The race for the highest honour has finally culminated! And among the tough competitors, Inside Out, Ex Machina and Bear Story have touched the finish line emerging victorious at the 2016 Oscars.
Out of the five nominations Disney Pixar’s Inside Out bagged the award for the Best Animated Feature as it struck the audience predominantly due to its phenomenal art of storytelling and creative animation skill. Directed and co-written by Pete Docter along with Ronnie del Carmen and produced by Jonas Rivera, Inside Out was produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. A combo pack of an influential script of emotions being personified, music composed by Michael Giacchino, and finally animation and story stealing the show, Inside Out by far deserved the Oscars! The other nominations in this category included Anomalisa, Shaun the Sheep Movie, Boy and the World and When Marnie Was There.
Well, Ex Machina startled the audience as it won the The Best Visual Effects award despite of substantial competitors Mad Max: Fury Road and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Directed by Alex Garland, Ex Machina imbibed the use of visual effects to create a science fiction thriller based on artificial intelligence. VFX masterminds Andrew Whitehurst, Paul Norris, Mark Ardington and Sara Bennett were awarded for their work on this film. Apart from the three films mentioned above, The Revenant and The Martian were also in the race in this category.
Bear Story, the Chilean animated short film, surprised folks all over by winning the Best Animated Short. Directed by Gabriel Osorio Vargas, produced by Pato Escala Pierart and the screenplay co-written by Daniel Castro, Bear Story displays a unique script bringing alive the emotions and bonding that exists within a family. Moreover, it has a unique style of animation which seems to be a mix of stop motion along with robotic features. Bear Story over powered Disney Pixar Sanjay Patel’s Sanjay’s Super Team, which has entertained audience across the globe, along with Prologue, We Can’t Live without Cosmos and World of Tomorrow in this category. The honour has been further accelerated as Bear Story is the first ever Chilean winner of an Academy Award.
Apart from these, Spotlight stood true to its name as it gained the bright spotlight for the Best Picture; The Revenant too seemed to perform well as it bagged the award for the Best Direction with Leonardo DiCaprio winning the Best Actor while, Mad Max garnered six wins for Production Design, Costume Design, Makeup and Hairstyling, Editing, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing.
The 88th Academy Awards hosted at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre thus recognised and honoured spell bound talent and creativity highlighting that story telling, animation skill and overall effect are the true reasons for a film to stand out from the rest.