Monday, February 29, 2016

Oscars 2016: Show tackles race controversy

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Oscars 2016: Show tackles race controversy

Chris RockImage copyrightGetty Images
Hosting the Oscars is always a high-pressure job. For Chris Rock, who emceed the 2016 ceremony, there was more at stake then whether his jokes would land.
Rock, one of the most famous black comedians in the world, was hosting during a year when race - specifically, the lack of diverse talent nominated for awards - was at the forefront.
For the second year in a row, no black actors or actresses received nominations.
Films showcasing black actors, directors and screenwriters were largely ignored - despite what many critics saw as award-worthy efforts in films like Beasts of No Nation, Straight Outta Compton and Creed.
The nominations spurred a viral hashtag - #OscarsSoWhite - in which activists and moviegoers took to social media to bemoan the lack of diversity. It also lead tocontroversial internal reforms within the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the body that oversees the Oscars. The group has changed voting standards to include younger, more racially diverse members at the expense of older members.
Prominent African-American celebrities like Spike Lee, Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith announced their plans to boycott the ceremony.
So viewers - and those following along on social media - were eager to see how Rock would address the controversy. He could not be accused of side-stepping it.
"I'm here at the Academy Awards, otherwise known as the white People's Choice Awards," he said to start the show. "You realise if they nominated hosts, I wouldn't even get this job. So y'all would be watching Neil Patrick Harris right now."
His jokes received a mixed response from those watching at home, and some uncomfortable laughter from the show's live audience, especially as he seemed to imply a lack of representation at awards shows was not a serious issue.
Rachel McAdams and Michael B Jordan present an award at the 2016 OscarsImage copyrightGetty Images
Image captionRock introduced nominee Rachel McAdams and 'should've been nominee' Michael B Jordan
"Why now?" he asked, noting that for 71 of the 88 years in which an Oscar ceremony was held, there were no black nominees.
"Say '62 or '63... black people did not protest," he said. "We had real things to protest; you know, we're too busy being raped and lynched to care about who won best cinematographer."
Some felt these critiques were too dismissive - in fact, people did protest the lack of diversity at the 1962 and 1963 Oscars - while others were impressed that the grassroots activity around #OscarsSoWhite managed to so strongly influence the show.
"Why would you expect Chris Rock to show up and suddenly be Angela Davis?" asked the sociologist Tressie McMillan Cottom on Twitter. "You changed an entire disclosure. [Why] does it matter if Chris got jokes? You. Won."
But as the monologue continued, Rock pressed harder for more inclusion in film-making.
"We want black actors to get the same opportunities as white actors," he said. "Leo gets a great part every year," he said, referring to Leonardo DiCaprio, who would go on to win best actor. "But what about the black actors?"
Rock did not shy away from the topic once the monologue wrapped up. He introduced Michael B Jordan, who played the title role in Creed, as a "should've been nominee". He brought onto the stage Stacy Dash - a black actress who has spoken critically of the boycotts and protests - naming her the director of the Oscar's minority outreach programme.
Cheryl Boone IssacsImage copyrightGetty Images
Image captionCheryl Boone Issacs defended the controversial changes in voting rights for Academy members
One of the biggest laughs of the night came from a spoof imagining how films nominated for best picture could have included black characters - two of which involved former Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg pushing a mop. Rock played a black astronaut stuck on Mars who received much less attention than Matt Damon did in The Martian.
On a more serious note, the president of the Academy, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, addressed the crowd late in the evening to make a plea for more inclusion.
"Oscars celebrate the storytellers who have the opportunity to work in the powerful medium of film. With that opportunity comes responsibility," says Boone Isaacs, who is black.
"Our audiences are global and rich in diversity and every facet of our industry should be as well."
The broadcast also included previously-recorded footage from Lee - who attended a basketball game rather than the ceremony - from when he received an honorary award in November. In it, he discussed the need for more diversity in Hollywood.
Issues of race and inclusion permeated the entire Oscar telecast, right down to the song played over the closing credits - Fight the Power by Public Enemy.
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Oscars 2016: Winners list in full

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Oscars 2016: Winners list in full

Oscars statues outside the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los AngelesImage copyrightReuters
Here is a full list of winners at the 88th Academy Awards.

Best picture

Winner: Spotlight
The Big Short
Bridge of Spies
Brooklyn
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Room

Best actor

Winner: Leonardo DiCaprio - The Revenant
Bryan Cranston - Trumbo
Matt Damon - The Martian
Michael Fassbender - Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne - The Danish Girl

Best actress

Winner: Brie Larson - Room
Cate Blanchett - Carol
Jennifer Lawrence - Joy
Charlotte Rampling - 45 Years
Saoirse Ronan - Brooklyn

Best supporting actor

Winner: Mark Rylance - Bridge of Spies
Christian Bale - The Big Short
Tom Hardy - The Revenant
Mark Ruffalo - Spotlight
Sylvester Stallone - Creed

Best supporting actress

Winner: Alicia Vikander - The Danish Girl
Jennifer Jason Leigh - The Hateful Eight
Rooney Mara - Carol
Rachel McAdams - Spotlight
Kate Winslet - Steve Jobs

