Oppenheimer was the opposite of a bomb at the 2024 Oscars, winning seven Oscars over the course of the ceremony — including best picture, director, actor, supporting actor, original score, cinematography and film editing.
The Universal historical epic scored actors Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. their first Oscars for best actor and supporting actor, respectively, while Christopher Nolan won best director — also his first win following eight nominations.
Said Nolan while accepting his best director Oscar: “Movies are just a little bit over 100 years old. I mean, imagine being there 100 years into painting or theater. We don’t know where this incredible journey is going from here. But to know that you think that I’m a meaningful part of it means the world to me.”
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Murphy immediately thanked longtime collaborator Nolan and his producer-wife Emma Thomas. “It’s been the wildest, most exhilarating, most creatively satisfying journey you’ve taken me on over the last 20 years, I owe you more than I can say,” said Murphy, who added he was a proud Irishman in his speech. “We made a film about the man who created the atomic bomb, and for better or for worse, we’re all living in Oppenheimer’s world. I would really like to dedicate this to the peacemakers everywhere.”
“I’d like to thank my terrible childhood and the Academy, in that order,” said Robert Downey Jr. in his acceptance speech for best supporting actor. The Oppenheimer star also thanked his wife, Susan, who he compared to a veterinarian who “found a snarling rescue pet, and you loved me back to life.” He also noted that he needed the role in Oppenheimer more than the film needed him, closing his speech to thank his entertainment lawyer of 40 years who, Downey noted, spent those years “trying to get me insured and bailing me out of the hoosegow.”
Poor Things star Emma Stone won her second Oscar for best actress. “The other night, I was panicking … that maybe something like this could happen,” she said. “Yorgos [Lanthimos, director of Poor Things] said to me, ‘Please take yourself out of it.’ And he was right, because it’s not about me. It’s about a team that came together to make something greater than the sum of its parts. And that is the best part about making movies.” is all of us together. And I am so deeply honored to share this with every cast member with every crew member with every single person who poured their love and their care and their brilliance into the making of this film.”
The Holdovers star Da’Vine Joy Randolph picked up the first award of the evening — the Oscar for best supporting actress — for her role in the Focus Features film directed by Alexander Payne. “I didn’t think I was supposed to be doing this as a career,” said a tearful Randolph. “I started off as a singer, and my mother said to me, ‘Go across that street to that theater department. There’s something for you there.’ And I thank my mother for doing that.” While thanking the many loved ones who have supported her through her career, Randolph reflected on her own road to self-acceptance. “For so long. I’ve always wanted to be different,” she added. “Now I realize I just need to be myself, and I thank you for seeing me.”
The United Kingdom earned its first Oscar for best international feature, with A24’s The Zone of Interest winning the category. Writer-director Jonathan Glazer accepted the award on behalf of the U.K. “All our choices were made to reflect and confront us in the present, not to say look what they did then but rather, look [at] what we do now. Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst; it shaped all of our past and present.” said Glazer, who referenced his longtime collaborator and producer James Wilson. “Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people — whether the victims of Oct. 7 in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all are victims of this dehumanization.”
The award for best documentary feature went to 20 Days in Mariupol, which director Mstyslav Chernov noted was the first Ukrainian film to win an Oscar. “Probably I will be the first director on this stage who says I wish I never made this film,” said Chernov. “I wish to be able to exchange this to Russia never attacking Ukraine, never occupying our cities.” The director added, “We can make sure that the history record is set straight and the truth will prevail, and the people of Mariupol and those who gave their lives will never be forgotten. Because cinema forms memories, and memories form history.”
Neon’s Anatomy of a Fall won best original screenplay, with director Justine Triet and writing partner Arthur Harari accepting the Oscar. “This will help me through my midlife crisis, I think,” said Triet.
American Fiction writer-director won the Oscar for adapted screenplay for the Amazon MGM Studios film, based on Percival Everett’s novel Erasure. “I’ve been talking a lot about how many people passed on this movie, and I worry that that sometimes sounds vindictive, and I don’t want to be vindictive — I’m not a vindictive person anymore,” said Jefferson in speech that earned great applause from the audience. “It’s more of a plea to acknowledge and recognize that there are so many people out there who want the opportunity that I was given. I understand that this is a risk averse industry, I get it. But $200 million movies are also a risk, and it doesn’t always work out but you take the risk anyway. Instead of making one $200 million dollar movie, try making 20 $10 million movies.”
