Emma Stone wins best actress over Lily Gladstone in Oscars’ biggest surprise - The Washington Post
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Emma Stone wins best actress over Lily Gladstone in Oscars’ biggest surprise

Emma Stone wins the Oscar for best actress for “Poor Things” at the Academy Awards on Sunday. (Mike Blake/Reuters)
2 min

Emma Stone won the Oscar for best actress Sunday, a win that many considered to be one of the biggest upsets of the night.

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Stone was nominated for her role in “Poor Things,” Yorgos Lanthimos’s candy-colored “Frankenstein” riff about a woman, created by science, awkwardly and exuberantly making her way into the world.

Stone’s dress popped slightly while walking onstage after she won the award. She quipped that her dress broke after watching Ryan Gosling’s “I’m Just Ken” performance.

Christopher Nolan's “Oppenheimer” collected seven awards, including best picture and best director, at the 96th Academy Awards in Los Angeles on March 10. (Video: Allie Caren/The Washington Post)

“It’s about a team that came together to make something greater than the sum of its parts,” Stone said about her victory. “I am so deeply honored to share this with every cast member, every crew member, with every single person who poured their love and their care and their brilliance into the making of this film.”

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With the win, Stone notched her second Oscar after winning best actress for her role as Mia in “La La Land” in 2017.

The best actress race was considered one of the tighter competitions earlier this awards season, with Lily Gladstone and Stone each winning top prizes. But as the Oscars approached, Gladstone appeared to have emerged as the favorite to win best actress. She had a trailblazing awards season following her breakout performance in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” in which she played Mollie Burkhart, a 1920s Osage woman whose family was brutally targeted for their oil head rights. She racked up a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award. She received a standing ovation when she won the SAG award last month.

Stone, after winning the Oscar, celebrated Gladstone, too. “Lily, I share this with you. I’m in awe of you.”

Everything you need to know about the Oscars

The 96th Academy Awards came to a close, but you can catch up with everything you missed from the 2024 Oscars and get the minute-by-minute highlights from our live blog.

Winners: Check out the full list of Oscar winners, which include Emma Stone’s surprise win over Lily Gladstone, Billie Eilish’s victory for her heartbreaking “Barbie” song and Robert Downey Jr. winning for his portrayal of Lewis Strauss.

Firsts: Wes Anderson won his first Oscar, for the short film “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” and while Gladstone didn’t win she is still the first Native American woman to be nominated for best actress.

Red carpet: See our picks for the best celebrity Oscar looks, or click through the photos from the star-studded night.