Movie Feature | Oscars 2016 Winners (Lights, Camera, Action!)

Oscars 2016 Winners

Hot favourites fell by the wayside and an outsider took the largest number of trophies. Mad Max: Fury Road captured no less than six, making it the biggest winner on the night, as well as being the most successful Australian film ever. All its wins came in the technical categories - sound, costume design, editing - and they came so thick and fast there seemed to a prolonged echo in Hollywood's Dolby Theatre. That echo was its name.

Sylvester Stallone had been the sentimental favourite to win Best Supporting Actor for reprising the role of Rocky Balboa in Creed, but, in the first surprise of the night, he lost out to Brit Mark Rylance for Bridge of Spies, and it was the start of a good night for some of the other Brits. Asif Kapadia's Amy won Best Documentary, sci-fi Ex Machina pulled off another unexpected win in the Best Visual Effects category, and even James Bond and Spectre got in on the act, with Writing's on the Wall taking Best Original Song.

Much of the talk before the ceremony had centred on Leonardo Di Caprio and him winning an Oscar at the fifth attempt. He won Best Actor for The Revenant, much to the delight of the audience, and the film also took Best Cinematography and its Director, Alejandro Inarritu, took the directing Oscar for the second year running. It's been 60 years since that last happened.

Among the other big winners, Brie Larson won Best Actress for Room, adding to her Independent Spirit Award from just 24 hours earlier. She was a first time nominee and winner, as was Alicia Vikander who received Best Supporting Actress for The Danish Girl.

The Academy, however, saved its biggest and best surprise until the end. The Revenant had also been strongly fancied to take Best Picture, but it fell at the final hurdle. The award went to Spotlight, the film about the Boston Globe journalists who exposed child abuse in the Catholic Church. It had already won the first award of the night, Best Original Screenplay.

How did the Lights, Camera, Action! crystal ball get on then? There must have been some dust floating around, because it correctly predicted just three - Actor, Actress, and Director...but with all those surprises, and some really deserving winners, being wrong isn't so bad.

The full list of winners can be found here.