Oppy on toppy: Christopher Nolan’s epic dominates 96th Academy Awards

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.

Countdown to the Oscars: Best Director

Welcome to this year’s edition of Last Cinema Standing’s Countdown to the Oscars, where we will break down each of the 23 categories, analyze the films, and make some guesses at their awards prospects.

Best Director

The nominees are:

Jonathan Glazer for The Zone of Interest

Yorgos Lanthimos for Poor Things

Christopher Nolan for Oppenheimer

Martin Scorsese for Killers of the Flower Moon

Justine Triet for Anatomy of a Fall

Jonathan Glazer for The Zone of Interest

Glazer is one of the most fascinating filmmakers of the 21st century. He has made just four features in 24 years. Each one of them is a penetrating psychodrama largely about humanity’s worst impulses. He’s also probably most recognizable as the director of the landmark music video for Jamiroquai’s “Virtual Insanity,” one of the defining videos of the ‘90s.

The Zone of Interest is exactly the kind of film the Directors Branch of the Academy likes to nominate in that Glazer’s directorial stamp is all over it. Films are, of course, collaborative, and the acting, sound design, production design, cinematography, and everything else on this picture are superb, but there is not a frame in this movie that does not have Glazer’s authorial hand guiding it. It’s a Holocaust movie, and it’s an experimental art picture, but it’s also a probing domestic drama. Only Glazer could make all of those things fit into one package and make that package as perfect as this.

Yorgos Lanthimos for Poor Things

Lanthimos is one of the giants of international cinema right now and one of my favorite filmmakers working today. He broke into the public consciousness with his second solo feature, 2009’s Dogtooth, which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars. He pretty quickly made the leap to English-language features with 2015’s magnificent The Lobster, and his recent creative partnership with Emma Stone seems to have been invigorating for both. Every time she accepts an award for this film, she credits her friend “Yorgo” with bringing out the best in her.

Poor Things is a Lanthimos film, through and through. It is highly stylized, darkly funny, and sometimes just plain weird in the best ways. But, it may also be evidence that Lanthimos is lightening up a little bit. Films like Dogtooth, The Lobster, and The Killing of a Sacred Deer have had laughs, but they have always been couched in a weary despair, a bleakness that reminds of Lars Von Trier, among others. Poor Things, on the other hand, offers a joy of discovery, a wonderment that his other films lack, a note of hope that maybe this world could be a little better. It’s an interesting color on Lanthimos. I think I like it.

Christopher Nolan for Oppenheimer

A Nolan Oscar win has felt inevitable for quite some time now, and I don’t just mean for Oppenheimer specifically. I mean the general air around Nolan is that he is the kind of filmmaker who should have an Academy Award. He represents exactly what the Academy and the industry at large want to be. He is a filmmaker who makes smart, critically acclaimed work that makes a ton of money every single time out, a perfect nexus between art and commerce. 

Oppenheimer is the apex of that experience: a three-hour historical drama that asks serious questions about war, science, and humanity’s capacity for violence but one which also made just shy of a billion dollars at the global box office. Perhaps it goes without saying that it is also superbly mounted, an epic tale that makes space for real human drama. It’s a truly remarkable achievement.

Martin Scorsese for Killers of the Flower Moon

This makes an even 10 Best Director nominations for Martin Scorsese, breaking a tie with Steven Spielberg as the most nominated living director. Woody Allen is sitting at seven, and those are the only three living directors with more than even four nominations. It’s an exclusive club, is what I’m saying, and Scorsese sits at the head of the table. William Wyler is the most nominated director ever with 12. It’s not off the table for Scorsese to get there, but let’s not get greedy. It’s enough to appreciate what’s right in front of us.

And, what’s right in front of us is one of the greatest filmographies of any American director in the history of the medium. Here are some of the movies he was not nominated for Best Director for: Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, After Hours, Cape Fear, and Silence. Any one of those would be the best film on almost any other director’s resumé. That’s not even to mention Raging Bull, Goodfellas, The Departed, or The Wolf of Wall Street.

The point is that we have to stop ourselves from getting complacent with a director like Scorsese – or, I should say, with Scorsese; there are no other directors like Scorsese. Killers of the Flower Moon is a masterpiece. It’s not normal for a director just to be churning out masterpieces. This is special in a way we are unlikely ever to see again. It’s an event. It’s a privilege to live at a time when he is making new movies. It’s important that we acknowledge that.

