely show us the necessity for investigative journalism.'

Best Original Screenplay also went to the newsroom drama Spotlight, penned by McCarthy and Josh Singer. Backstage, a cord from a light suddenly fell behind the winners, prompting McCarthy - whose film shows the discovery of extensive sex abuse by Catholic priests - to exclaim in mock paranoia: 'That is the power of the Catholic Church, ladies and gentlemen!'

Adam McKay and Charles Randolph took best adapted screenplay for their self-described 'trauma-dy' about the mortgage meltdown of 2008. McKay thanked Paramount Pictures for taking a risk on a movie about 'financial esoterica.'

McKay, best known for broader comedies like Anchorman and Step Brothers, gave an election-year warning to power of 'big money' in the presidential campaign and government.

'Big money is taking over our government,' said McKay backstage.

Meanwhile, it was supposed to be his big night, But Sylvester Stallone was left heartbroken as he lost out in the Best Supporting Actor category to Mark Rylance, who took gold for his performance in Bridge Of Spies.

Rylance, 56, thanked his director Steven Spielberg before adding: 'If you ever asked if acting with Tom Hanks helps [your career] the answer is 'yes it does!''

Rylance was a first time nominee and won for his portrayal of Russian spy Rudolf Abel, who becomes part of a high-stakes prisoner exchange during the Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union.

It was the first time Stallone had been in Oscarcontention since 1977 when Rocky, which he starred in, wrote and produced, was nominated for 10 statuettes and won three, including Best Picture and Best Director for John G. Avildsen.

Sly missed out on the Best Actor and Screenplay honours, which appears to be making this round of honours doubly meaningful and now even more heartbreaking.

In the film Creed, Sylvester plays an ageing Rocky, who comes out of retirement to train promising young boxer Adonis Johnson, played by Michael B. Jordan, who is the son of his former rival, Apollo Creed.

Earlier in the evening, newcomer Alicia Vikander won Best Supporting Actress for The Danish Girl. She beat out the likes of Kate Winslet to take the gong for her role in the historical true story about a transgender woman (played by Eddie Redmayne) and his supportive wife (Vikander).

The 27-year-old took the stage and breathlessly delivered a heartfelt speech: 'Thank you so much to the Academy for this recognition. And Eddie - where are you? - there you are! Thank you for being the best acting partner. You raised my game!'

She then added: 'And my mum and dad - thank you for giving me the belief that anything can happen. Even though I would never have believed this!'

The Swedish born actress beat out other more experienced Oscar hopefuls Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight), Rooney Mara (Carol), and Rachel McAdams (Spotlight).

And while they have refused to confirm their romance and have avoided public displays of affection, it seems the Oscars changed all that - sort of.

Vikander and Michael Fassbender finally let their relationship walls down, for a second, on Sunday night. The actress and her 36-year-old beau could not hide their excitement, or their feelings for each other. As the star's name was read out for her role in The Danish Girl, she gave her mother a big hug before Michael stood up to give her a loving kiss - finally publicly acknowledging their almost a year-long romance.

Despite their kiss and the fact the camera panned to her beau in anticipation, Alicia did not mention Michael's name, whether by design or whether by music-inducing nerves.

Pixar's Inside Out was the winner of the best animated feature film Academy Award.

The film tells the story of a young girl's emotions as her family relocates from Minnesota to San Francisco. Director Pete Docter has said the film, which mixes science with his experience, has also resonated with the parents of special needs children.

The film features an all-star vocal cast including Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Lewis Black and Mindy Kaling. The win is the studio's eighth in the category.

Bear Story won the best animated short Academy Award during the long ceremony.

An intimate look at the life of late singer Amy Winehouse was the winner of the best feature documentary Academy Award.

Amy won the documentary honor at Sunday's ceremony. Director Asif Kapadia used archival footage and testimonials to offer new insights into Winehouse, who died in 2011 from accidental alcohol poisoning.

The film won the Grammy Award for best music film earlier this month.

The best documentary short Oscar was awarded to the film, A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness.

