SPOTLIGHT Takes Home Best Picture Oscar, REVENANT, MAD MAX: FURY ROAD Also Win Big

The true-life story of the Boston investigative journalists who uncovered the Boston priest child abuse scandel, Spotlight, took the Best Picture Oscar at tonight’s Academy Awards. It also won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for the film’s director Tom McCarthy and his writing partner Josh Singer.

Going into tonight’s award ceremony, the two biggest juggernauts in terms of nominations were The Revenant with 12 and Mad Max: Fury Road with ten. The Revenant managed to pick up two of the big awards – one for director Alejandro Inarritu and one for Leonardo DiCaprio for Best Lead Actor. For Inarritu it was his second Academy Award in a row following his win last year for Birdman, which also took home the Best Picture award. Di Caprio’s Oscar win comes after five previous nominations yielded nothing. The film also won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, the third year in a row that Emmanuel Lubezki took home the prize, having previously won for Birdman and Gravity.

Brie Larson, took the award for Best Lead Actress for her work as a kidnapped woman who had been held captive for years in Room.

Although shut out of Best Picture and Director, Mad Max: Fury Road did clean up in the technical awards though, snagging the Oscars for Film Editing, Sound Design, Sound Editing, Production and Costume Design. But Mad Max: Fury Road‘s wins meant losses for The Reveant, who didn’t win in any of the technical categories it was nominated for outside of Cinematography.

Taking the prize for Best Original Score was Ennio Morricone, whose win for the music he composed for The Hateful Eight makes him the oldest person to ever win an Academy Award in one of the competitive categories at the age of 87.

Our resident Academy Award expert William Gatevackes will be here tomorrow with a more in depth analysis of the evening’s events.

Here is the complete list of nominees –

Best Picture
Spotlight

Best director
Alejandro Inarritu The Revenant

Performance by an actor in a leading role
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant

Performance by an actress in a leading role
Brie Larson, Room

Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Mark Rylance, The Bridge of Spies

Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Alicia Vikander. The Danish Girl

Best foreign language film of the year
“Son of Saul” Hungary

Best live action short film
“Stutterer” Benjamin Cleary and Serena Armitage

Best documentary feature
Amy – Directors Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees

Best documentary short subject
“A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness” Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

Best Animated Feature film of the year
“Inside Out” Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera

Best animated short film
“Bear Story” Gabriel Osorio and Pato Escala

Achievement in film editing
“Mad Max: Fury Road” Margaret Sixel

Achievement in makeup and hairstyling
“Mad Max: Fury Road” Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega and Damian Martin

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
“The Hateful Eight” Ennio Morricone

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
“Writing’s On The Wall” from “Spectre,” Music and Lyric by Jimmy Napes and Sam Smith

Achievement in production design
“Mad Max: Fury Road” Production Design: Colin Gibson; Set Decoration: Lisa Thompson

Achievement In Cinematography
“The Revenant” Emmanuel Lubezki

Achievement in costume design
“Mad Max: Fury Road” John Seale

Achievement in sound editing
“Mad Max: Fury Road” Mark Mangini and David White

Achievement in sound mixing
“Mad Max: Fury Road” Chris Jenkins, Gregg Rudloff and Ben Osmo

Achievement in visual effects
“Ex Machina” Andrew Whitehurst, Paul Norris, Mark Ardington and Sara Bennett

Adapted screenplay
“The Big Short” Screenplay by Charles Randolph and Adam McKay

Original screenplay
“Spotlight” Written by Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy