Oscars 2024 Winners
It’s all eyes on Oppenheimer, the big winner at this year’s Oscars.
Once again back in the safest pair of hands in the business, Jimmy Kimmel, the 96th Academy Awards was an Oscars night of glitz and glamour that largely went without a hitch: with no slaps, shocks, or real surprises.
The headline-stealing showdown of the summer, Barbenheimer was back at the forefront of the entire show. While Barbie won the box-office battle, Oppenheimer won the awards war with its seven Oscars wins, including best actor, best director, and best picture. His eighth nomination in total and second for direction, Christopher Nolan is finally an Oscar-winning director after helming this fascinating and wholly cinematic retelling of the father of the atom bomb. Oppenheimer also won for cinematography, editing, and best original score.
Despite their being three first time winners, the acting categories all pretty much followed this award season's – and BAFTAs – script. Oppenheimer himself Cillian Murphy unsurprisingly claimed the Oscar for actor in a leading role, while his co-star Robert Downey Jr earned his first ever win for his supporting role as Lewis Strauss. Da’Vine Joy Randolph was the strong favourite for best supporting actress and secured a win for her role as a bereaved mother in The Holdovers. Many had predicted Lily Gladstone would win best actress for her incredible performance in Killers Of The Flower Moon, so Emma Stone might be considred the real big shock of the night as she became a two-time Oscar-winner for her role in Poor Things. Though, the most pleasing surprise of the night did come in these categories as a change in format saw five previous winners of the respective categories take to the stage together to present each acting Oscar and toast each of the nominees; it's a nice touch that highlighted the magnitude of the nominations as much as the wins.
As much as Ryan Gosling's iconic live rendition of I'm Just Ken, a naked John Cena presenting an awards, and other great guest appearances, Poor Things did threaten to steal the show as the offbeat period comedy had many thinking a shock could be on the cards is it won four Oscars.
It was a huge night for foreign cinema as Jonathan Glazer’s German and Polish-language Holocaust drama The Zone Of Interest became the first ever British film to win best international feature, Justine Triet and Arthur Harari won best original screenplay for marital murder mystery Anatomy Of A Fall, Studio Ghibli’s The Boy And The Heron won animated film, and Japan’s Godzilla Minus One beat the big-budget blockbusters to win best visual effects.