In a category that included huge blockbusters like Mad Max: Fury Road, Star Wars: The Force Awakens and The Martian, not to mention all the impressive technical wonder of The Revenant, the surprise win went to Ex Machina. The lowest of low-budget entries - it operated from a paltry $15 mil - into the Best Visual Effects category (perhaps ever), Ex Machina arguably deserved the nod, considering how much they did on a shoestring. It's just surprising that the Academy went with the underdog for a change. The smart money was on Star Wars: The Force Awakens being in line to pick up the award, a bone thrown to JJ Abrams, Kathleen Kennedy and co. considering their movie made $2.048 billion dollars worldwide. Thankfully, Alex Garland's little sci-fi film-that-could was unexpectedly, rightfully honoured - giving hope to burgeoning sci-fi filmmakers everywhere.