Nobody thought it was possible: win the Best Picture Oscar with only one other win? And at that, the first award of the night? Half way through, it looked like even The Revenant wasn't going to be able to pull off the big win, as its tally was being depleted by an astonishing surge by Mad Max: Fury Road - six wins for George Miller's film! The later awards favoured Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's western, however, and indeed both he and Leonardo DiCaprio won their expected trophies. But the gasps and cheers that greeted Morgan Freeman's announcement of Spotlight as the surprise Best Picture winner - and with only one other award won, Original Screenplay, to The Revenant's three and Mad Max's six - were confirmation: not only was this our Best Picture winner for 2015, it was also our most surprising winner since 2005's Crash, after our most unpredictable race in who knows how long.
And there were even bigger shocks in other categories: Sylvester Stallone's widely predicted victory in Supporting Actor failed to materialise, as BAFTA champ Mark Rylance won instead. The Visual Effects award went to perhaps the most left-field winner in memory: Ex Machina, only the second time a Best Picture nominee has failed to win that award (when nominated) in history, and a choice utterly no-one had predicted. And Best Original Song went to 'Writing's on the Wall' from Spectre - the night's most reviled decision by a clear distance, and featuring the most mocked (and inaccurate) acceptance speech statement from singer Sam Smith, who claimed to be the first openly gay man to win an Oscar (he's not). Check out the nominations at this link, and grin gleefully over the award winners in full, below:
Best Picture
Spotlight (Blye Pagon Faust, Steve Golin, Nicole Rocklin and Michael Sugar)
Best Directing
Alejandro González Iñárritu (The Revenant)
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant)
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Brie Larson (Room)
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies)
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl)
Best Writing – Original Screenplay
Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer (Spotlight)
Best Writing – Adapted Screenplay
Adam McKay and Charles Randolph (The Big Short)
Best Cinematography
Emmanuel Lubezki (The Revenant)
Best Film Editing
Margaret Sixel (Mad Max: Fury Road)
Best Production Design
Colin Gibson and Lisa Thompson (Mad Max: Fury Road)
Best Costume Design
Jenny Beavan (Mad Max: Fury Road)
Best Sound Mixing
Chris Jenkins, Ben Osmo and Gregg Rudloff (Mad Max: Fury Road)
Best Sound Editing
Mark A. Mangini and David White (Mad Max: Fury Road)
Best Visual Effects
Mark Ardington, Sara Bennett, Paul Norris and Andrew Whitehurst (Ex Machina)
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Damian Martin, Lesley Vanderwalt and Elka Wardega (Mad Max: Fury Road)
Best Music (Original Score)
Ennio Morricone (The Hateful Eight)
Best Music (Original Song)
Jimmy Napes and Sam Smith – ‘Writing’s on the Wall’ (Spectre)
Best Animated Feature Film
Inside Out (Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera)
Best Documentary Feature
Amy (James Gay-Rees and Asif Kapadia)
Best Foreign Language Film
Son of Saul – Hungary (Nemes László)
Best Short Film (Live Action)
Stutterer (Serena Armitage and Benjamin Cleary)
Best Short Film (Animated)
Bear Story (Pato Escala and Gabriel Osorio)
Best Documentary Short
A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness (Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy)
