"Mad Max: Fury Road" may have won more honors at the 88th Academy Awards, leading all films with six. "The Revenant" won some major prizes, including the first Oscar for actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
But when the last award of the evening was read, it was the little film about Boston Globe investigative reporters digging into a sex abuse scandal involving Catholic priests that was left standing.
"This film gave a voice to survivors," producer Michael Sugar said. "And this film amplifies that voice, which we hope will become a choir that will resonate all the way to the Vatican."
It was one of just two awards "Spotlight" took home. The film also won for Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer's original screenplay.
But until that moment, it looked like "Revenant," about a vengeful trapper in the 1820s, was going to go all the way.
Here's the list of nominees for the 88th Academy Awards. Winners are noted in bold.
Best picture
"The Big Short"
"Bridge of Spies"
"Brooklyn"
"Mad Max: Fury Road"
"The Martian"
"The Revenant"
"Room"
"Spotlight" (WINNER)
Best actor
Bryan Cranston, "Trumbo"
Matt Damon, "The Martian"
Leonardo DiCaprio, "The Revenant" (WINNER)
Michael Fassbender, "Steve Jobs"
Eddie Redmayne, "The Danish Girl"
Best actress
Cate Blanchett, "Carol"
Brie Larson, "Room" (WINNER)
Jennifer Lawrence, "Joy"
Charlotte Rampling, "45 Years"
Saoirse Ronan, "Brooklyn"
Best supporting actor
Christian Bale, "The Big Short"
Tom Hardy, "The Revenant"
Mark Ruffalo, "Spotlight"
Mark Rylance, "Bridge of Spies" (WINNER)
Sylvester Stallone, "Creed"
Best supporting actress
Jennifer Jason Leigh, "The Hateful Eight"
Rooney Mara, "Carol"
Rachel McAdams, "Spotlight"
Alicia Vikander, "The Danish Girl" (WINNER)
Kate Winslet, "Steve Jobs"
Best director
"The Big Short," Adam McKay
"Mad Max: Fury Road," George Miller
"The Revenant," Alejandro G. Iñárritu (WINNER)
"Room," Lenny Abrahamson
"Spotlight," Tom McCarthy
Best original screenplay
"Bridge of Spies," by Matt Charman and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
"Ex Machina," by Alex Garland
"Inside Out," by Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve and Josh Cooley; original story by Pete Docter and Ronnie del Carmen
"Spotlight," by Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy (WINNER)
"Straight Outta Compton," by Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff; story by S. Leigh Savidge & Alan Wenkus and Andrea Berloff
Best adapted screenplay
"The Big Short," Charles Randolph and Adam McKay (WINNER)
"Brooklyn," Nick Hornby
"Carol," Phyllis Nagy
"The Martian," Drew Goddard
"Room," Emma Donoghue
Best costume design
"Carol," Sandy Powell
"Cinderella," Sandy Powell
"The Danish Girl," Paco Delgado
"Mad Max: Fury Road," Jenny Beavan (WINNER)
"The Revenant," Jacqueline West
Best production design
"Bridge of Spies," production design by Adam Stockhausen; set decoration by Rena DeAngelo and Bernhard Henrich
"The Danish Girl," production design by Eve Stewart; set decoration by Michael Standish
"Mad Max: Fury Road," production design by Colin Gibson; set decoration by Lisa Thompson (WINNER)
"The Martian," production design by Arthur Max; set decoration by Celia Bobak
"The Revenant," production design by Jack Fisk; set decoration by Hamish Purdy
Best makeup and hairstyling
"Mad Max: Fury Road," Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega and Damian Martin (WINNER)
"The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared," Love Larson and Eva von Bahr
"The Revenant," Siân Grigg, Duncan Jarman and Robert Pandini
Best cinematography
"Carol," Ed Lachman
"The Hateful Eight," Robert Richardson
"Mad Max: Fury Road," John Seale
"The Revenant," Emmanuel Lubezki (WINNER)
"Sicario," Roger Deakins
Best film editing
"The Big Short," Hank Corwin
