Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s epic about the dawn of the nuclear age, took home seven Oscars, including Best Picture, last night at the 96th Annual Academy Awards. The film, which led all films with thirteen nominations, also received awards for Director (Nolan), Actor (Cillian Murphy), Supporting Actor (Robert Downey, Jr.), Film Editing, Cinematography and Original Score. On the other side of the massive Barbieheimer battle, Barbie only took home one award, for the original song “What Was I Made For?”, written by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell. The win made Ellish, at age 22, the youngest person ever to have won two Academy Awards She received her first Oscar two years ago for the title song to the James Bond film No Time to Die.
Other major award winners were Emma Stone, who won her second Best Actress award for Poor Things, Da’Vine Joy Randolph (Best Supporting Actress for The Holdovers) and The Zone of Interest, which was named the Best International Feature Film. Seventy years after making his film debut, Godzilla Minus One earned the big green guy his first Oscar, winning for Visual Effects.
Hosted again by talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, the show moved quickly, coming in at just under three and half hours.
While Ellish’ song from Barbie took home the Oscar, it was another song from the film, “I’m Just Ken,” performed by Best Supporting Actor nominee Ryan Gosling. The number, which featured Gosling all in pink as a tribute to Marily Monroe’s “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” featured guest appearances by guitarists Slash and Wolfgang Van Halen. Another fun bit was John Cena coming out to present the Best Costume award wearing just his birthday suit.
The low point for me was the IN MEMORIAM portion of the show. The segment began with a brief clip of Alexi Navalny, who recently passed away in a Russian prison. However, it was all downhill from there because, for whatever reason, the tv director felt it was best to go with a long shot most of the time, so the names of many of those being honored could not be read on the screen. Also, in what I assume was an attempt to silence the fans who, the next day, always complain that “so and so” wasn’t mentioned, the segment ended with about 50 names all crammed into a circle. One of those names was Oscar nominee Burt Young, who deserved better!
Here is a complete list of the winners:
Best picture: “Oppenheimer”
Best director: Christopher Nolan, “Oppenheimer”
Best actress: Emma Stone, “Poor Things.”
Best actor: Cillian Murphy, “Oppenheimer”
Best supporting actress: Da’Vine Joy Randolph, “The Holdovers”
Best supporting actor: Robert Downey Jr., “Oppenheimer”
Best original screenplay: Justine Triet and Arthur Harari, “Anatomy of a Fall”
Best adapted screenplay: Cord Jefferson, “American Fiction”
Best animated feature: “The Boy and the Heron”
Best animated short: “War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John Lennon and Yoko Ono”
Best international feature: “The Zone of Interest” (United Kingdom)
Best documentary feature: “20 Days in Mariupol”
Best documentary short: “The Last Repair Shop”
Best live action short: “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar”
Best score: Ludwig Göransson, “Oppenheimer”
Best original song: Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell, “What Was I Made For?” from “Barbie”
Best sound: Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn, “The Zone of Interest”
Best production design: James Price, Shona Heath and Zsuzsa Mihalek, “Poor Things”
Best cinematography: Hoyte van Hoytema, “Oppenheimer”
Best makeup and hairstyling: Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier and Josh Weston, “Poor Things”
Best costume design: Holly Waddington, “Poor Things”
Best editing: Jennifer Lame, “Oppenheimer”
Best visual effects: Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi and Tatsuji Nojima, “Godzilla Minus One”
