Oscars 2024: Oppenheimer sweeps the Academy Awards

The 96th Academy Awards took place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on March 10. This time, the event started an hour earlier as compared to previous years, as it marked the first day of the US’ shift to daylight saving time. The time shift notwithstanding, the event saw the return of many elements that the Academy Awards are traditionally known for, including past Oscar winners making announcements. Kimmel started the show in his trademark style with an array of jokes related to Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. The first award of the night went to Da'Vine Joy Randolph, as she won Best Supporting Actress for The Holdovers. This was Randolph’s first Academy Award.

In another first, the much-fancied Cillian Murphy took home the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of the father of the atomic bomb, J Robert Oppenheimer, in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. The actor made the moment count with an eloquent speech that included one of the lines of the show. “We made a film about the man who created the atomic bomb, and for better or worse, we are all living in Oppenheimer's world. So, I would really like to dedicate this award to the peacemakers everywhere,” said Murphy. His Oppenheimer costar Robert Downey Jr. also won his first Oscar, as he took home Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Rear Admiral Lewis Strauss in the Nolan directorial. He dedicated the award to his wife, crediting her for bringing direction to his life.

Nolan fans across the world can finally breathe easy, as the filmmaker won a Best Director Oscar for the first time for Oppenheimer. Christopher Nolan’s films have previously won Oscars in craft categories, but never fetched one for the filmmaker himself. However, at the 96th Academy Awards, he finally broke this jinx, with his film winning both Best Director and Best Picture Oscar awards. In a nod to a longstanding Academy Award convention, past winner Steven Spielberg announced the Best Director Oscar. Spielberg himself had to wait for a long time to win the award in 1994 for Schindler's List, a biopic set against a World War backdrop. Nolan getting the elusive statuette from Spielberg for a biopic that revolves around a World War-related event is one of the most memorable moments of the ceremony. Overall, Oppenheimer topped the list with wins in seven Oscar categories.

The first big surprise of the event came when Emma Stone won the Best Actress Oscar for Poor Things over the more-favoured Lily Gladstone for Killers of the Flower Moon. Gladstone would have become the first North American Indigenous actress to win it, but her snub just goes to show how difficult it is to win this coveted award in a year full of many exemplary performances. Stone’s triumph is one of the four Oscar wins for Poor Things, as the film finished just three behind Oppenheimer. In another surprise, 20 Days in Mariupol by Ukraine’s Mstyslav Chernov won the Best Feature Documentary Oscar over To Kill a Tiger, by Canadian filmmaker Nisha Pahuja, who was born in Delhi. It is the first-ever Ukrainian production to win an Oscar.

One of the performances of the night came from none other than Ryan Gosling. Clad in all pink, bespectacled, and holding a mic, the actor’s on-stage rendition of ‘I'm Just Ken’ from Barbie won the crowd at the Dolby Theatre. On the other hand, Gosling’s Barbie costars America Ferrera and Kate McKinnon walked away with the tag of being two of the most hilarious presenters with their references to Spielberg and his Jurassic Park films as they presented Best Documentary Short Film.

Speaking of veteran filmmakers, the 96th Academy Awards saw Martin Scorsese surpass Spielberg as the living director to have the most Oscar nominations. Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon had the third-most Oscar nominations this year, with nods in ten categories, behind Oppenheimer and Poor Things. However, Scorsese and his western crime thriller had to settle for nominations alone, as they found no love from the Academy this time.

Very rarely has an Oscar night gone away without a moment worthy of being considered dramatic, and Hollywood legend Al Pacino delivered one right at the very end. Appearing alone to present the Best Picture Oscar, the actor cut to the chase by announcing Oppenheimer as the winner. However, the moment created some confusion as Pacino went against conventions by not announcing the full list of nominees before he looked at the envelope that contained the winner and rather unceremoniously saying, “And my eyes see Oppenheimer.” It was unclear whether Pacino meant it to be thus, but he certainly broke an age-old tradition by not choosing the words “and the Oscar goes to.”

The full list of winners:

• Best picture: Oppenheimer (Emma Thomas, Charles Roven and Christopher Nolan)

• Best actor: Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer)

• Best actress: Emma Stone (Poor Things)

• Best supporting actor: Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer)

• Best supporting actress: Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers)

• Best director: Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer)

• Best adapted screenplay: Cord Jefferson (American Fiction)

• Best original screenplay: Justine Triet and Arthur Harari (Anatomy of a Fall)

• Best animated feature film: The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki)

• Best cinematography: Hoyte van Hoytema (Oppenheimer)

• Best film editing: Jennifer Lame (Oppenheimer) 

• Best costume design: Poor Things (Holly Waddington)

• Best documentary feature film: 20 Days in Mariupol (Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner and Raney Aronson-Rath)

• Best animated short: War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko (Dave Mullins and Brad Booker)

• Best live action short: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (Wes Anderson and Steven Rales)

• Best sound: The Zone of Interest (Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn)

• Best visual effects: Godzilla: Minus One (Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi and Tatsuji Nojima)

• Best international feature film: The Zone of Interest (UK)

• Best documentary short: The Last Repair Shop (Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers)

• Best makeup and hairstyling: Poor Things (Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier and Josh Weston)

• Best original song: “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie (Music and Lyric by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell)

• Best original score: Oppenheimer (Ludwig Göransson)

• Best production design: Poor Things (Production Design: James Price and Shona Heath; Set Decoration: Zsuzsa Mihalek)