"Mad Max: Fury Road," Margaret Sixel (WINNER)
"The Revenant," Stephen Mirrione
"Spotlight," Tom McArdle
"Star Wars: The Force Awakens," Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey
Best sound editing
"Mad Max: Fury Road," Mark Mangini and David White (WINNER)
"The Martian," Oliver Tarney
"The Revenant," Martin Hernandez and Lon Bender
"Sicario," Alan Robert Murray
"Star Wars: The Force Awakens," Matthew Wood and David Acord
Best sound mixing
"Bridge of Spies," Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Drew Kunin
"Mad Max: Fury Road," Chris Jenkins, Gregg Rudloff and Ben Osmo (WINNER)
"The Martian," Paul Massey, Mark Taylor and Mac Ruth
"The Revenant," Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño, Randy Thom and Chris Duesterdiek
"Star Wars: The Force Awakens," Andy Nelson, Christopher Scarabosio and Stuart Wilson
Best visual effects
"Ex Machina," Andrew Whitehurst, Paul Norris, Mark Ardington and Sara Bennett (WINNER)
"Mad Max: Fury Road," Andrew Jackson, Tom Wood, Dan Oliver and Andy Williams
"The Martian," Richard Stammers, Anders Langlands, Chris Lawrence and Steven Warner
"The Revenant," Rich McBride, Matthew Shumway, Jason Smith and Cameron Waldbauer
"Star Wars: The Force Awakens," Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Neal Scanlan and Chris Corbould
Best animated short film
"Bear Story," Gabriel Osorio and Pato Escala (WINNER)
"Prologue," Richard Williams and Imogen Sutton
"Sanjay's Super Team," Sanjay Patel and Nicole Grindle
"We Can't Live without Cosmos," Konstantin Bronzit
"World of Tomorrow," Don Hertzfeldt
Best animated feature film
"Anomalisa," Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson and Rosa Tran
"Boy and the World," Alê Abreu
"Inside Out," Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera (WINNER)
"Shaun the Sheep Movie," Mark Burton and Richard Starzak
"When Marnie Was There," Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Yoshiaki Nishimura
Best documentary, short subject
"Body Team 12," David Darg and Bryn Mooser
"Chau, Beyond the Lines," Courtney Marsh and Jerry Franck
"Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah," Adam Benzine
"A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness," Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (WINNER)
"Last Day of Freedom," Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman
Best documentary feature
"Amy," Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees (WINNER)
"Cartel Land," Matthew Heineman and Tom Yellin
"The Look of Silence," Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen
"What Happened, Miss Simone?" Liz Garbus, Amy Hobby and Justin Wilkes
"Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom," Evgeny Afineevsky and Den Tolmor
Best live-action short film
"Ave Maria," Basil Khalil and Eric Dupont
"Day One," Henry Hughes
"Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut)," Patrick Vollrath
"Shok," Jamie Donoughue
"Stutterer," Benjamin Cleary and Serena Armitage (WINNER)
Best foreign-language film
"Embrace of the Serpent," Colombia
"Mustang," France
"Son of Saul," Hungary (WINNER)
"Theeb," Jordan
"A War," Denmark
Best original song
"Earned It" from "Fifty Shades of Grey"
Music and lyric by Abel Tesfaye, Ahmad Balshe, Jason Daheala Quenneville and Stephan Moccio
"Manta Ray" from "Racing Extinction"
Music by J. Ralph and lyric by Antony Hegarty
"Simple Song #3" from "Youth"
Music and lyric by David Lang
"Til It Happens To You" from "The Hunting Ground"
Music and lyric by Diane Warren and Lady Gaga
"Writing's on the Wall" from "Spectre"
Music and lyric by Jimmy Napes and Sam Smith
Best original score
"Bridge of Spies," Thomas Newman
"Carol," Carter Burwell
"The Hateful Eight," Ennio Morricone
"Sicario," Jóhann Jóhannsson
"Star Wars: The Force Awakens," John Williams