Who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 2016 Oscars ceremony?

Introduction / Context:
The Academy Awards, commonly called the Oscars, are among the most followed film awards in the world. The Best Supporting Actress category often features strong performances in significant films, and questions about winners by year are common in general knowledge and film awareness sections. This question asks for the winner of the Best Supporting Actress award at the 2016 Oscars ceremony.

Given Data / Assumptions:
- The year in focus is the 2016 Oscars ceremony, which corresponds to the 88th Academy Awards. - The category is Best Supporting Actress. - The options list actresses who have all received Oscar nominations or awards at various times. - Only one of them actually won in this specific category and year. - We assume official Academy Awards winners lists as the reference.

Concept / Approach:
At the 2016 Oscars, Alicia Vikander won the Best Supporting Actress award for her performance in the film The Danish Girl. The other actresses listed were either nominees in that year, winners in different categories or winners in other years. The approach is to recall this specific pairing of Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl and the 2016 ceremony and then eliminate the distractor options.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Recall that The Danish Girl drew significant attention for performances by Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander, with Vikander winning an Oscar for a supporting role. Step 2: Confirm that the year of that win corresponds to the 2016 Oscars (88th Academy Awards). Step 3: Recognise that Jennifer Jason Leigh and Rooney Mara were also nominated around that time, but they did not win the award. Step 4: Kate Winslet is a past Oscar winner for other roles and was nominated again, but she did not take home the supporting actress statue in 2016. Step 5: Viola Davis won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Fences at the 2017 ceremony, not the 2016 one. Step 6: Therefore, Alicia Vikander is the correct answer for the 2016 Best Supporting Actress category.

Verification / Alternative check:
Many exam notes summarise the 2016 Oscars by listing Spotlight as Best Picture and Alicia Vikander as Best Supporting Actress for The Danish Girl. This combination is usually presented together, making it easier to remember. Checking the roles associated with other actresses confirms that their Oscar wins either belong to other categories or different years, reinforcing that Alicia Vikander is the correct choice for this particular question.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Option B (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is wrong because although she was nominated, she did not win the award in 2016. Option C (Rooney Mara) is wrong because she was a nominee but not the final winner for this category and year. Option D (Kate Winslet) is wrong because her Oscar win as Best Actress for a different film came earlier, and she did not win the 2016 supporting actress title. Option E (Viola Davis) is wrong because she won Best Supporting Actress at the 2017 ceremony, not at the 2016 Oscars.

Common Pitfalls:
Candidates may confuse adjacent years, especially around 2015 to 2017, when many strong performances by actresses were honoured. Another common pitfall is to remember that Viola Davis won a supporting actress award and incorrectly assign it to 2016. Some students also mix up nominees and winners. To avoid such mistakes, it helps to make a small year wise table of Oscar winners in the key categories, at least for the last decade.

Final Answer:
At the 2016 Oscars, the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress was won by Alicia Vikander.