[3][4] Despite leading the field in nominations, Carol failed to win any awards and Bridge of Spies won just one; Mark Rylance for Best Supporting Actor.

The Revenant won the most awards at the ceremony with five, including Best Film, Best Director for Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Best Actor for Leonardo DiCaprio, and Best Cinematography for Emmanuel Lubezki.

The ceremony commenced with a segment commemorating the year in film, which was accompanied by the song "Heroes" by David Bowie, who had died the previous month.

[10] Fry also received a number of negative comments after he said of Best Costume Design winner Jenny Beavan (Mad Max: Fury Road) as "Only one of the great cinematic costume designers would come to an awards ceremony dressed as a bag lady".

The In Memoriam section featured Alan Rickman, Melissa Mathison, Andrew Lesnie, Maureen O'Hara, Gayle Griffiths, Haskell Wexler, Colin Welland, James Horner, David Bowie, Ron Moody, June Randall, Julie Harris, Frank Finlay, Philip French, Vilmos Zsigmond, Albert Maysles, Richard Johnson, Wes Craven, Jacques Rivette, Penelope Houston, Tommie Manderson, Christopher Wood, Saeed Jaffrey, Sheila Sim and Sir Christopher Lee.