On Feb. 28, at the 88th Academy Awards, dozens of golden Oscar statues were given out to men and women who, throughout the course of 2015, excelled in bringing stories to life on the big screen. Starting at 8:30 p.m. EST, stars and their dates and families swarmed into the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, CA. Chris Rock was given the honor of hosting the award show for the second time.

In his opening monologue, Rock addressed the controversy regarding the nomination of all white actors and actresses and Hollywood’s lack of diversity. Rock was able to find the humor in the situation. He pointed out how for years there had been no nominations of African-American actors and actresses because they were dealing with other, more pressing issues, namely avoiding lynching and rape. Rock noted that Hollywood may seem slightly racist, but it is a little ridiculous that certain actors who were not even invited to the Academy Awards were getting worked up about the whole situation.

Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay were the first two of the 24 categories to be awarded an Oscar statue. Spotlight and The Big Short won, respectively. Spotlight was written by Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer, and revolved around the sensitive topic of molestation within the Catholic Church. The Big Short was adapted from a Michael Lewis book about the 2008 financial crisis and was adapted to screen by Adam McKay and Charles Randolph.

The first two actors to win an award were Alicia Vikander for her supporting role in The Danish Girl and Mark Rylance for his role in Bridge of Spies. Both actors were excellent in their roles. The two movies in which they starred were very different in comparison of the story lines, but both managed to portray their own powerful message.

Mad Max: Fury Road had the most wins at this year’s show, totaling six awards. The film won for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, Achievement in Film Editing, and Achievements in Sound Mixing and Sound Editing.

The other big winner for the night was The Revenant. The film took home three Oscars. Its first award was Achievement in Cinematography. Alejandro Iñárritu won Best Director and Leonardo DiCaprio finally won Best Actor. After acting for more than 20 years and being nominated for an Oscar six times, DiCaprio was finally able to take his award home, much to the pleasure of die-hard fans.

Brie Larson took home her first Oscar on Sunday for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her portrayal of a kidnapped woman in Room. Surprisingly, her movie did not win any other award, even though both her performance and the film as a whole was fantastic.

Other awards were given to Ex Machina, Bear Story, Inside Out, A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, Amy, Stutterer, Son of Saul, The Hateful Eight, and Spectre for Achievements in Visual Effects, Best Animated Short Film, Best Animated Feature Film, Best Documentary Short Film, Best Documentary Feature Film, Best Live-Action Short Film, Foreign Language Film, Best Original Score, and Best Original Song, respectively.

The final award of the night was given to Spotlight for Best Picture. The movie that kicked off the Oscars on Sunday ended it as well, like a bookend of awards. The film stars Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, and Rachel McAdams. All three journalists exposed the sexual abuse scandal within the Catholic Church, more specifically, the instances in Boston, MA. Spotlight truly deserved the award for Best Picture because it was able to really open people’s eyes to the horrible cases of rape and abuse and the stories of both the victims and the molesters.