DUSHANBE, February 29, 2016, Asia-Plus -- Leonardo DiCaprio is finally an Oscar winner.

The star of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s  The Revenant  took home his first-ever Academy Award on Sunday night, winning Best Actor for his role as real-life 19th-century fur trapper Hugh Glass, who’s mauled by a bear and left for dead, according to Entertainment Weekly ( EW ).

DiCaprio received a standing ovation from the crowd.  He thanked his “brother” Tom Hardy, as well as Inarritu and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, and even director Martin Scorsese.  He also used his victory to call out the growing issue of climate change.

“Climate change is real. It is happening right now,” he said.  “It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating.  We need to support leaders around the world who do not speak for the big polluters or the big corporations, but who speak for all of humanity, for the indigenous people of the world, for the billions and billions of underprivileged people who will be most affected by this, for our children’s children, and for those people out there whose voices have been drowned out by the politics of greed.”

Over the last two decades, DiCaprio was nominated for his roles in  What’s Eating Gilbert Grape ,  The Aviator ,  Blood Diamond , and  The Wolf of Wall Street , but he had never won before Sunday’s ceremony.

DiCaprio beat out fellow nominees Matt Damon for  The Martian , Bryan Cranston for  Trumbo , Eddie Redmayne for  The Danish Girl , and Michael Fassbender for  Steve Jobs .

DiCaprio’s win was the third for  The Revenant , which also nabbed victories in the best cinematography category and best director for Inarritu.