In one of the least surprising Oscar ceremonies in recent years, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer won seven awards, including for best picture and directing. Nolan’s biopic of atomic bomb creator Robert J Oppenheimer, a critical darling and a commercial blockbuster, was nominated in 13 categories.
Apart from bagging Nolan his first ever Oscar for direction, the wins for Oppenheimer included Best Actor in a Leading Role for Cillian Murphy and Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Robert Downey Jr).
“I can’t say enough about the incredible crew we got together on this film,” Nolan said, adding,
“Cinema is just over a hundred years old. We don’t know where this incredible journey is going from here. But to think that I’m a meaningful part of it means the world to me.”
Cillian Murphy, who was nominated for and won an Oscar for the first time, dedicated the award to “peacemakers everywhere”.
Robert Downey Jr said on the stage: “I’d like to thank my terrible childhood and the Academy in that order.”
The Oscars, organised by the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences, was held in Los Angeles on Sunday and streamed live on Disney+ Hotstar. Jimmy Kimmel steered the event through 23 categories, performances of the five Oscar-nominated songs and a fair share of groan-worthy comedy skits.
John Cena appeared in the nude to present the Oscar for Costume Design. “Costumes, they are so important, maybe the most important thing there is,” Cena said, before he was draped by Kimmel in a golden tasselled toga. The award went to Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things over the predicted winner Barbie.
The movie, edited by Yorgos Mavropsaridis, gave Kimmel a joke: “Will they both win? Yorgos is as good as mine.”
The highlights included Ryan Gosling belting out the hot-pink I’m Just Ken from Barbie. Messie, the remarkable border collie from Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall, was among the guests. The makers of the Japanese sleeper hit Godzilla: Minus One were easily the most ecstatic winners.
Lanthimos’s twisted comedy, about the emancipation of a woman created as a scientific experiment, was nominated in 10 categories and won in four, including for Emma Stone for Actress in a Leading Role.
“This is really overwhelming,” said a visibly shocked Stone, who delivered a remarkable performance as the marionette-like Bella Baxter. “It’s not about me, it’s about a team that came together to make something greater than the sum of its parts. That is the best part of making movies.” Stone trumped Lily Gladstone, who was widely tipped to win for Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon.
Poor Things also won for production design and make-up and hair-styling. Killers of the Flower Moon didn’t get a single award.
Jonathan Glazer’s chilling Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest won two Oscars, for International Feature Film and Sound. Glazer’s German-language film reflects the attempts of the commandant of Auschwitz to build a perfect domestic life even as he oversees mass slaughter at the concentration camp next door.
Glazer gave the most concise and political speech of the evening, linking the Holocaust with the Gaza tragedy: “All our choices were made to reflect and confront us in the present. Our film shows where dehumanisation leads at its worst.” The British director went on to make an explicit reference to Israel’s war on Palestine: “Whether the victims of October 7 in Israel or the ongoing attacks in Gaza, all victims face dehumanisation.”
Justine Triet and Arthur Harari won for their original screenplay for Anatomy of a Fall. The Oscar will “help me through my mid-life crisis”, Triet joked.
The adapted screenplay Oscar was won by Cord Jefferson for American Fiction. Jefferson made a pitch for independent films made on smaller budgets.
Despite eight nominations, Greta Gerwig’s box office scorcher Barbie bagged a single Oscar: for Best Original Song. What Was I Made For?, by siblings Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell, captured the essence of Gerwig’s feminist take on the doll that comes to life and is played by Margot Robbie.
In other significant honours, Da’Vine Joy Randolph won the supporting actress award for playing a grief-stricken mother in Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers. The Documentary Feature Film Oscar went to Mstyslav Chernov’s topical Ukraine war-themed 20 Days in Mariupol, beating Nisha Pahuja’s To Kill a Tiger, about a Jharkhand rape survivor’s fight for justice.
In the Animated Feature Film category, Japanese master Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron beat Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K Thompson.
In another honour for Japanese cinema, Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus One won the Oscar for best visual effects over Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and The Creator. Yamazaki also designed the visual effects. This is the second time a director has won the Best Visual Effects Oscar after Stanley Kubrick for 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1969.
In a touching speech, Yamazaki said, “For nearly 40 years, I have been making films while admiring the artistry of Hollywood visual effects, and I feel that I have finally come this far. I had not set my sights on being nominated, but I am very happy to have been brought to this place.”
Here is the complete list of winners and nominations.
