9) Politics, Politics Everywhere
With #OscarsSoWhite being an inevitable elephant in the room, and with Rock set to skewer the Academy for its record on racial diversity, the 2016 Oscars was always bound to be a little bit political.
Surprisingly, the ceremony turned out to be even more topical than expected, with artists using their speeches to reference everything from gender equality, to climate change, to LGBT rights.
The Big Short writer-director Adam McKay accepted his Adapted Screenplay award with a dig at certain presidential runners (“don’t vote for candidates that take money from big banks, oil or weirdo billionaires”), while Leonardo DiCaprio warned of the dangers of global warming in his Best Actor speech.
Anyone hoping for mere light entertainment instead got hours of being reminded the world needs a makeover.