Mad Max: Fury Road Earns 6 Oscars, Crushing Technical Categories

It's not all that surprising that Mad Max: Fury Road did so well at the Oscars last night, winning six Oscars, the most for any film. George Miller's sand blasted chase epic was a technical marvel, reminding viewers what a thrill good, old fashioned stunts are. Although it's a mistake to consider the film solely a marvel of practical effects—there was a lot of great special effects required, they were simply more subtle than you typically get in a film of this size. As VFX Supervisor Andrew Jackson told FX Guide, “The reality is that there’s 2000 VFX shots in the film.” 

Fury Road took home trophies for Film Editing (Margaret Sixel), Costume Design (Jenny Beavan), Makeup (Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega and Damian Martin), Sound Editing (Mark Mangini and David White), Sound Mixing (Chris Jenkins, Gregg Rudloff and Ben Osmo) and Production design (Colin Gibson; set decoration by Lisa Thompson). Super fans will quibble that director George Miller deserved Best Director, and the film itself Best Picture, but last night's Oscars was still a huge success for a film that snuck up on everybody last May and has been riding a wave of love and support ever since. When we interviewed art director Jacinta Leong about how they built those beastly machines, we began to appreciate just how much thought, planning and execution went into Miller's long-gestating passion project.

Warner Bros. has recently released these behind-the-scenes images from the film, which do a good job highlighting just how meticulous production was on a film that feels like one breathless, terrifying thrill ride from start to finish, but was, of course, a hugely complex puzzle that was put together, piece by piece, by talented below-the-line filmmakers. 

Center: Director George Miller on set. Courtesy Warner Bros. 

(L-r): Cinematographer John Seale and director George Miller. Courtesy Warner Bros.

Charlize Theron and George Miller. Courtesy Warner Bros. 

Cinematographer John Seale and Charlize Theron. Courtesy Warner Bros.

(L-r): Hugh Keays-Byrne, Charlize Theron and George Miller. Courtesy Warner Bros.

(L-r): George Miller, Riley Keough, Nicholas Hoult, Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron. Courtesy Warner Bros.

(L-r): Tom Hardy, Abbey Lee and George Miller. Courtesy Warner Bros.

Production designer Colin Gibson. Courtesy Warner Bros.

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although it's a mistake to consider the film solely a marvel of practical effects—there was a lot of great special effects required, they were simply more subtle than you typically get in a film of this size

qtip: <fn></fn>|although it's a mistake to consider the film solely a marvel of practical effects—there was a lot of great special effects required, they were simply more subtle than you typically get in a film of this size

 (although it's a mistake to consider the film solely a marvel of practical effects—there was a lot of great special effects required, they were simply more subtle than you typically get in a film of this size)