In one of the few true surprises at Sunday night’s Oscars ceremony, Spotlight closed out the evening with top honors, the Academy Award for Best Picture. The film, which dominated early Oscar buzz but was later drowned out by those pulling for Best Director winner Alejandro Iñárritu’s The Revenant, was also unusual in the fact of its win despite just one other Oscar, the award for Best Original Screenplay. It’s a relatively small bounty compared to last year’s winner, Birdman (four Oscars), and 2014’s top movie, Gravity (seven Oscars).
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Still, two wins is nothing to scoff at, and Spotlight‘s victory is a testament to the power of no-frills, straightforward storytelling when the story is compelling, the acting ensemble is superb and, well, we all know what the Academy thought of the writing.
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Write to Eliza Berman at eliza.berman@time.com