Leonardo DiCaprio and Spotlight shine at this year’s Oscars

It was finally Leonardo DiCaprio's year as he took home the Best Actor award. Here's a wrap up from this year's Academy Awards.

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio accepts the award for Best Actor in The Revenant on stage at the 88th Oscars in Hollywood, California. Mark Ralston / AFP photo

The film industry’s biggest night in which cinematic achievements are honoured took place this morning with the 88th Academy Awards. Here’s a look at the highlights from the big event.

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Spotlight has won the best picture Academy Award.

The film tells the story of the Boston Globe's Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into child sex abuse by Catholic priests. It starred Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo and John Slattery.

Eight films were nominated in the category, but throughout Hollywood's awards season the competition had been primarily between three films: The Big Short, The Revenant and Spotlight.

Spotlight won the best original screenplay award at the outset of the Oscars ceremony Sunday.

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Leonardo DiCaprio finally has an Oscar after winning the best actor Academy Award for his performance in the survival epic The Revenant.

DiCaprio has been nominated five times for acting Oscars, dating back to 1993's What's Eating Gilbert Grape. Acting's highest honor has eluded him despite years of strong performances in films such as The Aviator, and The Wolf of Wall Street.

He played fur trapper Hugh Glass in director Alejandro Inarritu's The Revenant, which involved the actor plunging into icy waters and eating raw bison to portray his character's efforts to survive in the wilderness after a bear attack.

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Brie Larson is the winner of the best actress Academy Award for her portrayal of a mother struggling to raise her son in captivity.

Larson won for Room, in which she plays a woman who gives birth to a son after being kidnapped and held captive for years. She attempts to give her son a sense of normalcy until circumstances force her to plot an escape.

It was the 26-year-old actress’ first Oscar nomination. She also won Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards for her work on the film, which is adapted from an Emma Donoghue novel.

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Alejandro G Inarritu is a back-to-back Oscar winner for best director.

The Revenant director won the directing Academy Award Sunday for the his revenge tale, which features Leonardo DiCaprio braving icy elements to tell the 19th century survival tale about a fur trapper left for dead after a bear mauling.

The Mexican filmmaker won three Oscars at last year's ceremony, including for best picture and writing Birdman. He was nominated in 2007 as best director for Babel. The Revenant was this year's top-nominated film.

The win is the second Oscar awarded to The Revenant during Sunday's ceremony.

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Sam Smith's song from the latest James Bond film is the winner of the Academy Award for best original song.

Smith and Jimmy Napes won for Writing's On the Wall from Spectre. Adele's song Skyfall for the previous Bond film won the Academy Award in 2013.

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Ennio Morricone has won the Academy Award for best original score for his work on The Hateful Eight.

The Italian composer has created some of cinema's most-recognizable music, scoring Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns such as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and music for The Untouchables.

It is the 87-year-old’s first Oscar for his work on an individual film. He was awarded an honorary Academy Award in 2007.

Morricone praised his fellow nominees, singling out Star Wars composer John Williams. Morricone says, "There isn't a great soundtrack without a great movie to inspire it."

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Hungary's Son of Saul has won the best foreign language film Academy Award.

The film tells the story of a Jewish man forced to work at a Nazi death camp who seeks a proper religious burial for a boy who he believes is his son.

Director Laszlo Nemes used long tracking shots to follow the film’s protagonist as he navigates the horrors of the death camp.

It is Hungary’s second Oscar in the category.

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An intimate look at the life of late singer Amy Winehouse is the winner of the best feature documentary Academy Award.

Amy won the documentary honor at Sunday's ceremony. Director Asif Kapadia used archival footage and testimonials to offer new insights into Winehouse, who died in 2011 from accidental alcohol poisoning.

The film won the Grammy Award for best music film earlier this month.

The best documentary short Oscar was awarded to the film, A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness.

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Mark Rylance is the winner of the best supporting actor Academy Award for his role as a Russian operative in Bridge of Spies.