Best Picture
Winner: Oppenheimer
American Fiction
Anatomy of a Fall
Barbie
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro
Past Lives
Poor Things
The Zone of Interest
Best Director
Winner: Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall
Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon
Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things
Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest
Actress in a Leading Role
Winner: Emma Stone, Poor Things
Annette Bening, Nyad
Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon
Sandra Huller, Anatomy of a Fall
Carey Mulligan, Maestro
Actor in a Leading Role
Winner: Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer
Bradley Cooper, Maestro
Colman Domingo, Rustin
Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers
Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction
Actor in a Supporting Role
Winner: Robert Downey Jr, Oppenheimer
Sterling K Brown, American Fiction
Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon
Ryan Gosling, Barbie
Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things
Actress in a Supporting Role
Winner: Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers
Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer
Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple
America Ferrera, Barbie
Jodie Foster, Nyad
Original Screenplay
Winner: Anatomy of a Fall, Justine Triet and Arthur Harari
The Holdovers, David Hemingson
Maestro, Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer
May December, screenplay by Samy Burch; story by Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik
Past Lives, Celine Song
Adapted Screenplay
Winner: American Fiction, Cord Jefferson
Barbie, Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach
Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan
Poor Things, Tony McNamara
The Zone of Interest, Jonathan Glazer
Cinematography
Winner: Oppenheimer, Hoyte van Hoytema
El Condes, Edward Lachman
Killers of the Flower Moon, Rodrigo Prieto
Maestro, Matthew Libatique
Poor Things, Robbie Ryan
Film Editing
Winner: Oppenheimer, Jennifer Lame
Anatomy of a Fall, Laurent Senechal
The Holdovers, Kevin Tent
Killers of the Flower Moon, Thelma Schoonmaker
Poor Things, Yorgos Mavropsaridis
International Feature Film
Winner: The Zone of Interest (United Kingdom)
Io Capitano (Italy)
Perfect Days (Japan)
Society of the Snow (Spain)
The Teachers’ Lounge (Germany)
Production Design
Winner: Poor Things, production design: James Price and Shona Heath; set decoration: Zsuzsa Mihalek
Barbie, production design: Sarah Greenwood; set decoration: Katie Spencer
Killers of the Flower Moon, production design: Jack Fisk; set decoration: Adam Willis
Napoleon, production design: Arthur Max; set decoration: Elli Griff
Oppenheimer, production design: Ruth De Jong; set decoration: Claire Kaufman
Makeup and Hairstyling
Winner: Poor Things, Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier and Josh Weston
Golda, Karen Hartley Thomas, Suzi Battersby and Ashra Kelly-Blue
Maestro, Kazu Hiro, Kay Georgiou and Lori McCoy-Bell
Oppenheimer, Luisa Abel
Society of the Snow, Ana Lopez-Puigcerver, David Marti and Montse Ribe
Costume Design
Winner: Poor Things, Holly Waddington
Barbie, Jacqueline Durran
Killers of the Flower Moon, Jacqueline West
Napoleon, Janty Yates and Dave Crossman
Oppenheimer, Ellen Mirojnick
Sound
Winner: The Zone of Interest, Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn
The Creator, Ian Voigt, Erik Aadahl, Ethan Van der Ryn, Tom Ozanich and Dean Zupancic
Maestro, Steven A. Morrow, Richard King, Jason Ruder, Tom Ozanich and Dean Zupancic
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, Chris Munro, James H. Mather, Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor
Oppenheimer, Willie Burton, Richard King, Gary A. Rizzo and Kevin O’Connell
Original Score
Winner: Oppenheimer, Ludwig Goransson
American Fiction, Laura Karpman
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, John Williams
Killers of the Flower Moon, Robbie Robertson
Poor Things, Jerskin Fendrix
Original Song
Winner: What Was I Made For? from Barbie, music and lyric by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell
The Fire Inside from Flamin’ Hot, music and lyric by Diane Warren
I’m Just Ken from Barbie, music and lyric by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt
It Never Went Away from American Symphony, music and lyric by Jon Batiste and Dan Wilson
Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People) from Killers of the Flower Moon, music and lyric by Scott George
Documentary Feature Film
Winner: 20 Days in Mariupol, Mstyslav Chernov
Bobi Wine: The People’s President, Moses Bwayo, Christopher Sharp
The Eternal Memory, Maite Alberdi
Four Daughters, Kaouther Ben Hania
To Kill a Tiger, Nisha Pahuja
Documentary Short Film
Winner: The Last Repair Shop, Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers
The ABCs of Book Banning, Trish Adlesic, Nazenet Habezghi and Sheila Nevins
The Barber of Little Rock, John Hoffman and Christine Turner
Island in Between, S Leo Chiang
Nai Nai & Wai Po, Sean Wang
Animated Feature Film
Winner: The Boy and the Heron, Hayao Miyazaki
Elemental, Peter Sohn
Nimona, Nick Bruno and Troy Quane
Robot Dreams, Pablo Berger
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K Thompson
Live Action Short Film
Winner: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, Wes Anderson and Steven Rales
The After, Misan Harriman and Nicky Bentham
Invincible, Vincent René-Lortie and Samuel Caron
Knight of Fortune, Lasse Lyskjær Noer and Christian Norlyk
Red, White and Blue, Nazrin Choudhury and Sara McFarlane
Animated Short Film
Winner: War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko, Dave Mullins and Brad Booker
Letter to a Pig, Tal Kantor and Amit R. Gicelter
Ninety-Five Senses, Jerusha Hess and Jared Hess
Our Uniform, Yegane Moghaddam
Pachyderme, Stephanie Clément and Marc Rius
Visual Effects
Winner: Godzilla Minus One, Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi and Tatsuji Nojima
The Creator, Jay Cooper, Ian Comley, Andrew Roberts and Neil Corbould
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Stephane Ceretti, Alexis Wajsbrot, Guy Williams and Theo Bialek
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, Alex Wuttke, Simone Coco, Jeff Sutherland and Neil Corbould
Napoleon, Charley Henley, Luc-Ewen Martin-Fenouillet, Simone Coco and Neil Corbould
Also read:
‘Poor Things’ review: Emma Stone brilliantly anchors a full-tilt bizarre comedy
‘Oppenheimer’ review: A grandiloquent saga about a grand folly
‘Anatomy of a Fall’ review: A beautifully performed dissection of a marriage