Best director

Winner: Alejandro Inarritu - The Revenant
Lenny Abrahamson - Room
Tom McCarthy - Spotlight
Adam McKay - The Big Short
George Miller - Mad Max: Fury Road

Best adapted screenplay

Winner: The Big Short
Brooklyn
Carol
The Martian
Room

Best original screenplay

Winner: Spotlight
Bridge of Spies
Ex Machina
Inside Out
Straight Outta Compton

Best animated film

Winner: Inside Out
Anomalisa
Boy and the World
Shaun the Sheep Movie
When Marnie Was There

Best foreign language film

Winner: Son of Saul - Hungary
Embrace of the Serpent - Colombia
Mustang - France
Theeb - Jordan
A War - Denmark

Best animated short

Winner: Bear Story
Prologue
Sanjay's Super Team
We Can't Live without Cosmos
World of Tomorrow

Best cinematography

Winner: The Revenant
Carol
The Hateful Eight
Mad Max: Fury Road
Sicario

Best costume design

Winner: Mad Max: Fury Road
Carol
Cinderella
The Danish Girl
The Revenant

Best documentary feature

Winner: Amy
Cartel Land
The Look of Silence
What Happened, Miss Simone?
Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom

Best documentary short

Winner: A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness
Body Team 12
Chau, Beyond the Lines
Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah
Last Day of Freedom

Best editing

Winner: Mad Max: Fury Road
The Big Short
The Revenant
Spotlight
Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best live action short

Winner: Stutterer
Ave Maria
Day One
Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut)
Shok

Best make-up and hair

Winner: Mad Max: Fury Road
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
The Revenant

Best original score

Winner: The Hateful Eight, Ennio Morricone
Bridge of Spies
Carol
Sicario
Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best original song

Winner: Writing's on the Wall, Sam Smith - Spectre
Earned It, The Weeknd - Fifty Shades of Grey
Manta Ray, J Ralph & Antony - Racing Extinction
Simple Song #3, Sumi Jo - Youth
Til It Happens To You, Lady Gaga - The Hunting Ground

Best production design

Winner: Mad Max: Fury Road
Bridge of Spies
The Danish Girl
The Martian
The Revenant

Best sound editing

Winner: Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Sicario
Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best sound mixing

Winner: Mad Max: Fury Road
Bridge of Spies
The Martian
The Revenant
Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best visual effects

Winner: Ex Machina
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
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Migrants charge through Macedonia fence on Greek border

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Migrants charge through Macedonia fence on Greek border

Media captionMigrants broke through the fence using a 'battering ram'
A crowd of migrants has burst through a barbed-wire fence on the Macedonia-Greece border using a steel pole as a battering ram.
TV footage showed migrants pushing against the fence at Idomeni, ripping away barbed wire, as Macedonian police let off tear gas to force them away.
A section of fence was smashed open with the battering ram. It is not clear how many migrants got through.
Many of those trying to reach northern Europe are Syrian and Iraqi refugees.
About 6,500 people are stuck on the Greek side of the border, as Macedonia is letting very few in. Many have been camping in squalid conditions for a week or more, with little food or medical help.
The chaos on Monday erupted at a gate festooned with barbed wire, keeping migrants away from a railway line.
Macedonia and some other Balkan countries have erected fences in an attempt to reduce the influx of migrants, after more than a million reached Germany last year.
Greece is angry with Austria for having imposed a cap on migrant numbers. The crisis has left Greece shouldering much of the burden of housing migrants arriving in the EU from Turkey.
Many are refugees fleeing war in the Middle East, while others are escaping human rights abuses in Afghanistan, Eritrea and other conflict zones.
Map of Idomeni on Macedonia-Greece border
Migrants fleeing tear gas on border, 29 Feb 16Image copyrightAP
Image captionClouds of tear gas fired by Macedonian police forced migrants to flee the scene
Idomeni border clash, 29 Feb 16Image copyrightAP
Image captionMacedonian police confronted hundreds of angry migrants at the fence
In other developments:
  • French bulldozers began demolishing shacks in the "Jungle" migrant camp in the northern port city of Calais, though some communal facilities were left standing
  • The Dutch government said there were 30 war crimes suspects among migrants who claimed asylum in the Netherlands last year - 10 from Syria and the other 20 mostly from Eritrea, Nigeria, Sudan and Georgia

Merkel defends welcome

On Sunday German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Europe to help Greece in the current migrant crisis.
In a TV interview she said: "Do you seriously believe that all the euro states that last year fought all the way to keep Greece in the eurozone, and we were the strictest, can one year later allow Greece to, in a way, plunge into chaos?"
She defended her decision last year to allow migrants in without a cap on numbers, saying she had no "Plan B".
Map locatorImage copyrightAFP
She has insisted that Germany can cope with the influx - and has a humanitarian duty to look after war refugees.
But her stance has been strongly criticised by some EU neighbours and some politicians in her ruling conservative CDU-CSU bloc.
Greece, under intense pressure from anxious EU partners, has erected extra reception centres on the Greek islands near Turkey, where thousands of migrants have been arriving daily.
Austria and Hungary have adopted a tougher stance than Germany. Hungary has fenced off its southern border and refuses to take in any non-EU migrants
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