Amy, the recent film based on the life and death of singer Amy Winehouse, has picked up the Best Documentary Feature prize at the Oscars 2016.
The 88th Academy Awards ceremony took place in Los Angeles last night (February 28), with Amy fighting off competition from fellow nominees The Look Of Silence, Cartel Land, What Happened Miss Simone? and Winter’s On Fire: Ukraine’s Fight For Freedom.
Speaking during the acceptance speech, director Asif Kapadia paid tribute to the late singer, saying: “This film is all about Amy. This is about showing the world who she really was, not a tabloid persona, the beautiful girl, the amazing soul, funny, intelligent, witty, someone special, someone who needed looking after.”
Watch the speech in full below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5iIfSqyOpY
Asif Kapadia’s documentary about the late British singer was released in July 2015 to vast critical acclaim and became the biggest British documentary ever at the UK box office.
Kapadia spoke to NME about the making of Amylast year. Kapadia said that he became increasingly “angry” while making the film and finding out more about Winehouse’s demise, elaborating that he “wanted the audience to be angry” too.
“People watching the film tend to feel a bit guilty,” the filmmaker said. “One reading of it is that we all got into this idea that we could bully this girl, or join in laughing at her, because she wouldn’t answer back and didn’t have anyone around her who seemed to care.
“We never stopped to think about what we were doing to her. This is a girl who had a mental illness, yet every comedian, every TV host, they all did it with such ease, without even thinking. We all got carried away with it.”
Check out the full list of winners at this year’s Academy Awards here
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