The Oscars are always an essential event on the cinema calendar, but are often dismissed as not mattering because, once you get past the pomp, there's minimal lasting impact. What was the long-standing impact of the success of the brilliant The Artist on cinematic form? But get past the stars weeping at agent-requested moments and overblown musical numbers and there's more to it than giving Meryl Streep some more notice. In recent years alone we've seen indie directors become some of the biggest names of Hollywood and incredible actors have staged impressive comebacks (without the success of Argo you can bet Warner Bros. would have been less excited about getting half of Beniffer as Batman), and as 2016's awards race shapes up it's looking like a classic year. The biggies is Leonardo DiCaprio; one of the finest actors of his generation, and still yet to win an Oscar. By this point it's a cliche; every time he has a new movie out it's the same old comment everyone makes. The thing is, is it much of a surprise? He's typically a leading man, but rarely picks roles with innate Oscar-weight (the only exception was Django Unchained, but for whatever reason Harvey Weinstein chose to back Christoph Waltz for Best Supporting Actor that year instead) and isn't a big fan of the essential promotion. However, he's currently the bookie's favourite for his turn in The Revenant (which has obscene early buzz), although without the majority of people having seen the film it's hard to equate his chances with certainty. And there's also the fact we're in the early stages of the race - at this point last year Michael Keaton looked like a dead lock. But even if things don't go to plan for Leo, then the way things are falling it still looks like we're going to get something influential; Inside Out's inevitable snubbing of Best Picture will cause more animation fallout than Beauty And The Beast, Up and Toy Story 3 combined, while the rapidly risen Alicia Vikander (a future all-time great, surely) should begin fleshing out her Wikipedia awards page.
