Oscars: ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ Wins Sound Editing Award

“I would have to say that it was the biggest project that I’ve ever worked on”, he said. “They just drove the whole movie”.

After Sixel trekked up to the stage to get her Oscar she looked down into the crowd and saw Charlize Theron, who stars as the one-armed warrior Imperator Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road.

George Miller’s stark action epic Mad Max: Fury Road shot into an early lead, picking up six awards for best costumes, production design, make-up, film editing, sound editing and sound mixing.

Apparently, last year, Mad Max’s return to the big screen was over a decade in the making, if not longer, since the last and third film with Tina Turner and Mel Gibson in 1985.

Alejandro Inarritu took best director for a second straight year, a feat matched by only two other filmmakers: John Ford and Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Rita Moreno won what is always the most interesting category, Best Supporting Actress (West Side Story), back in 1961.

“Mad Max: Fury Road” has all the colors of a painter’s palette. But Stallone won the Golden Globe, which has predicted every victor since 2007. So while The Revenant may get most number-one votes, Big Short, Spotlight will get all the number two and three votes. And “Selma” was nominated for best picture previous year.

A lot of people are discussing DiCaprio winning here in terms of it being a “lifetime achievement” award, but I think that’s wrong – and it undersells the incredible work that he does in The Revenant.

But Martin believes Bryan Cranston, known for the TV series “Breaking Bad”, might take the statue for “Trumbo“, a biographical film about a Hollywood screenwriter who was blacklisted during the 1950s. In Joy, Lawrence portrays Joy Mangano, the tough and resilient inventor of the Miracle Mop who made a fortune selling her wares through a home shopping network. She is nominated for “The Danish Girl” but should have been honored for her stunning work as an artificial intelligence in “Ex Machina“. But I think the Academy will find some way to reward the highest-grossing film of the year … and Visual Effects seems like the ideal place.

Lady Gaga is scheduled to perform “Til It Happens to You, ” and she will be introduced by Vice President Joe Biden as part of a presentation aimed at combating sexual violence.

Leo may be a shoe-in for Best Actor but his movie The Revenant is not. “I share this with our fabulous crew and cast”, she said in her speech.

But I’m baffled by The Revenant juggernaut. He did a good job.

Quality-wise, Mark Rylance is the most deserving, his piercing performance being the only real thing of interest in Steven Spielberg’s otherwise tiresome Bridge of Spies.

“I feel blessed to be able to do movies like this”, he said. Which brings us to that quagmire that is the best-supporting-actress category. Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs) and Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl) are the female frontrunners. My money, though, is on Jennifer Jason Leigh, who gives an unhinged performance in Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight“.

MARCUS: I’m happy that “The Big Short” just won Best Adapted Screenplay, but why was the film’s star Ryan Gosling allowed to present that trophy?

“It was very clever and ingenious and immensely enjoyable about the war of emotions”, he added.

Should Have Been a Contender: There are so many this year – Ridley Scott (“The Martian”) and Todd Haynes (“Carol“) among them – but I would like to have seen Sean Baker in here for his incredibly inventive and utterly engaging “Tangerine”.