It’s the moment every film fan has been waiting for…the results of the ORWAV Oscars! Will our shock front-runner Ex Machina sweep the board? Will Leo pick up his first ORWAV Oscar to sit on his mantelpiece beside that little gold trinket he’ll win in a few hours’ time? And who will claim the prestigious award for Best Film: Carol, Mad Max: Fury Road, Ex Machina, The Look of Silence or Room?

We polled our writers, asking them to rank each nominated film, then I totted up the votes to decide the winners. I can tell you now there are predictable wins, shock results, and even a tie for first place in one category. Head on down to reveal the winners and also to see what you, our readers, voted as your favourites.

Best Director

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L-R: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Todd Haynes and George Miller. Courtesy of: 20th Century Fox, The Weinstein Company, Warner Bros.

And the winner is…

  1. George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road) – 63
  2. Todd Haynes (Carol) – 55
  3. Alex Garland (Ex Machina) – 47
  4. Alejandro González Iñárritu (The Revenant) – 40
  5. Tom McCarthy (Spotlight) – 36
  6. Ridley Scott (The Martian) – 25

 

George Miller takes it! The veteran director who blew us away with the energy of a man a tenth his age with Mad Max: Fury Road has pipped Todd Haynes to the post. Haynes wasn’t even nominated for the real Oscars, so some kind of justice has been done here with a very strong showing. ORWAV favourite Alex Garland comes in a respectable third, while the real-life favourite, Iñárritu, can only manage 4th. We suspect he’ll get over this chastening loss pretty quickly once tonight’s ceremony begins.

Miller won the reader vote too, storming away with an emphatic 50% from the field of 6 nominees. Oh, what a day…what a lovely day!

Best Cinematography

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L-R: Adam Arkapaw, Emmanuel Lubezki, Roger Deakins. Courtesy of: The Weinstein Company, 20th Century Fox, Lionsgate

  1. John Seale (Mad Max: Fury Road) – 67
  2. Adam Arkapaw (Macbeth) & Emmanuel Lubezki (The Revenant) – 61
  3. Edward Lachman (Carol) – 59
  4. Rob Hardy (Ex Machina) – 47
  5. Roger Deakins (Sicario) & Mike Gioulakis (It Follows) – 25

 

Mad Max: Fury Road is two for two! Could this be the start of a clean sweep? This category was a close run thing, with Arkapaw and Lubezki tying for second place, just 6 points behind John Seale. It’s good to see Arkapaw in particular getting credit near the start of his young, but prolific career. Deakins can’t even buy a win in the ORWAV Oscars, never mind the real thing, but it seems our writers just didn’t rate his work in Sicario among his best.

John Seale came close to winning the reader poll as well, but in the end he was edged out by that cinematography wizard, Emmanuel Lubezki, with 35% of the vote for his awe-inspiring work on The Revenant.

Best Screenplay

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L-R: Pete Docter, Quentin Tarantino, Alex Garland. Courtesy of: Walt Disney, The Weinstein Company, A24

  1. Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley, Ronnie Del Carmen (Inside Out) – 50
  2. Alex Garland (Ex Machina) – 49
  3. Josh Singer, Tom McCarthy (Spotlight) – 37
  4. Phyllis Nagy (Carol) – 35
  5. Quentin Tarantino (The Hateful Eight) – 20

 

It’s the closest category yet! The dream team of Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley and Ronnie Del Carmen claim the Best Screenplay award by just one vote over Alex Garland’s Ex Machina. It’s a win that’s hard to argue against – Inside Out was a visionary idea told with real emotion and skill – but it’s starting to look like an underwhelming evening for the Ex Machina team. After being the only film nominated in every category, will it go home empty handed? At the bottom of the nominations leaderboard is Quentin Tarantino – it seems his brand of brutal but languorous storytelling is as divisive as ever.

Once more, you at home agreed with us, giving the Inside Out team the win with a strong 43% of the vote. Well played. I think we’re going to get along just fine.

Best Actor

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L-R: Michael B. Jordan, Leonardo DiCaprio, John Boyega. Courtesy of: Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Studios

  1. Oscar Isaac (Ex Machina) – 85
  2. Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant) – 80
  3. John Boyega (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) & Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies) – 74
  4. Adam Driver (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) – 56
  5. Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs) – 54
  6. Benicio del Toro (Sicario) – 49
  7. Michael B. Jordan (Creed) – 45
  8. Paul Dano (Love & Mercy) – 40
  9. Sylvester Stallone (Creed) – 33

 

Did someone say Ex Machina was going home empty handed? Not if Oscar ‘Best Star Pilot in the Galaxy’ Isaac has anything to say about it. He’s certainly got the best dance moves out of any of the nominees (sorry Leo), and according to us he’s the best actor as well. Just. Nicking the win by only 5 points in a very crowded field, this is a victory for ‘real’ acting, proving you don’t need to trek through the wilderness or transform your appearance to win an Oscar (let’s just forget about the beard and buzzcut, yeah?) Elsewhere there’s a strong showing in the blockbuster stakes with Boyega and Driver coming in third and fourth respectively, the former tying with Mark Rylance for his work in Bridge of Spies.

You’re probably rolling your eyes at that result, because in the reader poll, Oscar Isaac only received one vote. He’ll cope. Just look at him. Your winner was Leonardo DiCaprio with a resounding 39% of the vote, a huge margin considering there were 10 nominees.

Best Actress

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L-R: Rooney Mara, Brie Larson, Alicia Vikander. Courtesy of: The Weinstein Company, A24

  1. Cate Blanchett (Carol) & Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina) – 52
  2. Brie Larson (Room) – 51
  3. Rooney Mara (Carol) – 46
  4. Charlize Theron (Mad Max: Fury Road) – 39
  5. Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn) – 29

 

Your eyes aren’t deceiving you. It’s really that close. Blanchett and Vikander tie for first place, with Brie Larson just a single point behind. We always knew this was going to be a close category, but that’s ridiculous. Mara wasn’t that far off making it a four-way tie either. Saoirse Ronan can have every right to feel disappointed at placing last for what was an extraordinary performance in a decent film, but with a shortlist this closely matched…who’s complaining?

Incredibly, you struggled to decide a winner just as much as us, with a three-way tie for first place. Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara and Brie Larson all claimed 23% of the vote in comfortably the closest category on offer.

Best Film

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L-R: Ex Machina, The Look of Silence, Mad Max: Fury Road. Courtesy of: A24, Drafthouse Films, Warner Bros.

  1. Mad Max: Fury Road – 51
  2. Ex Machina – 43
  3. Carol – 42
  4. Room – 31
  5. The Look of Silence – 29

 

And the winner of the inaugural ORWAV Oscars Best Film is…Mad Max: Fury Road! There’s no huge surprise about this one. We’ve loved George Miller’s masterpiece from the word go, taking Every. Single. Opportunity. to rave about it. Ex Machina runs home a very respectable second, with Carol lagging just one point behind. The Look of Silence may have come last in the shortlist, but it’s done better than 99% of documentaries ever do.

Once more you demonstrated your excellent taste with a reader vote for Mad Max: Fury Road. It romped away with 48% of the vote. Fingers crossed the same thing happens tonight. Can you imagine? We’ll see you back on the ORWAV Oscars red carpet this time next year.