Leonardo DiCaprio won his long-awaited first Oscar for revenge epic "The Revenant" Sunday but journalism drama "Spotlight" took best picture in a surprising end to Hollywood's glittering awards season. The night was overshadowed by a simmering race row, addressed head-on by black host Chris Rock, who delivered a series of caustic jokes targeting the Academy's overwhelmingly white male membership.
As well as DiCaprio's best actor award, "The Revenant" picked up the statuettes for best director for Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu - his second in a row - as well as for best cinematography. But "Spotlight," a searing study of The Boston Globe's investigation into child sex abuse in the Catholic Church, grabbed best picture honours in one of the shocks of the 88th Academy Awards.
The film had only taken one other award - best original screenplay - and Hollywood's Dolby Theatre gasped as a stunned cast and crew headed onstage to accept the trophy. "This film gave a voice to survivors. And this Oscar amplifies that voice, which we hope will become a choir that will resonate all the way to the Vatican," co-producer Michael Sugar told the audience. "Pope Francis, it's time to protect the children and restore the faith."
A defeat for "Creed" star and Tinseltown darling Sylvester Stallone was the other big surprise of the night, as he was snubbed for best supporting actor, with the trophy going against the odds to Britain's Mark Rylance for "Bridge of Spies." George Miller's stark action epic "Mad Max: Fury Road" was the big winner in the technical categories, taking home Oscars for best costumes, production design, make-up, film editing, sound editing and sound mixing.
DiCaprio's success for his gruelling star turn as 19th century fur trapper Hugh Glass came 22 years after his first of four unsuccessful acting nominations. For the 41-year-old actor, the fifth time was a charm. He thanked a long list of figures who have helped him in his career, including filmmaker Martin Scorsese, before speaking on his passion - climate change.
"Climate change is real. It is happening right now. It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species and we need to work together and stop procrastinating," DiCaprio said to applause. First-time nominee Brie Larson picked up a widely predicted best actress statuette, having dominated the awards season with her performance as a kidnapped mother in "Room."
But it was not all celebration, as a row over the lack of ethnic minority acting hopefuls overshadowed Hollywood's biggest night. "Well, I'm here at the Academy Awards - otherwise known as the white People's Choice awards. You realize if they nominated hosts, I wouldn't even get this job," joked Rock, 51, who continued with a series of jibes at the Academy throughout the night.
For the second year running, all 20 nominees in the main acting categories were white, and an angry social media backlash under the hashtag OscarsSoWhite has grabbed the awards season headlines. Rock, who hosted despite calls for him to join a boycott, unleashed a fierce monologue - one he apparently rewrote in the wake of the scandal to hold the Academy's 6,000-plus voting members, overwhelmingly white men, to account. Former radio DJ Inarritu, just the third filmmaker to win back-to-back Academy Awards for best director, picked up the theme as he hailed his latest Oscar as a tribute to diversity.
"There is a line in the film that says, 'They don't listen to you when they see the color of your skin'," Inarritu said. "So what a great opportunity to our generation to really liberate ourselves from all prejudice and, you know, this way of thinking and make sure for once and forever that the colour of skin becomes as irrelevant as the length of our hair."