Oscars 2016: Ex Machina wins Best Visual Effects

The creator of Ava in Ex Machina may have been rewarded with treachery at the hands of his robotic creation, but the team that brought Ava to life has been awarded with a much less dangerous honor.

Ex Machina has won the award for Best Visual Effects at Sunday’s Oscars, beating out frontrunners Mad Max: Fury Road and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, as well as The Martian and The Revenant.

“I’m really bad at predicting this, apparently. This is so utterly unexpected,” said visual effects supervisor Andrew Whitehurst in his acceptance speech. “Visual effects is massively a team game, more so maybe than any other department.”

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Staring Alicia Vikdaner as the android Ava, Vikander’s body becomes a blend of human aspects and robotic components, bringing to life the central question of whether those who interact with Ava consider her human or robot.