Rylance was a first time nominee and won Sunday for his portrayal of Russian spy Rudolf Abel, who becomes part of a high-stakes prisoner exchange during the Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union.

The actor praised director Steven Spielberg and co-star Tom Hanks in his acceptance speech, which was cut short by the orchestra while Rylance was praising his fellow nominees.

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Inside Out, a moving story about the conflict of emotions inside the mind of a young girl, gave Disney its fourth consecutive Oscar Sunday in the best animated feature category.

The cartoon, from Disney subsidiary Pixar, beat fellow nominees Anomalisa, Boy and the World, Shaun the Sheep Movie and When Marnie Was There.

“This was born from watching our kids grow up, which is not easy,” director Pete Docter said after he received the golden statuette.

“If you are in junior high, high school, working it out, suffering, there are days you are going to feel sad, angry, going to be scared.

“That’s nothing you can choose, but you can make stuff. Make films, draw, write — it will make a world of difference,” he said.

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It was a loud movie after all.

The Oscar-winning team of sound editors for Mad Max: Fury Road were celebrating so loudly backstage that they didn't hear their colleagues' name announced when they won for sound mixing.

The film has won six Oscars so far Sunday night.

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The robots of Ex Machina have beat out Star Wars and Mad Max to win the visual effects Academy Award.

The thriller stars Alicia Vikander as a robot able to pass as a human. The understated visual effects beat out the seventh instalment of the "Star Wars" franchise and the return of Mad Max to the big screen.

The honour denied a seventh Oscar win Sunday night to Mad Max: Fury Road, which had won in several other categories.

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Alicia Vikander won the Oscar for best supporting actress for her role in transgender love story The Danish Girl — the first acting honour handed out at the 88th Academy Awards.

Vikander beat fellow nominees Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight), Rooney Mara (Carol), Rachel McAdams (Spotlight) and Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs).

“This is insane. Wow. Thank you so much to the Academy for this incredible recognition,” she said as she accepted the golden statuette.

Paying tribute to the cast, crew and particularly her leading man Eddie Redmayne, she said: “Eddie, there you are. Thank you for being the best acting partner. I could have never done it without you. You raised my game.”

Vikander made waves on the red carpet Sunday in a strapless pale yellow Louis Vuitton gown that had observers on Twitter comparing her to Belle in the Disney classic Beauty and the Beast.

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Mad Max: Fury Road is the winner of the Academy Award for film editing.

The award went to editor Margaret Sixel, who is the wife of Mad Max director George Miller.

It is the fourth award the film has won during Sunday’s ceremony.

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Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki has won the Academy Award for cinematography for the third year in a row.

The Mexican filmmaker won for his work on The Revenant" his second win for work with director Alejandro G Inarritu. His use of long shots and reliance only on natural light helped the film garner 13 nominations.

Lubezki won last year for Inarritu's film Birdman and won in 2014 for Gravity. He has been nominated eight times in the category.

Lubezki says it is an incredible honour and thanked Inarritu and actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy, who appeared in the film.

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Mad Max: Fury Road is steamrollering through some early Oscar categories with three wins for the action blockbuster's costumes, make-up and production design.

The film about a future where water is a scarce resource is the second-most nominated film Sunday evening, with 10 nominations. It has won awards in the first three categories it was nominated in.

Only The Revenant has more Oscar nominations this year.

Mad Max: Fury Road is also nominated for best picture and best director for Australian George Miller, who returned the franchise to the big screen last year after a 30-year hiatus.

Colin Gibson, who won an Oscar Sunday for production design, compared the film’s eclectic cast of characters to the real-life crisis the Academy faces on diversity of its film nominees. Gibson said in his acceptance speech, “I’d like to chalk this one up as the first Oscar for diversity.”

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The writers of Spotlight have won the best original screenplay Academy Award.

The script by Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy tells the story of the Boston Globe's Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation of sex abuse by Catholic priests.

Spotlight is also nominated for best picture and McCarthy is nominated for best director.

McCarthy says they made the film for all the journalists who hold those in power accountable.