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar earned director Wes Anderson his first Oscar for best live action short, but the director was not in attendance to accept the award. Neither was Hayao Miyazaki, who earned his second Oscar for best animated feature with The Boy and the Heron. The Oscar for best documentary short went to The Last Repair Shop, while animated short went to War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko. The directors of the latter were joined onstage by Sean Ono Lennon, an executive producer on the project.
In the crafts categories, Searchlight’s Poor Things won Oscars for best makeup and hairstyling, production design and costume design, while Oppenheimer won best cinematography and editing. The award for best visual effects went to the team behind Toho’s Godzilla Minus One. The film, directed by Takashi Yamazaki (who was a part of the Oscar-winning visual effects team), is the first in the Godzilla franchise to have been nominated for an Oscar. The Zone of Interest bested more bombastic competition to take the Oscar for best sound.
Stopping the show was Ryan Gosling’s rousing performance of Barbie’s “I’m Just Ken,” which included a full company of Kens — plus songwriter Mark Ronson and Slash on guitar and Barbie co-stars Simu Liu and Kingsley Ben–Adir joining Gosling on stage. Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell earned a standing ovation for their performance of Barbie’s “What Was I Made For?” American Symphony subject Jon Batiste performed the love song “It Never Went Away” from the Netflix doc, while Becky G performed 15-time nominee Diane Warren’s Flamin’ Hot tune “The Fire Inside.” The Osage Singers also performed the original tribal song “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)” from Killers of the Flower Moon.
The best original song Oscar went to Eilish and O’Connell, their second win after composing the James Bond theme song No Time to Die. Oppenheimer‘s Ludwig Göransson also netted his second win for best original score.
Throughout the ceremony, last year’s acting Oscar winners were joined by previous winners to introduce the nominees from their respective categories. Jamie Lee Curtis, Regina King, Rita Moreno, Lupita Nyong’o and Mary Steenburgen presented best supporting actress; Mahershala Ali, Ke Huy Quan, Tim Robbins, Sam Rockwell and Christoph Waltz presented best supporting actor; Nicolas Cage, Brendan Fraser, Ben Kingsley, Matthew McConaughey and Forest Whitaker presented best actor; Sally Field, Jennifer Lawrence, Jessica Lange, Charlize Theron and Michelle Yeoh presented best actress.
Kimmel returned to emcee the event for the fourth year, lightly roasting the nominees in the front rows of the audience before ending his monologue to note the resilience of actors and writers who marched the picket lines during last year’s dual WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. “As pretentious and superficial as it can be, at its heart it’s a union town. It’s not just a bunch of heavily botox-ed, Hailey Bieber smoothie drinking, diabetes prescription abusing, gluten sensitive nepo babies with perpetually shivery chihuahuas,” joked Kimmel, before inviting the below-the-line crew members to the stage to take a bow. “This is a coalition of hard working, mentally tough American laborers, women and men who would 100 percent for sure die if we even had to touch the handle of the shovel.”
The ceremony, which was slated to start an hour earlier than usual, was slightly delayed after pro-Palestinian protesters shut down traffic in Hollywood, blocking many guests en route to the Dolby Theatre. (“Don’t worry, [the show] will still end very, very late. We’re already five minutes over — I am not joking,” quipped Kimmel.) The Israel-Hamas war was directly referenced during the red carpet, with stars like Billie Eilish, Finneas O’Connell, Ramy Youseff, Mahershala Ali, Mark Ruffalo, Mark Ronson and Ava DuVernay wearing red Artists4Ceasefire pins in support to end the fighting and deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Despite the late start, the Oscars ended five minutes early — but that didn’t stop Kimmel from sharing a scathing review of the broadcast from former President Donald Trump, who attacked the host on Truth Social. “Has there EVER been a WORSE [sic] HOST than Jimmy Kimmel at the Oscars. His opening was that of a less than average person trying too hard to be something which he is not, and never can be,” posted Trump, to which Kimmel replied on air, “I’m surprised you’re still up. Isn’t it past your jail time?”
