The evening turned out to be a platform not just for racial representation in the movies, led by host Chris Rock's incisive insight and parody, but a wide array of causes, from global warming and bank reform to sexual abuse in church and on campus. It was a subtle plea from the film community that the movies and artists honored at Sunday night's ceremony did have purpose and meaning — even in this second year of #OscarsSoWhite.

The "Spotlight" team, which won the first and last prize of the night — best original screenplay and best picture — and nothing else, celebrated the Pulitzer Prize-winning work of The Boston Globe journalists who exposed sex abuses in the Roman Catholic Church and the conversation the film has renewed around the world.

Gasps went around the Dolby when Mark Rylance won best supporting actor for Steven Spielberg's "Bridge of Spies" over Sylvester Stallone. Nominated a second time for the role of Rocky Balboa 39 years later, Stallone had been expected to win his first acting Oscar for the "Rocky" sequel "Creed."

The night's most-awarded film, however, went to neither "Spotlight" nor "The Revenant." George Miller's post-apocalyptic chase film, "Mad Max: Fury Road," sped away with six awards in technical categories for editing, makeup, production design, sound editing, sound mixing and costume design.

Alejando Inarritu, whose win for "The Revenant" meant three straight years of Mexican filmmakers winning best director and his second consecutive win, was one of the few recipients to remark passionately on diversity in his acceptance speech.

Mexican cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki ("The Revenant") also became the first cinematographer to win three times in a row.

Talk of election was largely absent from the ceremony, though Vice President Joe Biden was met by a standing ovation before talking about sexual assault on college campuses in an introduction to best-song nominee Lady Gaga.

Best animated feature film went to "Inside Out," Pixar's eighth win in the category. Asif Kapadia's Amy Winehouse portrait, "Amy," took best documentary. Hungary's concentration camp drama "Son of Saul" won best foreign language film.

Composer Ennio Morricone, at 87, landed his first competitive Oscar for "The Hateful Eight."

But the wins at times felt secondary to the unflinching host. Rock said he deliberated over joining the Oscars boycott and bowing out as host, but concluded: "The last thing I need is to lose another job to Kevin Hart."

Down the street from the Dolby Theatre, Rev. Al Sharpton led several dozen demonstrators in protest against a second straight year of all-white acting nominees.

The acting nominees restored "OscarsSoWhite" to prominence and led Spike Lee (an honorary Oscar winner this year) and Jada Pinkett Smith to announce that they wouldn't attend the show. Several top African American filmmakers, Ryan Coogler ("Creed") and Ava DuVernay ("Selma") spent the evening not at the Oscars but in Flint, Michigan, raising money for the water-contaminated city.

Rock also sought to add perspective to the turmoil. Rock said this year didn't differ much from Oscar history, but that black people earlier were "too busy being raped and lynched to worry about who won best cinematographer."

In a quick response to the growing crisis, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, led reforms to diversify the academy's overwhelming white and male membership.

In her remarks during the show, Boone Isaacs strongly defended the changes, quoting Martin Luther King Jr. and urging each Oscar attendee to bring greater opportunity to the industry.

Last year's telecast, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, slid 16 percent to 36.6 million viewers, a six-year low. How the controversy, and Rock's head-on approach, will affect ratings for the ABC show is the new big question, not to mention how well the causes of the movies and their artists will live in the conversation beyond Sunday's show.