Post by: Sarah Barclay & Emily McTyre

The Oscars Are Coming! The Oscars Are Coming!

We’re in Academy Award season and anticipating this year’s winners. Before the awards are presented this year, though, let’s take a look back at the last five years of Oscar history. We’re going to split the five years up into four categories: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Picture.

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE:

2012: Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)
2013: Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)
2014: Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything)
2015: Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant)
2016: Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea)

Matthew McConaughey shared a message in his acceptance speech that can be applied to anyone who has a dream of achieving and being great. You can always grow and find inspiration, even within yourself.

“Now, when I was 15 years old I had a very important person in my life come to me and say, "Who's your hero?" And I said, I don't know; I gotta think about that...I come back two weeks later, this person comes up and says, "Who's your hero?" I said, I thought about it. You know who it is? I said, it's me in 10 years. So I turned 25; ten years later that same person comes to me and goes, "So, are you a hero?" And I was like, not even close!...She said, "Why?" I said, because my hero's me at 35. So you see every day, every week, every month and every year of my life, my hero's always 10 years away. I'm never gonna be my hero. I'm not gonna attain that; I know I'm not. And that's just fine with me, because that keeps me with somebody to keep on chasin'.”

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE:

2012: Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook)
2013: Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)
2014: Julianne Moore (Still Alice)
2015: Brie Larson (Room)
2016: Emma Stone (La La Land)

Jennifer Lawrence reminds us all no matter how famous we become, we are all human, too.

“Thank you. You guys are just standing up because you feel bad that I fell and that's really embarrassing, but thank you. This is nuts.”

BEST DIRECTING:

2012: Ang Lee (Life of Pi)
2013: Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity)
2014: Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Birdman or [The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance])
2015: Alejandro G. Iñárritu (The Revenant)
2016: Damien Chazelle (La La Land)

Alejandro G. Iñárritu shared a message, which we can all aspire to live out. His film, The Revenant, tells the story of a father and son and their struggle to survive.

“There is a line in the film...Glass to his mixed-race son, "They don't listen to you; they just see the color of your skin." So what a great opportunity to our generation to really liberate ourself from all prejudice...and make sure for once and forever that the color of the skin become as irrelevant as the length of our hair.”

BEST PICTURE:

2012: Argo
2013: 12 Years a Slave
2014: Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
2015: Spotlight
2016: Moonlight

Moonlight’s producer Barry Jenkins showed just how important teamwork and support is

when making your dreams and aspirations a reality. Dreams come true, and hard work pays off.

“There was a time when I thought this movie was impossible because I couldn't

bring it to fruition, I couldn't bring myself to tell another story. And so everybody behind me on this stage said, no, that is not acceptable. So I just want to thank everybody up here behind me. Everybody out there in that room – because we didn't do this, you guys chose us. Thank you for the choice. I appreciate it. Much love.”

Looking ahead to this year’s 90th Academy Award ceremony (airing March 4th on ABC), we are excited to see what the nominees will bring to the table and what messages will last for years to come. Keep an eye out for our video on March 2nd where we will discuss our 2018 Oscar predictions. Best of luck to all of the nominees, and to you, our readers, go watch a movie!