Latinos Win Oscar Gold at 2016 Academy Awards
While there weren't any Latinos in the acting categories, several Latinos got their hands on highly-coveted Oscars at this year's Academy Awards.
On Feb. 28, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science awarded this year's batch of Oscars, honoring films and the people who make them. This year's winners included five Latinos.
Last year's winner for Best Director, Alejandro González Iñárritu, once again took the prestigious award for his work on "The Revenant."
The Mexico City-born director beat out fellow nominees George Miller ("Mad Max"), Tom McCarthy ("Spotlight"), Adam McKay ("The Big Short") and Lenny Abrahamson ("Room").
In his acceptance speech, the director spoke about diversity and progress.
“It’s amazing to be receiving this award tonight," he said. “What a great opportunity for our generation to really liberate ourselves from all prejudice and this tribal thinking and to make sure for once and forever that the color our skin becomes as irrelevant as the length of our hair.”
Iñárritu has three previous wins for "Birdman," which took Best Director, Best Film and Best Original Screenplay at the 2015 Academy Awards.
The win marks the third year in a row that a Mexican director has won the Best Director prize. Prior to Iñárritu's two wins, Alfonso Cuarón won for "Gravity."
Also making history was Iñárritu's colleague, Mexican cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, who took home his third consecutive Academy Award after winning Best Cinematography for "Gravity" and "Birdman."
Another big win for Latinos came for Chilean Animated Short Film nominee "Bear Story," which took home Oscar gold. The win marked the first Academy Award for the Latin American nation and the first for Gabriel Osorio, who directed the film, and Pato Escala, who served as producer.
"Inside Out" won for Best Animated Feature. The Pixar animated film was produced by Jonas Rivera, who previously produced "Up," his second Pixar collaboration with director Pete Doctor.
Watch Iñárritu's acceptance speech below.
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