Alejandro González Iñárritu has won the Oscar for best director for The Revenant at the 88th Academy awards, his second in a row after triumphing in the same category in 2015 for Birdman. Iñárritu was the favourite for the award, despite strong competition from the likes of Tom McCarthy for Spotlight and Adam McKay for The Big Short.
Based on a novel by Michael Punke, The Revenant stars Leonardo DiCaprio as 19th-century frontiersman Hugh Glass, who is left for dead in the wilderness after a bear attack. The film was reportedly a gruelling production, with Iñárritu suggesting he may have made “an irresponsible decision” in the way he went about it. However, The Revenant proved a box office hit, grossing over $380m worldwide to date.
The film has already proved an awards magnet for the director, with Iñárritu picking up the Bafta and Golden Globe for best director, as well as the reliable Oscar bellwether of the Directors Guild of America award. With this Academy award, Iñárritu is the first director to win twice in a row since Joseph L Mankiewicz in 1950 and 1951, for A Letter to Three Wives and All About Eve respectively.
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