1) First time in nine years the PGA didn't predict the BP winner
2) Spotlight is the first BP winner since 1953 to win only one other award.
3) Inarritu is the first back-to-back BD winner since 1951
4) Ex Machina is the first film since 1971 to beat BP films in the best VFX category.

Maybe it's just indicative of how crazy this year has been, but to have so many precedent destroying wins this year is quite remarkable.

A Brit beating Stallone was very much the precedent.

also, mad max is the first film since star wars to win at least six oscars and not win best picture or best director

While the BP/BD splits are happening frequently last few years, that was also a long precedent before.

SAG Ensemble nomination streak stayed alive, but other than that, a lot got shot to hell this year

No, you are just approaching it from the wrong angle because there WAS precedent to all these things. It is just rare.

Now two movies by the same director still haven't won back to back. That fact stands.

Also, the Best Supporting Actor Oscar has never been won without the winner bein g nominated for a BAFTA or a SAG award before. That fact also stands.

Inarritu winning back-to-back Best Director Oscars I think will be that once-every-60-years-or-more kind of thing. Very rare. I don't think it will happen again in my lifetime. It is still an incredible feat, and goes against precedent, but not in a way that changes anything, IMO.

The Ex Machina win is crazy. As you mention, it has been decades since a non-Best Picture film won VFX over Best Picture nominated films. There were two for the Academy to choose from - The Revenant and Mad Max. There have been prior years where there have been more than one VFX film up for Best Picture, and it didn't result in some split where a different film wins. So I'm having trouble reconciling this one. And there was Star Wars to choose as a non-Best Picture nominee - how does Ex Machina end up with the most votes?

Spotlight winning Best Picture with only one other Oscar win is obviously also rare, but I wonder if a film winning Best Picture with not-a-lot of other Oscar wins will become more of the norm now with the ranked ballot for Best Picture now in place? This could also be why we may have more Best Picture/Director splits than historically usual.

Peace,
Mike