12:00 AM: And...the Oscar for best picture goes to "Spotlight." The film is based on the true story of the reporters who uncovered the child sex crimes in the Catholic Church. "Spotlight" won another Oscar tonight for Best Original Screenplay.
11:55 PM Leonardo DiCaprio wins his first Oscar after six nominations!
11:52 PM Last year's winner of best actress Oscar Julianne Moore announces the nominees for best actor.
Bryan Cranston, Trumbo
Matt Damon, The Martian
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl
11:48 PM Brie Larson, star of "Room," wins the Oscar. Larson plays a woman held captive for many years by her kidnapper, who also impregnates her. Larson thanked her nine-year-old co-actor Jacob Tremblay, who plays her son in the drama.
11:45 PM The Oscar nominees for best actress:
Cate Blanchett, Carol
Brie Larson, Room
Jennifer Lawrence, Joy
Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years
Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
11:36 PM Director J.J. Abrams announces the Academy Award for best directing. The leader of "The Revenant," Alejandro González Iñárritu, wins the Oscar. The director thanked the star of his movie, Leonardo DiCaprio. He also spoke out against racial prejudice.
11:29 PM Sacha Baron Cohen and Olivia Wilde join each other on the stage to introduce the final two movies nominated for motion picture of the year.
11:25 PM Jimmy Napes and Sam Smith Best win the Oscar for original song. "Writing's on the Wall" was from the James Bond movie "Spectre."
11:10 PM Vice President Joe Biden takes the stage at the Academy Awards to urge people to take a stand against sexual abuse. He introduces Lady Gaga who sings "Til It Happens to You," with 50 survivors of sex abuse surrounding her piano. The song is from "The Hunting Ground," a film about sexual assault.
11:07 PM The Hungarian film "Son of Saul" wins the Academy Award for best foreign film. It tells of two days in the life of a Hungarian prisoner working as a member of the Sonderkommando at the Auschwitz death camp.
11:03 PM Oscar for live action short film goes to "Stutterer."
10:50 PM A Los Angeles troop of Girl Scouts take the stage. Chris Rock let his daughter sell Girl Scout cookies at the Oscars. They earned more than $65,000 in cookie sales at the Oscars, apparently.
Twitter users had some funny things to say.
10:43 PM "Amy" wins the Oscar for best documentary feature. The film tells the story of late British singer Amy Winehouse.
10:39 PM The Oscar for best short documentary goes to “A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness,” a Pakistani film about the murders of thousands of women in the name of family honor.
10:37 PM Comedian and actor Louis CK announces his "favorite" category: best documentary, short. He says the award really counts because documentary shorts make little money. "This award's going home in a Honda," he said, as the crowd laughed and clapped.
10:32 PM Mark Rylance wins best supporting actor award.
10:29 PM The winner of the best supporting actress award from last year, Patricia Arquette, named this year's winner of the best supporting actor Oscar. Nominees were Mark Ruffalo for "Spotlight," Sylvester Stallone for "Creed," Tom Hardy for "The Revenant," Christian Bale for "The Big Short" and Mark Rylance of "Bridge of Spies."
10:12 PM Animated stars of "Toy Story" name the winner of the best animated feature movie. "Inside Out" wins the Oscar. The movie portrays the feelings of a little girl as characters inside her mind. The film was a big hit commercially and critically.
10:08 PM The animated characters known as Minions from the "Despicable Me" series announce the award for best animated short. The winners: Gabriel Osorio and Pato Escala for their work on "Bear Story." The Oscar winners noted it was the first Chilean film to win an Academy Award.
The Oscar night commercials may rival those of the Superbowl in humor. In one commercial, Carrie Fisher of "Star Wars" fame plays a therapist. Her patients? Robots. The ad promotes IBM's Watson cognitive computing system.
10:00 PM "Star Wars" characters take the stage.
9:55 PM Academy Award for best visual effects goes to the science fiction movie "Ex Machina."
9:52 PM Yet again. "Mad Max: Fury Road" wins a sixth Oscar. This one for sound mixing.
9:49 PM "Mad Max: Fury Road" wins again: best sound editing!
9:40 PM Academy honors Margaret Sixel with the Oscar for best film editing for her work on "Mad Max: Fury Road."
9:38 PM Oscar for best cinematography goes to Emmanuel Lubezki for the movie "The Revenant."
The looks of a movie
One of the consistently most beautifully dressed women in Hollywood announced the best costume award. Actress Cate Blanchett handed the Oscar to Jenny Beavan for her work in "Mad Max: Fury Road."
The movie was honored two more times in the category production design and again for best makeup and hair styling.
Best supporting actress
Last year's best supporting actor, J.K. Simmons, announced the winner of the best support actress actress. And the Oscar goes to...Alicia Vikander of "The Danish Girl." She called co-actor Eddie Redmayne the "best acting partner."
'Mixed' montage
Chris Rock introduced a humorous montage of nominated movies. The producers had re-created scenes from the movies to include several black actors. In one, Tracy Morgan is, hilariously, "The Danish Girl."
Best adapted screenplay
Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe announce the winner for best adapted screenplay. These are movies written from books, plays, or other sources.
The winners are Charles Randolph and Adam McKay for "The Big Short." The movie started as a book by Michael Lewis. The film and book attempt to explain the causes of the financial crisis of 2008.
Best original screenplay
First up are actresses Charlize Theron and Emily Blunt to announce the winner of the best original screenplay. This award goes to the writer of the movie. The winner this year Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy won for the movie "Spotlight."
The movie is the story journalists in Boston, Massachusetts, who uncovered the sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church.
#OscarsSoRock
Chris Rock opens the 88th Oscars ceremony with, "I'm here at the White People's Choice Awards." He said he thought about quitting the position of host after all the controversy over the lack of diversity. But he said he could not lose another job to Kevin Hart, another black comedian and actor.
Rock said it was not fair that Will Smith did not get nominated for a best acting award for the film "Concussion." But he said it was also unfair that Smith got paid $20 million for "Wild Wild West."
Here are the nominees for best motion picture:
The Big Short
Bridge of Spies
Brooklyn
Mad Max: Fury Road;
The Martian
The Revenant
Room
Spotlight
8:00 p.m. EST -- Oscar Coverage Begins!
The 2016 Academy Awards ceremony is about to begin. The event in Hollywood, California, is the biggest night in the American film industry. The National Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards Oscars to the year's best movies and movie makers.
An Oscar can mean a huge boost to a career.
This year, the ceremony is again under a cloud of criticism. Academy voters nominated only white actors in the acting categories. Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs has vowed to work to make the organization more inclusive.
Comedian and actor Chris Rock is hosting the Oscars for the second year in a row.