And there we have it, ladies and gents. The curtain comes down on the 2024 awards season with one of the strongest Oscar ceremonies of recent years.
Some of my personal highlights of the evening: a very game John Cena, appearing nude(ish?) to announce Best Costume Design; Jonathan Glazer's powerful acceptance speech on winning Best International Feature for Holocaust drama The Zone Of Interest; the winning crew of Godzilla Minus One bringing a golden Godzilla onto stage; and the truly stunning performance of "I'm Just Ken" replete with 65 Kens, Slash on guitar, and a pink-clad Ryan Gosling!
I was very happy that The Boy And The Heron won Best Animated Feature Film, and that American Fiction won Best Adapted Screenplay. Along with The Holdovers, American Fiction was one of my favourite films of this awards season. Cord Jefferson's enthusiastic acceptance speech contained a plea that I've long hoped Hollywood would listen to: take a chance on making smaller budget movies. Who knows, maybe they'll listen?
20 Days In Mariupol becomes the first Ukrainian Oscar winner; its director Mstyslav Chernov gave a stirring and emotional speech, saying he wished he'd never had to make the film. The inclusion of a clip from last year's Best Documentary Feature- Navalny- about the (recently-deceased) Russian political prisoner before the "In Memoriam" section was an interesting choice and will no doubt provoke a couple of column inches.
Hosting pairs were the usual mix of passable and get-these-two-to-host-this-next-year; Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling were funny, riffing on the Barbenheimer "rivalry", and rightly introduced a tribute to stunt performers - which does beg the question: why the fuck aren't stunt performers getting an Oscar? Yes, casting is important, but stunt work is an intrinsic part of most films and has been from cinema's inception. Get on it, Academy.
John Mulaney riffing on Field Of Dreams, and Ramy Youssef and Issa Rae cutting right to the chase were particular highlights, and there was an enjoyable reunion between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. They also did something interesting with the acting awards: each of the four categories had five former winners (including last year's winners) to give a short testimonial about one of the nominees. (They'd done something similar a few years ago, but refined it somewhat for this time around)
Unsurprisingly, Oppenheimer was the big winner of the evening, with seven Oscars. Poor Things came second with four, whilst The Zone Of Interest was the only other multiple Oscar winner, taking two.
Despite multiple nominations, Killers Of The Flower Moon, Maestro, Napoleon, Nyad, and Society Of The Snow came home emptyhanded.
Below is the full list of winners at the 96th Academy Awards:
Best Motion Picture of the Year: Oppenheimer
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 Original Screenplay: Justine Triet and Arthur Harari (Anatomy Of A Fall)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Cord Jefferson (American Fiction)
Best Animated Feature Film of the Year: The Boy And The Heron
Best International Feature Film of the Year: The Zone Of Interest
Best Cinematography: Oppenheimer
Best Film Editing: Oppenheimer
Best Production Design: Poor Things
Best Costume Design: Poor Things
Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Poor Things
Best Original Score: Oppenheimer
Best Original Song: "What Was I Made For?" (Barbie)
Best Sound: The Zone Of Interest
Best Visual Effects: Godzilla Minus One
Best Documentary (Feature): 20 Days In Mariupol
Best Documentary (Short Subject): The Last Repair Shop
Best Animated Short Film: WAR IS OVER! Inspired By The Music Of John & Yoko
Best Live Action Short Film: The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar
Congratulations to all winners!
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