In one of the few true surprises at Sunday night’s Oscars ceremony, Spotlight closed out the evening with top honors, the Academy Award for Best Picture. The film, which dominated early Oscar buzz but was later drowned out by those pulling for Best Director winner Alejandro Iñárritu’s The Revenant, was also unusual in the fact of its win despite just one other Oscar, the award for Best Original Screenplay. It’s a relatively small bounty compared to last year’s winner, Birdman (four Oscars), and 2014’s top movie, Gravity (seven Oscars).

Oscars 2016: See Celebrities Walk the Red Carpet

Still, two wins is nothing to scoff at, and Spotlight‘s victory is a testament to the power of no-frills, straightforward storytelling when the story is compelling, the acting ensemble is superb and, well, we all know what the Academy thought of the writing.

Get The Brief. Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. Please enter a valid email address. Sign Up Now Check the box if you do not wish to receive promotional offers via email from TIME. You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Thank you! For your security, we've sent a confirmation email to the address you entered. Click the link to confirm your subscription and begin receiving our newsletters. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder.

Write to Eliza Berman at eliza.berman@time.com.