A Very Political Oscars: What Issues Were Raised?

Hollywood's race row loomed large over the 88th Academy Awards - but several other issues were brought up throughout the night.

:: First-time Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio on climate change:

"Let us not take this planet for granted. I do not take tonight for granted."

:: Host Chris Rock raised diversity issues numerous times:

"Hey! Well, I'm here at the Academy Awards - otherwise known as the white people's choice awards. You realise if they nominated hosts, I wouldn't even get this job."

:: Rock also addressed the US police shooting of black suspects:

"This year, in the 'In Memoriam' package, it's just going to be black people that were shot on their way to the movies."

:: Oscar-winning singer Sam Smith on gay rights:

"I stand here tonight as a proud gay man and I hope we can all stand together as equals one day." 

:: Michael Sugar, co-producer of best picture Spotlight, on child sex abuse:

"This film gave a voice to survivors. And this Oscar amplifies that voice, which we hope will become a choir that will resonate all the way to the Vatican. Pope Francis, it's time to protect the children and restore the faith."

:: US vice president Joe Biden, introducing Lady Gaga, who performed with campus sex assault survivors:

"We must and we can change the culture, so that no abused woman or man like the survivors you will see tonight ever feel they have to ask themselves, 'What did I do?' They did nothing wrong." 

:: The Revenant director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, who won the best director Oscar, on race:

"What a great opportunity to our generation to really liberate ourselves from all prejudice ... and make sure for once and forever that the colour of skin becomes as irrelevant as the length of our hair."

:: Briton Jenny Beavan, who won best costume design for Mad Max: Fury Road, on climate change:

"I want to say one quite serious thing, but it could be horribly prophetic, Mad Max, if we are not kinder to each other and if we don't stop polluting our atmosphere."

:: Oscar winner Alicia Vikander, who starred in The Danish Girl, on transgender issues:

"I came on this film only two years ago and know it wasn't an easy film to get made, to see the cultural change since I finished the film with Caitlyn Jenner and Transparent and Tangerine, it's a social change and in the way this film has been so educational for me, I hope it can open up a wider conversation."

:: Watch Oscars 2016: Highlights, a two-hour special programme, on Sky Movies Oscars tonight from 8pm in the UK and Ireland.

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