Making a political statement at the Oscars podium appears to have come back into fashion, after Leonardo DiCaprio’s Oscar-acceptance speech exhorting action over climate change led a string of wide-ranging statements at the 2016 ceremony – even if the expected controversy over Hollywood diversity was more muted than had been anticipated.

The campaigning period, which had officially been kicked off by the nominations announcement on 14 January, had been dominated by talk of boycotts over the film industry’s diversity issues, and the associated #OscarsSoWhite hashtag. High profile figures such as Will and Jada Pinkett Smith chose to stay away, while up-and-coming directors Ava DuVernay and Ryan Coogler opted to attend a benefit even for the #JusticeForFlint campaign, over the water contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan. Oscars host Chris Rock tackled the issue with a stream of gags, but the combative mood was blunted by the appearance of Fox News commentator Stacey Dash – a high profile critic of Black History Month – and a less-than-incendiary speech from musician Quincy Jones.

In the event, however, DiCaprio’s intervention proved the most hard-hitting statement on the night. After being named as the winner of the best actor Oscar, DiCaprio said: “Making The Revenant was about man’s relationship to the natural world. A world that we collectively felt in 2015 as the hottest year in recorded history. Our production needed to move to the southern tip of this planet just to be able to find snow.”