"Birdman" won the Best Picture of the Year Sunday night at the Academy Awards after one of the closest races in years.

The film also won the Best Director for Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Best Cinematography for Emmaunel Lubezki and Best Screenplay for Inarritu and his fellow writers Armando Bo, Alexander Dinelaris and Nicolas Giacobone.

The "Birdman" win is the second in a row for Fox Searchlight, which won the Oscar for "12 Years a Slave" in 2014. The company had previously won for "Slumdog Millionaire."

Other films that won multiple awards were "The Grand Budapest Hotel," which won big as it obtained four awards, while "Whiplash" won three awards.

However, as always, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was predictable, as most of the awards were identical to the Guild awards. The Best Supporting Actress award went to Patricia Arquette for her work on "Boyhood." The award was given to her after winning the Critics' Choice, the Golden Globe, the Bafta and, most importantly, the SAG award.

Also following wins at these awards was J.K. Simmons, who won for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in "Whiplash."

Eddie Redmayne and Julianne Moore similarly won Oscars for Best Actor and Best Actress after BAFTA, SAG and Golden Globe wins.

"The Grand Budapest Hotel" also won the majority of the technical awards as many expected. Milena Canonero won best Costume Design while Alexandre Desplat won Best Score for the film. The movie also won Best Production Design and Best Makeup after having won both the Art Director's Guild and Makeup and Hair Guilds.

"Selma" took the Best Song award for the song "Glory." The film had previously won the Critics' Choice and the Golden Globe. As a result, it was expected that the film would win the award.

"The Imitation Game" won the Best Adapted Screenplay award after winning the Writers Guild of America. Many pundits expected "The Theory of Everything" to surprise, but the Academy once again went with the Guild.

"Ida" won the award for Best Foreign Film, even though pundits expected an upset in the category. After the film lost the Golden Globe, many expected the most would potentially lose to "Wild Tales" or "Leviathan." However, the film's wide appeal in the U.S. and strong reception helped it continue its victory streak.

In the short categories, "The Phone Call" won Best Live Action Short film as expected while "Feast" won Best Animated Short. In the Best Short Documentary, "Crisis Hotline Veterans Press 1" won, as many predicted.

The Academy did surprise in the Sound categories. These are categories that almost always difficult to predict as the Guild awards barely correct. "Whiplash" won Sound Mixing, a category that is usually associated with musicals while "American Sniper" won the Sound Editing, a category associated with action films.

Meanwhile, "Intertsellar" won Best Visual Effects, beating out "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes," which won the Visual Effect Society Guild.

The biggest surprise of the night, however, was in Best Animated Film. Throughout the season, "The Lego Movie" had won the category and won such awards as the Critics' Choice and the BAFTA. However, the film was not nominated for the Oscars. The Golden Globe went to "How to Train Your Dragon 2." As a result, many expected that film to win. However, when the envelope was opened, the Disney film "Big Hero 6" won the award. It became the second consecutive Disney film to win that was not part of the Pixar brand.

Another big surprise was the win for "Whiplash" in the Best Editing category. The film had won the BAFTA but it lost the EDDIE award. The award was also a mystery, given the fact that many pundits expected the winner to also go home with Best Picture. However, that was not the case.

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