Who Won? Ex Machina Ex Machina was the shock win of the awards for sure. It's an amazing movie, and we all knew that, but for it to win an Academy Award is astounding. It's the sort of movie the Academy ignores wholesale, too indie to matter and too sci-fi for them to care. And it's consularly nom for Visual Effects didn't seem up to much either - how could it beat out heavy hitters like Mad Max and Star Wars? Well, it did. Albeit not quite deservedly. Who Should Have Won? Star Wars: The Force Awakens Every movie nowadays is a mix of practical and CGI, and no two movies personify that than Ex Machina and Star Wars. There's something incredibly skillful about being able to that, and to do it without the audience knowing, which Ex Machina certainly does. But, if we're being straight, The Force Awakens should have trounced Machina here. It's expansive and the special effects are dominate, despite there bing only 30 fully-CGI shots. There also the consideration of legacy, with Episode VII managing to live up to the expansive heights of the original.