Justine Triet for Anatomy of a Fall

Lina Wertmüller. Jane Campion. Sofia Coppola. Kathryn Bigelow. Greta Gerwig. Chloé Zhao. Emerald Fennell. Triet. Those are the eight women ever nominated for Best Director. Hopefully, in the near future, the list will be too long to include without looking foolish. As always, it also feels fair to point out that Zhao is the only woman of color on the list, and among the six black directors ever nominated for this award, none has been a woman.

The honor is well-deserved for Triet, who also joined Campion in 2023 as the only women ever to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Anatomy of a Fall is a masterwork of tension and storytelling, one of the finest courtroom dramas ever made, and a brilliant psychological thriller. It’s the kind of calling card a director can point to for the rest of her career and say, ‘If you give me what I need, I can give you one of these.’

The final analysis

It’s a little surprising that this is just Nolan’s second nomination for Best Director, given his status within the industry, but I think there’s a part of the Academy that has always been a little wary of the director’s weirder impulses. Films like The Prestige, Inception, and Interstellar perhaps veered too closely to science-fiction for the high-minded Directors Branch. Even with the respectability Nolan lends them, superhero movies like the Dark Knight trilogy are outside the Academy’s wheelhouse.

No, they needed him to make something like Oppenheimer to feel comfortable fully embracing him. Well, he has made that now. And, here they are, ready to fully embrace him. It’s his time.

Will win: Christopher Nolan for Oppenheimer

Should win: Martin Scorsese for Killers of the Flower Moon

Should have been here: Emerald Fennell for Saltburn

A note about my favorite snub: I could have gone with Gerwig here, too, or Radu Jude for Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, but it feels like Saltburn got a bad rap from the beginning. Critics thought it was beneath them and kind of buried it, apart from the many internet memes it inspired. The Academy didn’t bite. It seems in some circles, it’s almost embarrassing to admit you like this candy-coated thriller. That’s, of course, silly. Like what you like. I like Saltburn, and Fennell has the goods. And when the tide turns on this movie in five years and folks try to claim they were on board from the beginning, don’t let them forget how they missed the boat.

Oppenheimer, Poor Things Lead Oscar Nominations, Gerwig Snubbed Again

Nominations for the 96th Academy Awards were announced Tuesday morning, and as expected, Christopher Nolan’s atomic-age biopic Oppenheimer led the way with 13 nominations, one shy of tying the all-time record. The epic story of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the program to build the first atomic bomb was nominated in all the big categories, including Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, and Adapted Screenplay, along with significant below-the-line support, and it remains the frontrunner for the top prize. Right now, it’s simply a matter of how big that win will be.

Yorgos Lanthimos’ and Emma Stone’s comic fantasy Poor Things earned 11 nominations, including Picture. Lanthimos and Stone are both producers on the movie, so each ended up with multiple nominations on the day, Lanthimos for Picture and Director and Stone for Picture and Actress. Mark Ruffalo also was nominated for Supporting Actor, his fourth such nomination.

Killers of the Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese’s recounting of the Osage oil murders, landed 10 nods, including Picture, Director, and Actress for Lily Gladstone, who becomes the first indigenous woman nominated for Best Actress.

Barbie came next with eight nominations, including Best Picture, but Greta Gerwig missed out in the directing category, which will go down as the biggest snub of the year. Despite broad crafts support, the film also failed to nab an Actress nomination for Margot Robbie or an Editing nod. Nevertheless, both Ryan Gosling and America Ferrera earned supporting recognition in their respective categories, so the love is out there for the billion-dollar behemoth.

Rounding out the 10-strong Best Picture race are American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, The Holdovers, Maestro, Past Lives, and The Zone of Interest. Both Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet) and The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer) also garnered directing nods, suggesting the international flavor of the Academy is only getting stronger.

Triet becomes just the eighth woman to be recognized in the directing category, while she was also nominated for Original Screenplay, alongside partner Arthur Harari, while star Sandra Hüller got a well-deserved nomination for Best Actress. The film also hit in the Editing category. 

Films that land in the Picture, Director, Editing, screenplay, and acting categories tend to be strong contenders, and while I’m not suggesting Anatomy of a Fall will challenge Oppenheimer for the top prize, at the very least, the French nomination committee has to be kicking itself for not submitting the film in the International Feature competition. The French went with Tran Ahn Hung’s The Taste of Things, which is a  lovely movie but did not get nominated.