Sam Smith won Best Original Song for Writing's On The Wall for the film Spectre.

Sam and songwriter Jimmy Nape, who beat out Lady Gaga and The Weeknd, won the prize, which followed in the footsteps of Adele's more critically praised Bond song Skyfall by taking the gong.

The proud Englishman said: 'I stand here tonight as a proud gay man and I hope that we can all stand together as equals one day.'

Sam, 23, also advanced the idea that he may have been the first openly hom*osexual person to win an Oscar, however this is not the case.

He said: 'I read an article a few months ago by Sir Ian McKellen, and he said that no openly gay man had ever won an Oscar.

'If this is the case, even if it isn't the case, I want to dedicate this to the LGBT community all around the world.'However, the famed thespian had talked about the fact an openly hom*osexual man has yet to win the best actor Oscar specifically, not just any Academy Award.

The title for the night's most-awarded film, however, went to neither Spotlight nor The Revenant. George Miller's post-apocalyptic chase film, Mad Max: Fury Road sped away with six awards in technical categories for editing, makeup, production design, sound editing, sound mixing and costume design. Roundly acclaimed for its old-school craft, Miller's Mad Max was assured of becoming the evening's most awarded film.

'Us Mad Maxes are doing OK tonight,' said editor Margaret Sixel, who's also Miller's wife. The flurry of wins brought a parade of Australian craftsmen onstage, including sound editor Mark Mangini, who celebrated with a loud expletive.

The composer John Williams (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which went away empty-handed despite being the biggest box-office hit of the decade) came in with his 50th nod, but lost to Ennio Morricone, who, at 87, landed his first competitive Oscar for Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight. (He was given an honorary one in 2009.)

Chris Rock opened the ceremony with a rollicking monologue as celebs gathered at the Dolby Theater to toast another year in movies.

The show kicked off with a montage of the films from 2015 and the 51-year-old comedian referenced the clip as he took the stage.

'Man I counted at least 15 black people in that montage. I am here hosting at the Academy Awards otherwise known as the White People's Choice Awards. If they nominated hosts I wouldn't be your host. It'd be Neil Patrick Harris. People be like, "Chris you should boycott. You should quit." Only people without jobs say to quit something. And the last thing I need is to give another job to Kevin Hart. p*rno stars don't make movies that fast!'

'The big question is why are we protesting this year's Oscars?' Rock continued. 'It is the 88th Academy Awards.... At least 71 of them didn't have black actors nominated in the past.'

'Black people didn't protest because we had real things to protest. Too busy being raped and lynched to worry about who won best cinematography. When your grandma's hanging from a tree...'

He then went on to poke fun at Jada Pinkett who had said she was boycotting the Oscars ahead of the ceremony on Sunday: 'Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna's panties! I wasn't invited.'

'Everyone wants to know in the world, is Hollywood racist?' said Rock. 'Is it "burning cross racist"? No. Is it "fetch me some lemonade racist"? No. It's a different type of racist…. Hollywood is "sorority racist." It's like, "we like you Rhonda, but you're not a Kappa".'

And he added: 'We want opportunity. We want the black actors to get the same opportunities. Not just once. Leo (DiCaprio) gets a great part every year. All you guys get great parts all the time.'

Actress and Fox News personality Stacey Dash said she wanted to bring a different kind of diversity to Hollywood - and that's why she participated in one of the oddest Oscar moments.

The former Clueless actress has attracted attention lately for her conservative viewpoints, including suggesting on Fox that there should not be a Black History Month. Dash, who is black, also spoke out against people complaining that the Oscars didn't reflect diversity.

She was jokingly introduced by host Rock as director of the Oscar's minority outreach program. Dash strode onstage to say 'I cannot wait to help my people out. Happy Black History Month!'

The joke fell flat, perhaps because many people in the audience didn't understand the reference.

Dash explained online why she did it, saying ideological diversity is much harder to achieve in Hollywood.

Later in the show, Rock had some local Los Angeles Girls Scouts sell cookies in an effort to help his own daughters, who are also Scouts, raise money. He called out some celebs to put there money on the line as he said, 'C'mon, Leo you made $30 million!'

