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What a lovely day for 'Mad Max: Fury Road' at the Oscars

Director George Miller's epic return to the post-apocalyptic franchise has picked up six Academy Awards so far, the most of any Australian film.

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Danny Gallagher
CNET freelancer Danny Gallagher has contributed to Cracked.com, Mental Floss, Maxim, Break.com, Mandatory, Jackbox Games, Geeks Who Drink and many, many other publications in his never-ending quest to bring the world's productivity to a screeching halt. He lives and works in Dallas. Email Danny.
Danny Gallagher
2 min read
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The Coma-Doof Warrior from "Mad Max: Fury Road" rocks his team to battle with a giant flaming guitar.

Roadshow Entertainment

If you're a fan of "Mad Max: Fury Road" (and if you're not, seriously, what's wrong with you?), then you've got plenty of reasons to be happy with Sunday's Academy Awards so far. Six reasons, to be exact.

Oscar voters gave six awards to the critically acclaimed summer blockbuster starring Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, including costume design, makeup, sound editing, sound mixing, production design and film editing.

"Mad Max: Fury Road" missed out on four of its 10 nominations -- to writer and director Alex Garland's sci-fi drama "Ex Machina" for best visual effects, "Spotlight" for best picture and "The Revenant" for directing and cinematography, according to the official Oscars website.

Miller spoke with CNET's Claire Reilly back in October about how the visual style of the costumes and set pieces helped tell the epic story of an abducted drifter and a renegade driver who team up to rescue sex slaves from a water-hoarding tyrant and his army of octane-fueled drones.

"At a simple level, you're not trying to use dialogue as exposition, you're using it as part of behavior, and language itself is distorted," Miller said in his interview. "The one thing I will say about a movie like this is it's basically visual music. So the vision has primacy."

Miller's film won the honorable distinction of being Australian's most Oscar nominated and Oscar winning film. The Hollywood Reporter reported in January that "Mad Max: Fury Road" beat the previous record holder "Moulin Rouge" that scored eight nominations and two wins at the Academy Awards in 2001.

Updated on 4.30 p.m. PT to include "Mad Max: Fury Road's" final award tally.

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Watch this: Mad Max's George Miller on the graphic novel approach to 'Fury Road'