The names in bold were the winners of this year’s Academy Awards.

Best motion picture of the year

“The Big Short”
“Bridge of Spies”
“Brooklyn”
“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“The Martian”
“The Revenant”
“Room”
“Spotlight”

Achievement in directing

Adam McKay, side effects “The Big Short, pharmacy ”
George Miller, doctor “Mad Max: Fury Road”
Alejandro González Iñárritu, “The Revenant”
Lenny Abrahamson, “Room”
Tom McCarthy, “Spotlight”

Performance by an actor in a leading role

Bryan Cranston, “Trumbo”
Matt Damon, “The Martian”
Leonardo DiCaprio, “The Revenant”
Michael Fassbender, “Steve Jobs”
Eddie Redmayne, “The Danish Girl”

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

Christian Bale, “The Big Short”
Tom Hardy, “The Revenant”
Mark Ruffalo, “Spotlight”
Mark Rylance, “Bridge of Spies”
Sylvester Stallone, “Creed”

Performance by an actress in a leading role

Cate Blanchett, “Carol”
Brie Larson, “Room”
Jennifer Lawrence, “Joy”
Charlotte Rampling, “45 Years”
Saoirse Ronan, “Brooklyn”

Performance by an actress in a supporting role

Jennifer Jason Leigh, “The Hateful Eight”
Rooney Mara, “Carol”
Rachel McAdams, “Spotlight”
Alicia Vikander, “The Danish Girl”
Kate Winslet, “Steve Jobs”

Adapted screenplay

“The Big Short”
“Brooklyn”
“Carol”
“The Martian”
“Room”

Original screenplay

“Bridge of Spies”
“Ex Machina”
“Inside Out”
“Spotlight”
“Straight Outta Compton”

Best animated feature film of the year

“Anomalisa”
“Boy and the World”
“Inside Out”
“Shaun the Sheep Movie”
“When Marnie Was There”

Achievement in cinematography

“Carol”
“The Hateful Eight”
“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“The Revenant”
“Sicario”

Achievement in costume design

“Carol”
“Cinderella”
“The Danish Girl”
“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“The Revenant”

Best documentary feature

“Amy”
“Cartel Land”
“The Look of Silence”
“What Happened, Miss Simone?”
“Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom”

Best documentary short subject

“Body Team 12”
“Chau, Beyond the Lines”
“Claude Lanzmann”
“A Girl in the River”
“Last Day of Freedom”

Achievement in film editing

“The Big Short”
“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“The Revenant”
“Spotlight”
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”

Best foreign language film of the year

“Embrace of the Serpent”
“Mustang”
“Son of Saul”
“Theeb”
“A War”

Achievement in makeup and hairstyling

“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared”
“The Revenant”

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)

“Bridge of Spies”
“Carol”
“The Hateful Eight”
“Sicario”
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)

“Fifty Shades of Grey”
“Racing Extinction”
“Spectre”
“The Hunting Ground”
“Youth”

Achievement in production design

“Bridge of Spies”
“The Danish Girl”
“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“The Martian”
“The Revenant”

Best animated short film

“Bear Story”
“Prologue”
“Sanjay’s Super Team”
“We Can’t Live Without Cosmos”
“World of Tomorrow”

Best live action short film

“Ave Maria”
“Day One”
“Everything Will Be Okay”
“Shok”
“Stutterer”

Achievement in sound editing

“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“The Martian”
“The Revenant”
“Sicario”
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”

Achievement in sound mixing

“Bridge of Spies”
“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“The Martian”
“The Revenant”
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”

Achievement in visual effects

“Ex Machina”
“The Martian”
“The Revenant”
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”
One of the most interesting aspects of the new sports drama Eddie the Eagle is that the film both follows the traditions of uplifting sports films while candidly rejecting them. In many sports movies about individuals, check
the hero trains for months — if not years — for a big event. There are roadblocks along the way but the hero is able to overcome them and makes it to the final battle. Last year, Creed was a tremendous example of that formula’s success.

Eddie the Eagle doesn’t follow that formula.

Eddie Edwards, played here nicely by the underrated Taron Egerton, didn’t want to be a ski jumper when he was growing up in England. He simply wanted to be an Olympian. Despite the fact that he wasn’t coordinated and his father derided him by saying “you are not an athlete,” Edwards wanted to compete in the Olympics no matter what. The feature begins by showing Edwards trying out different sports. None of them take. His closest call comes when he nearly makes it to the country’s 1988 Olympics skiing team but that plan falters as well.

After discovering the sport of ski jumping and — more importantly — the lack of English competitors in the sport, Edwards takes up the sport. In a field where some of the best competitors started training when they were six, Edwards starts jumping when he’s 22. Edwards eventually enlists the support of Bronson Perry (Hugh Jackman), a former Olympic athlete who had once been trained under the tutelage of acclaimed ski jumper Warren Sharp (Christopher Walken).

Screenwriters Sean Macaulay and Simon Kelton feature Eddie as the main character here but Perry’s background with Sharp is responsible for the more traditional sports story. Perry was a born athlete who was never able to fulfill his potential at the Olympics, much to Sharp’s disappointment. Perry is the one who would’ve been the star of a more traditional sports story but here, he’s the supporting player. His story of redemption plays out in the background as Edwards journeys to the Olympics.

Because he is not a traditional athlete, Edwards faces a unique type of criticism at the Olympics. Some viewers think he is making a mockery of the sport of ski jumping while others think he’s a sideshow clown. To his credit, director Dexter Fletcher captures the different views of Edwards.

There are traditional villains here — a coach who mocks Edwards and a fellow athlete who tricks him — but there’s also an awareness that there were some reasonable critics of Edwards, who judged him without knowing what was in his heart.

When Edwards makes a major decision in the drama’s third act, it truly shows that he really does love the sport of ski jumping. He himself knows the media backlash he’s faced and he’s prepared to prove himself to show who he really is and more importantly, who he wants to be.

Admittedly, the film does have its faults. At times, Fletcher’s direction of the jumps are a little distracting with the camera zooming in dispassionately at the faces of the athletes but overall, the sports drama works extremely well. It doesn’t have a traditional ending but Edwards’ story didn’t have a traditional beginning either.

“I was kicked off every team I was ever on before I had the chance to prove myself,” he says and Eddie the Eagle provides a kind-hearted showcase that reveals this athlete proving himself both to his fellow athletes and to the world.