Under the red carpet flash and awards season drama, in the magnetic red glow, Leonardo DiCaprio is a solitary presence who is loved, in demand, and perpetually under the lens. Every new movie comes with expectations, and every role is picked apart by critics and fans alike. As hype swells for his next Oscar quest, thanks to his critically acclaimed performance in the 2025 film, One Battle After Another, one is reminded of the long wait for his first, and how it arrived at the time the world seemed to collectively sigh a breath of relief. 

To document the history of DiCaprio's Oscar nominations and ultimate victory is a movie in itself, replete with drama, emotional moments, twists, and turns.

It took years of show-stopping performances for Leonardo DiCaprio to finally win his first Academy Award at the 88th Oscars in 2016, Best Actor for The Revenant. His victory came in like a long-overdue coronation for the terrific role where he portrayed Hugh Glass, a frontiersman left to die who sets out on a brutal, relentless survival and vengeance odyssey in Alejandro G. Iñárritu's epic western action drama film. One of its most cherished moments that contributed to his big win was a ghastly bear-attack sequence, which DiCaprio went through with multiple takes, prosthetics, and ice-cold weather.

Apart from sleeping in animal carcasses or braving frozen rivers in the name of set, DiCaprio also famously consumed raw bison liver on screen, a gruesome detail kept intact in the final cut that represented just how far he would go for authenticity. Symbolically, the award itself was, in a lot of ways, the culmination of a protracted Oscar drought, as he had previously been nominated numerous times without ever taking home the prize.

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In the echo of a second Oscar buzz and his initial victory, DiCaprio had hovered around that arena before he stepped into it.

Almost a decade ago, when Leonardo DiCaprio sealed his first Oscar win, he ended the long-running memes about returning from Hollywood's biggest night empty-handed for years. He had been nominated at the Academy Awards a total of seven times, including acting and producer categories, receiving the gold statue once. DiCaprio's Oscar journey took off with a Best Supporting Actor nod for the Johnny Depp-starrer What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993).

As his excellent cinematic career led him to create iconic roles, DiCaprio kept on earning Oscar nominations for The Aviator, Blood Diamond, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Revenant, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. His consistent near-victories became a cultural touchstone and generational meme leading up to his first win in 2016. Whether or not he ever receives his second Oscar, following the success of One Battle After Another, only time can tell.

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