Record number of Australians for Oscars 2016

On the other hand, it’s fairly clear that George Miller and his team weren’t making Mad Max: Fury Road with the idea of winning an Academy Award in mind; they just wanted to make an incredible film, and on that front they have overwhelmingly succeeded.

The first acting award of the night went to Sweden’s Alicia Vikander, who dazzled on the red carpet in a strapless pale yellow Louis Vuitton gown, for her supporting role in “The Danish Girl”.

George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road dominated the crafts categories at the Oscars, winning six awards, for costume design, makeup and hair styling, film editing, production design, sound editing and sound mixing.

Inside Out was deemed Best Animated Feature Film, Amy Best Documentary and Son of Saul Best Foreign-Language Film. The comedian also sought to add perspective to the turmoil, saying this year didn’t differ much from Oscar history, but black people in earlier decades were “too busy being raped and lynched to worry about who won best cinematographer”.

Smith, along with co-writer Jimmy Napes, won for Best Original Song for the “Spectre” theme song “Writing’s on the Wall”.

Fury Road were the stars of last night’s Oscars 2016, which kicked off with a monologue from Chris Rock about the recent controversy, #OscarsSoWhite. Cate Blanchett is also nominated for Carol.

Tom McCarthy’s investigative journalism crime drama Spotlight has won Best Picture at the 2016 Oscars, but Mad Max: Fury Road stormed the stage at LA’s Dolby Theater, picking up six awards.

It’s a balancing act for Rock, who is under pressure to bite the hand that feeds him but presumably doesn’t want to burn bridges in Hollywood with years of his career still ahead of him.

The award was given to delivered editor Margaret Sixel, which also marks her first Academy Award.

The best actor award seems less open to outsiders, with everything pointing to Leonardo DiCaprio as a dead cert for the gong.

And Sylvester Stallone may finally win an Oscar for playing Rocky Balboa – 39 years after he first did the role. That’s rather incredible if you dismiss Fury Road as one long auto chase populated by psychopaths obsessed with gasoline and water, draining each other for blood, rife with explosions and crossbows and flame-spewing guitars.

“Though she didn’t win an Oscar, Lady Gaga stole the show with her impassioned rendition of “‘Til it Happens To You”.