Oscars 2016 live: Winners and highlights
George Miller might have missed out on the award for best director, and Spotlight took out best picture, but Mad Max: Fury Road was a big winner at the Academy Awards.  
Nominated for 10 Oscars, it accomplished a near-clear sweep of the technical awards with six wins. The best ever Australian performer at the Academy Awards, it won best costume design, best production design, best make-up and hairstyling, best editing and both sound mixing and sound editing. Among the winners, eight are Australian people.
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu won best director for The Revenant.
The first award for Fury Road went to English costume designer Jenny Beavan, who won her second Oscar for her work on the film.
Beavan has been nominated for 10 Academy Awards, but Mad Max: Fury Road marks a considerable departure for her. Post-apocalyptic action spectacle is not what she's known for: she has specialised in period drama and literary adaptations, and won an Oscar for her work on the E.M. Forster adaptation A Room With a View. 
Thanking Miller, producer Doug Mitchell and "the most amazing crew", Beavan said that we could all be living in the grim world of Fury Road,  "If we're not kinder to each other and we don't stop polluting our atmosphere". 
The award for best production design went to Australians Colin Gibson, Lisa Thompson and the Oscar for best make-up and hairstyling went to Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega and Damian Martin.  
"It never ceases to annoy me how many people it takes to make me look competent," said Gibson in his acceptance speech.
"To get one of these, you've got an idea of the multitudes of Australians, New Zealanders, Brits, Americans, South Africans, Namibians who all came together under George's vision to bring you a tale about a man with mental health issues, an amputee amazon and five runaway sex slaves.
"So I'd like to chalk this one up as the first Oscar for diversity."
The near-sweep of the technical awards continued with Margaret Sixel winning for best editor, 
"It took enormous creative courage and guts to make this film," Sixel said. "So I just want to say thanks to George Miller and Doug Mitchell and the whole crew that endured six months in that Namibian desert to bring back the most amazing footage."
In the best sound editing category, Australian David White won alongside Mark A. Mangini.  In the sound mixing category, Australian Ben Osmo won, alongside Chris Jenkins and Gregg Rudloff.
Fury Road cinematographer John Seale (already an Oscar winner) missed out, as did the visual effects team, consisting of Andy Williams and Australians Dan Oliver, Andrew Jackson and Tom Wood.