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Leonardo DiCaprio’s long road to Best Actor

It was a case of fourth time lucky for Leonardo DiCaprio, who has won the Oscar for Best Actor for his role in The Revenant, a gritty revenge drama.

While the actor used his acceptance speech to thank those who worked on the film, he also made an impassioned plea on climate change.

“Climate change is real. It is happening right now. It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species,” he said.

“We need to support leaders around the world who do not speak for the big polluters or the big corporations, but who speak for all of humanity, the indigenous people of the world, for the billions and billions of underprivileged people who will be most affected by this.”

MAD MAX WINS BIG
• RED CARPET

• ‘HOLLYWOOD IS RACIST’
• THE WINNERS

leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet

DiCaprio and Winslet on the red carpet. Image: Getty

DiCaprio was a hot favourite for the award after being nominated alongside Bryan Cranston (Trumbo), Matt Damon (The Martian),
Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs) and Eddie Redmayne (The Danish Girl).

Despite his favouritism, DiCaprio could have been forgiven for wondering if the Academy would send the award his way. He was nominated but missed out for his roles in Blood Diamond, The Aviator and The Wolf of Wall Street.

It caps one of the most successful Hollywood careers of the current era. DiCaprio first appeared on film on 1991 in Critters 3, then two years later performed in the cult classic What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? alongside Johnny Depp.

But his career went stratospheric on the bow of the Titanic alongside Kate Winslet in 1997.

Another highlight of the 2016 Oscars ceremony was Winslet’s reaction to the award. The pair appeared on the red carpet together earlier in the night, but his co-performer was misty-eyed when DiCaprio strode onto stage to accept the award.

Since his appearance in Titanic, DiCaprio has worked alongside some of the greatest actors and directors in cinema history – Martin Scorsese, Robert de Niro, Baz Luhrman and Quentin Tarantino among them.

For a celebration of an already great career, watch the video above to sample the growing DiCaprio legacy.

Aussie success

Mad Max: Fury Road stormed through the 88th Academy Awards ceremony, winning six categories and showering a record eight Australian crew members with Oscars.

In an ironic twist, George Miller, the iconic Australian filmmaker whose creative mind came up with the frenzied post-apocalyptic wasteland chase film, left Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre empty-handed.

Brie Larson won best actress for Room, trumping Cate Blanchett’s performance in Carol.

The Oscars began with host Chris Rock taking the Academy voters to task over the failure to nominate black actors, but soon after Australia’s Mad Max: Fury Road’s Australian nominees hijacked the ceremony.

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