Leonardo DiCaprio andKate Winsletattend the 88th Academy Awards in Hollywood on Sunday. DiCaprio won the Best Actor award for his role inThe Revenant. CHRISTOPHER POLK / AFP

The reason DiCaprio attracts tidal waves of sympathy is his star power.Titanic, released in 1998 in China, was the nation's box-office champion for many years, and even a rerelease in 3-D in 2012 earned 982 million yuan ($150 million), more than the latestStar Warsmovie.

The red wristband DiCaprio wore at the awards ceremony was instantly copied and made available at online stores for 15 yuan apiece, supposedly "for turning around fortune".

Before nominations were announced in January, all three Chinese-language submissions for Best Foreign Language Film failed to make the cut.

The mainland submission,Wolf Totem,was a commercially successful but controversial choice.

When the Academy turned it down, alleging that Chinese had too little artistic control as it had a French director and some non-Chinese behind-the-scenes talent, the news did not gain much attention in China.

But the replacement,Go Away Mr. Tumor, had many scratching their heads. Both titles failed to make any top-10 lists on home territory, and their selections were widely considered not to represent the country's best achievement in the art of film.