As the fates foretold, Christopher Nolan’s historical epic Oppenheimer was the bigger winner Sunday night, taking home Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, and a trio of below-the-line awards. It is now the third-highest grossing Best Picture winner of all time, behind just Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. It also ties last year’s Everything Everywhere All at Once as the third-winningest Best Picture winner of the 21st century, behind just The Return of the King and Slumdog Millionaire.
After Oppenheimer, the other big winner of the night was Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, which tallied four awards, including Best Actress for Emma Stone. The race between Stone and Killers of the Flower Moon star Lily Gladstone came down to the wire, but it was clear voters simply loved the Stone film more. We’ll get to Killers in a minute. Poor Things also won for Costume Design, Production Design, and Makeup and Hairstyling.
Cillian Murphy earned a well-deserved Best Actor trophy, while Robert Downey Jr. took home Best Supporting Actor, kicking off his post-marvel career with a bang. As was widely predicted, Da’Vine Joy Randolph won Best Supporting Actress, the first award handed out at the show. Randolph’s speech was genuine, emotional, and moving, starting the night off on the right foot.
Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest joined Oppenheimer and Poor Things as the only films to win multiple awards on the night, taking home Best International Feature and Best Sound in a truly inspired victory.
Justine Triet and Arthur Harari’s original screenplay for Anatomy of a Fall bested The Holdovers in that category, while Cord Jefferson’s script for American Fiction triumphed in the adapted category.
Ludwig Göransson picked up his second career Academy Award for his Oppenheimer score, while Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell made history with their Original Song win for “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie. Eilish (22) and O’Connell (26) are now the youngest and second-youngest, respectively, two-time winners in Oscars history, having previously won two years ago for their James Bond theme “No Time to Die.”
In addition to Göransson, cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema and editor Jennifer Lame picked up Oscars in their respective categories for their work on Oppenheimer.
Martin Scorsese now has the ignominious distinction of having directed three of the seven films in history to earn double-digit nominations and go home empty-handed after Killers of the Flower Moon was blanked. Wildly, this is his second such film in a row, following The Irishman pulling the same feat in 2019. Bradley Cooper’s Maestro (0-for-7) and Celine Song’s Past Lives (0-for-2) were the only other Best Picture nominees not to win an award.
For my money, the speech of the night award goes to Msytslav Chernov, director of Documentary Feature winner 20 Days in Mariupol. Chernov’s film, which documents the Russian siege of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, is one of the most powerful and important pictures of the year. The filmmaker met the moment with an impassioned plea for the world to recognize and remember the ongoing atrocities in Ukraine. He specifically called on the Hollywood elites in the room to use their power and influence to ensure that these atrocities are never forgotten.
Elsewhere, Hayao Miyazaki, who could not attend the ceremony, won his second award for Animated Feature for his beautiful The Boy and the Heron. While not my preferred choice, it’s hard to begrudge the Japanese master an award for what most likely will be his final film.
Another winner from Japan came in the form of Godzilla Minus One, which won the Visual Effects Oscar for director Takashi Yamazaki and his team. Delightfully, Yamazaki and his fellow winners brought to the stage with them the Godzilla models that helped win them the award. Yamazaki had to hand his Godzilla off to one of his compatriots in order to hold both his Oscar and his speech.
I went 3-for-3 in the shorts categories for only the second time in my predicting career, as Wes Anderson won his first Oscar for Live Action Short contender The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, The Last Repair Shop triumphed in Documentary Short, and WAR IS OVER! took the Animated Short category. WAR IS OVER! executive producer Sean Ono Lennon joined the team onstage and wished his mother a happy Mother’s Day – as we learned repeatedly throughout the evening, Sunday was Mother’s Day in the UK.
As for my predictions overall, this was the fewest misses I’ve ever had, as I went 18-for-23. Three of my misses came from underestimating the Academy’s love for Poor Things. One of those was in Production Design, where I changed my prediction at the last minute from Poor Things to Barbie. I won’t do that again. I thought Maestro would have to win something, so I went there for Makeup and Hairstyling. A mistake. And, the Stone vs. Gladstone race probably deserves a longer separate piece, so I’ll save that discussion for another time.
I thought the show, in general, was excellent. Jimmy Kimmel feels like a safe pair of hands as host at this point. You know what you’re getting, and it’s a perfect fit for the show the Academy wants to put on. The opening monologue was fleet-footed and funny and ended with an inspired tribute to the IATSE members who are in the midst of contract negotiations. Kimmel brought out the union members working on the broadcast to a standing ovation and pledged that the talent in the room would stand with IATSE should the time for collective action come.
There was no fat on the broadcast, with the lone clip package reserved for a tribute to Hollywood stunt performers. One wishes that montage had ended with the announcement of a new award for stunts, but it did not. However, with a casting Oscar on the way in 2025, I would say it’s only a matter of time before this pivotal role in the moviemaking machine gets its Academy due.
I enjoyed that the Academy brought back the practice of having five previous winners in the acting categories deliver personalized tributes to this year’s nominees. The Supporting Actress tributes were particularly emotional, as a number of the folks involved had personal connections. Frankly, the rest of the tributes throughout the night couldn’t quite live up to that standard, but it’s a lovely idea that I hope the Academy continues with.
The comedy bits were quick, inspired, and on point, with John Cena’s “nude” presentation of Best Costume Design a particular standout.
For the second year in a row, one perfectly timed Original Song performance brought the house down and gave the show the energy boost necessary to carry on into the final awards of the night. Last year, it was “Naatu Naatu” from RRR, while this time around, Ryan Gosling absolutely nailed his performance of “I’m Just Ken.”
Gosling started in the crowd, then walked up onstage to join a chorus line of dancers. He did some crowd work, getting folks like Margot Robbie, Greta Gerwig, and Stone involved in singing the song. Finally, Guns ‘n’ Roses guitarist Slash made a surprise appearance to shred a solo over the climax of the song. It was exactly the kind of joyous, energetic, buzzworthy moment the Oscars need to get people talking, and Gosling and Co. delivered.
Off the top of my head, my first-blush reactions are: 1) I’m pleased with a stripped-down show that was allowed to foreground the nominees; 2) Oppenheimer is a great film that will hold up well with the title of Best Picture attached to it; and 3) I’ll be reflecting on the Stone vs. Gladstone race for quite a while and will probably need to publish a separate piece on it once the dust has settled.
For now, that’s all from here. Congrats to Nolan and his team on their remarkable triumph, as well as to all the winners. And, thank you to everyone who has followed along on the site. I do this out of love, and nights like tonight are a wonderful reminder of what I love so much about the movies.
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