But he gave one actor some trouble for buying the cookies: 'Oh Lou Gossett watch out now! You got diabetes!' He revealed that he pulled in $65,243 in earnings from the cookie sales.

Rock also shared a video of him asking people on the street in Compton, California about nominees at this year's white washed Oscars. Nearly all of the interviewees had never heard of the nominees for Best Picture but all of them had seen Straight Outta Compton, which was nominated for Best Original Screenplay.

Vice President Joe Biden took the stage to a standing ovation as he introduced Lady Gaga for her performance ofTil It Happens To You which was nominated for Best Original Song for the film The Hunting Ground.

Biden addressed sexual abuse on college campuses: 'I urge you to take the pledge, "I will intervene when consent cannot or will not be given." Let's change the culture so that no woman or man will ever have to ask "what did I do?"'

'They did nothing wrong,' he added firmly. 'Folks I really mean this go online and take the pledge. Welcome my friend Lady Gaga.'

Lady Gaga produced and performed the haunting track, which she is said to have co-wrote with Diane Warren, for the soundtrack of documentary film The Hunting Ground which tackles issues surrounding campus rapes in American educational institutions.

Room's Jacob Tremblay and Beasts Of No Nation's Abraham Attah presented the award for Best Live Action Short Film. Rock brought out crates for the two young actors to reach the microphone.

'Thanks, Chris,' nine-year-old Tremblay began. 'I loved you in Madagascar! He was great. He played the Zebra.'

Meanwhile, the audio on Kevin Hart's speech at the Oscars was abruptly cut out for an unknown reason when he took to the stage to introduce musician The Weeknd.

The comedian was in the middle of an unscripted monologue congratulating actors of color who were shut out in this year's nominations, when the audio was edited out.

In a slow-motion playback of Hart's speech, he appears to say: 'God****it, congratulations' or 'Congratu-f******-lations.' Others wondered whether he had said anything profane at all.

It's possible the audio was cut because of profanity, but others have speculated that nervous producers pulled the plug when Hart began his unvetted speech on diversity.

The Oscars had 12 black presenters amidst the #OscarsSoWhite controversy.Among the presenters were Common, Morgan Freeman, Whoopi Goldberg, Louis Gossett, Jr. and comedian Hart.

While other races made up the 47 presenters of the night, the majority - 30 people - were white.

Other races represented included two Latin Americans, Benicio del Toro and Sofia Vergara and two people of Indian descent, Dev Patel andPriyanka Chopra.

Lee Byung-hun, who is South Korean, and Olivia Munn, who is half Japanese also presented awards.

However a tasteless moment occurred when Ali G, the comedy alter ego of English funnyman Sacha Baron Cohen, made a shock comeback at the event, who was last seen on 2014's Ali G: Rezurection.

Speaking in his trademark Staines Massive drawl, he said: 'Ow come there’s no Oscar for dem very hard-working little yellow people with tiny d***s. You know, the Minions.'

The comic continued to mine the controversy over the claimed lack of racial diversity at this year's event, drawing howls of laughter from the white-majority audience.

Sacha was introducing best picture nominee Room with Olivia Wilde when he decided to speak out in support 'all people of all colors.'

The 44-year-old said: 'I is here representing all of them that’s been overlooked.

'Will Smith. Idris Elbow. And of course that amazing black bloke from Star Wars... Darth Vader.'

Meanwhile, a good awards speech can echo through the generations but a bad one can mar an entire broadcast.

The Academy Awardsdecided to create some new rules as this year they no longer allowed winners to name those they felt indebted to during their speeches.

Instead, the Oscars rolled a screen ticker behind the honoree naming each person they wanted to thank.

In addition, speeches were cut down to just 45 seconds, in an effort to keep the running time of the ceremony within an acceptable domain, as the show has famously gone overtime.

For a show that has been plagued with often self-indulgent oratory performances, it is actors and showbusiness people after all, the new rule set was intended to ensure a smoother running broadcast that has often been criticized for being boring.