Oscar season finally came to a close last night as the Academy revealed their winners for 2015 during another riveting ceremony.

In what had been a closely fought race, it was the Broadway satire Birdman that came out on top as it clinched four awards, including the prestigious Best Picture accolade ahead of the likes of Boyhood and The Grand Budapest Hotel.

The film, which centres on a washed-up Hollywood actor trying to rebuild his diminishing career on Broadway, also landed Best Director and Best Original Screenplay wins for its filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu while Emmanuel Lubezki clinched his second successive Best Cinematography gong after prevailing for Gravity last year.

The dark comedy had managed to gather significant pace during the latter stages of the season after it clinched crucial wins at the Producer’s Guild Awards, the Screen Actor’s Guild Awards and the Director’s Guild Awards.

Despite clinching the top honours at the Golden Globes and BAFTAs, the epic coming-of-age drama Boyhood could only score one victory for Patricia Arquette, who comfortably won Best Supporting Actress for her role as family matriarch Olivia Evans.

Arquette thanked “her Boyhood family” and “every woman who gave birth”.

“To every woman… we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights. It’s our time to have wage equality,” she added, to huge applause from the audience.

There were no shocks in the other major acting categories, as British star Eddie Redmayne deservedly won Best Actor ahead of Michael Keaton (Birdman) for his physically-demanding portrayal of renowned physicist Dr. Stephen Hawking in the biopic drama The Theory of Everything.

Accepting his award, he thanked the Hawking family, including Jane Hawking on whose book the film is based, and said his award belonged “to all of the people around the world battling ALS”.

After losing out on four previous occasions, Julianne Moore finally landed an Oscar at the fifth attempt for leading her role as Alzheimer’s sufferer Dr. Alice Howland in the drama Still Alice.

In a heartfelt speech, Moore said:

“I’m so happy, I’m thrilled that we were able to shine a light on Alzheimer’s disease.

So many people who have this disease feel marginalised. People who have Alzheimer’s disease deserve to be seen so we can find a cure.”

Unsurprisingly, J. K. Simmons cruised to the Best Supporting Actor award for his performance as bullying music teacher Terence Fletcher in the music-based drama Whiplash. Additionally, the film also scored a further two accolades for Best Editing and Best Sound Mixing.

The other big success of the night saw Wes Anderson’s comic caper The Grand Budapest Hotel clinch four prizes for Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup & Hairstyling and a Best Original Score gong for composer Alexandre Desplat.

For only the fourth time since 2000, all the Best Picture nominees won an award, with American Sniper (Sound Editing), The Imitation Game (Adapted Screenplay) and Selma (Original Song) each receiving an award on the night.

The Selma win produced a standing ovation for singers Common and John Legend, as their performance of “Glory” brought the house down.

Legend used his time on stage to deliver a political message, saying:

“We live in the most incarcerated country in the world… people are marching with our song… we are with you, march on.”

Elsewhere, Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi epic Interstellar picked up Best Visual Effects, while the Polish drama Ida and the documentary Citizenfour were the respective winners of Best Foreign Language Film and Best Documentary Feature.

Meanwhile, there was a shock in the Best Animated Film field as Disney’s Big Hero 6 clinched the award ahead of the initial favourite How to Train Your Dragon 2 while there were also victories for Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1 (Best Documentary Short Subject), The Phone Call (Best Short Film – Live Action) and Feast (Best Short Film – Animated).

The ceremony was hosted effectively by actor and performer Neil Patrick Harris, who impressed many with his opening number “Moving Pictures” as well as spoofing Birdman and Whiplash.

The rest of the show produced other humorous moments, including a witty reunion between John Travolta and “Let It Go” singer Idina Menzel, which came a year after the actor had mispronounced her name during the 2014 show.

Lady Gaga also stood out with her renditions of some of the songs from the musical classic The Sound of Music, which was then followed by the arrival of the legendary Julie Andrews onto the stage.

The full list of Oscar winners are…

BEST PICTURE
BIRDMAN

BEST DIRECTOR
Alejandro Gonzalez. Iñárritu, BIRDMAN

BEST ACTRESS
Julianne Moore, STILL ALICE

BEST ACTOR
Eddie Redmayne, THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Patricia Arquette, BOYHOOD

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
J. K. Simmons, WHIPLASH

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
THE IMITATION GAME (Graham Moore)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
BIRDMAN (Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr & Armando Bo)

BEST FILM EDITING
WHIPLASH

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
BIRDMAN

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

BEST SOUND MIXING
WHIPLASH

BEST SOUND EDITING
AMERICAN SNIPER

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
INTERSTELLAR

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (Alexandre Desplat)

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
SELMA (“Glory”)

BEST ANIMATED FILM
BIG HERO 6

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
IDA (Poland)

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
CITIZENFOUR

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
CRISIS HOTLINE: VETERANS PRESS 1

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
THE PHONE CALL

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
FEAST