Viola Davis has lived up to her pre-Oscar favouritism by beating Nicole Kidman for the supporting actress Academy Award.
Davis was considered a sure thing for the Oscar for her powerhouse performance opposite Denzel Washington in Fences, while Kidman, despite being a past winner, was a long shot for her role in the Australian-Indian drama Lion.
Australia did get off to a great start on Sunday, with the Aussie sound mixers from Hacksaw Ridge - Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie and Peter Grace, and American Kevin O'Connell - winning the Oscar earlier at Sunday's ceremony under way at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
Davis, 51, had swept awards season in the role, taking home a Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild statuette and numerous critics prizes.
She had been nominated for an Oscar twice in the past.
"I became an artist, and thank god I did, because we are the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life," an emotional Davis said while accepting her statuette.
In Fences, the screen version of the prize-winning August Wilson play, Davis plays a self-effacing wife whose modest life implodes when her charismatic husband insists on keeping a mistress.
Davis is the first black actor to win an Oscar, Emmy and Tony award.
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