Glazer’s Holocaust horror story, on the other hand, did make it into the International Feature category, a rarity for a UK production, though the film’s spoken language is German. In addition to Director, Glazer was nominated for Adapted Screenplay, and the film was recognized in the Sound category for its stunning soundscapes. Also nominated for International Feature are Io Capitano from Italy, Perfect Days from Japan, Society of the Snow from Spain, and The Teacher’s Lounge from Germany. It’s a heavily Euro-centric lineup, as even the Japanese entrant is from German master Wim Wenders.

Joining Hüller, Gladstone, and Stone in Actress are Annette Bening for Nyad and Carey Mulligan for Maestro. This is Mulligan’s third Best Actress nomination and Bening’s fifth overall (four lead, one supporting). Stone, who of course previously won this category for La La Land, has four total acting nominations (two lead, two supporting) and five overall.

Two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster will join her Nyad co-star in celebrating after earning a Supporting Actress nomination. She is joined by Emily Blunt for Oppenheimer, Danielle Brooks for The Color Purple, America Ferrera for Barbie, and presumptive frontrunner Da’Vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers. All except Foster are first-time nominees.

Also among The Holdovers’ five nominations is Paul Giamatti in Best Actor. He is joined by Cillian Murphy for Oppenheimer, Bradley Cooper for Maestro, Colman Domingo for Rustin, and Jeffrey Wright for American Fiction. Murphy, Domingo, and Wright are all first-timers, while this is Giamatti’s first leading nomination. His only previous nomination came in Supporting Actor for 2005’s Cinderella Man.

Cooper, meanwhile, can’t stop getting nominated and for the second time in his career pulled off the hat trick of a triple-nomination year. He is nominated in Picture, Actor, and Original Screenplay, the same trifecta he pulled off in 2018 for A Star Is Born, though that was in the Adapted Screenplay category. Overall, this brings Cooper’s nomination total to 12.

Over in Supporting Actor, Sterling K. Brown earned his first career nomination for American Fiction and will be joined by frontrunner Robert Downey Jr. for Oppenheimer, Rober De Niro for Killers of the Flower Moon, Ryan Gosling for Barbie, and Mark Ruffalo for Poor Things. This is De Niro’s ninth overall nomination, moving him into a tie for sixth-most all time.

We will dig deeper into all of these categories, as well as the below-the-line races, in the coming weeks. For now, here are a few things that stick out:

• Oppenheimer is one of the strongest frontrunners we’ve had at this point in the race in a long time. It was nominated in every category where it was eligible, it has broad support across every branch of the Academy, and it keeps winning prizes everywhere it goes.

• The Gerwig miss in Director stings. It’s a bad look for the Directors Branch. While they did nominate Triet, one wonders what the visionary director of one of the highest-grossing films of all time has to do. She also was snubbed for Little Women in 2019, to me an equally egregious omission. And with the ridiculous decision to place Barbie in Adapted Screenplay, where Oppenheimer is likely to triumph, Gerwig is nearly certain to be a bridesmaid yet again.

• Beyond just Gerwig, Barbie came up soft in general, despite eight total nods. Not only did it miss Director, Actress, and Editing, as mentioned, it converted just two of its three expected song nominations, with Dua Lipa missing out for “Dance the Night.” We could psychoanalyze this all day – and I’m sure that analysis is coming – but it sure feels like something was going on in voters’ minds regarding Barbie.

• The Cinematography nomination for independent legend Ed Lachman for El Conde is really cool. This is Lachman’s third career nod.

• Whatever heat May December might have had early on sure died a quiet death. With just one nomination for Samy Burch’s Original Screenplay and no acting nods for what is absolutely an actors’ showcase, something clearly did not click for Academy members. I am bummed most of all for Charles Melton.

• The lack of any nominations for Origin, All of Us Strangers, or The Iron Claw suggests a late-in-the-year release is not an ideal strategy. Oscar nominees need time to build buzz before voting begins, and late December just doesn’t cut it.

Okay, that’s all for now. As always, we’ll have more on all of this in the coming days and weeks. Until then, click here to head over to the Academy website for the full nominations list, and happy movie watching.