"Mad Max: Fury Road" roared into the Oscars with a near-sweep of the night's biggest technical categories.
Mark Mangini and David White, winners for Best Sound Editing. Photo by Mark Ralston/Getty Images.
It was a huge win for one of the year's most innovative, critically-acclaimed, and all-around badass movies.
"Fury Road" deserves all the awards ever for putting women front and center on camera.
GIF from "Mad Max: Fury Road."
But the best part of all the acceptance speeches? Seeing how many amazing women worked on it behind the camera.
Like Jenny Beavan, who won for Best Costume Design.
Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images.
Lisa Thompson, who (co-)won for Best Production Design.
Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images.
Elka Wardega and Lesley Vanderwalt, who (co-)won for Best Makeup and Hairstyling.
Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images.
And Margaret Sixel, who won for best editing.
Photo by Mark Ralston/Getty Images.
Sixel is married to "Fury Road" director George Miller, and the story of how she got the job is ... kind of amazing:
"Margaret Sixel initially turned her husband down, asking, 'Why do you want me to do an action film?'" Miller told the Huffington Post back in May.
"'Because if a guy did it, it would look like every other action movie," he replied.
That's how a truly great and innovative movie gets made — by hiring the people who don't ordinarily get asked.
Hollywood is generally pretty terrible at placing women in prominent behind-the-scenes roles. As a result, movies are being made by pretty much the same people who have always made them.
It might explain why there are so many bad movies.
"Fury Road" did the opposite — and got amazing results for it. Why do its action sequences pop? A woman, one who had never worked on an action movie before, edited them. Why does the script do so right by its female characters? Eve Ensler, author of "The Vagina Monologues," consulted on the script.
Seeing all those women up there on the Oscars stage sends a powerful message to young, aspiring filmmakers that creativity knows no gender, and neither does rising to the top of your craft.
A movie like "Fury Road" could only have been made by men and women working together, merging their diverse experiences to create something new, innovative, and thrilling.
GIF by "Mad Max: Fury Road."
Enjoy the after-party, ladies and dudes. You earned it.