"Oppenheimer" Wins Seven Oscars Including Best Picture
Christopher Nolan's biopic about the father of the atomic bomb dominated award shows all season long, and Sunday was no different as "Oppenheimer" won the season's top prize – Best Picture at the 96th annual Academy Awards. The film entered the night with 13 nominations, just one fewer than the all-time record.
The cultural phenomenon "Barbenheimer" ruled the night, as the two films provided the most memorable and talked-about moments of the evening. "I'm Just Ken" may have lost the Oscar for Best Original Song to another tune from the "Barbie" soundtrack ("What Was I Made For?" by Billie Eilish), but Ryan Gosling's performance got everyone in the crowd on their feet singing along.
Nolan also pocketed the Best Director Oscar, and "Oppenheimer" stars Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. won Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively. The film also won several artistic and technical awards – Best Score, Best Editing, and Best Cinematography.
Yorgos Lanthimos's "Poor Things" also had a good night, winning four awards including a surprising Best Actress trophy for Emma Stone. Stone previously won in this category for 2016's "La La Land." The dystopian retro-futuristic fantasy film also won Best Production Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, and Best Costume Design.
Most experts predicted that Best Actress would go to Lily Gladstone, the star of Martin Scorsese's crime drama "Killers of the Flower Moon." Instead, the film about the murders of members of the Osage community in the 1920s was shut out despite 10 nominations.
Several newcomers also took home prizes. Cord Jefferson won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for his first-ever film, "American Fiction," which was also nominated for five awards including Best Picture. Da'Vine Joy Randolph won the prize for Best Supporting Actress for her breakout performance as a grieving mother in Alexander Payne's "The Holdovers."
French filmmakers Justine Triet and Arthur Harari earned their first-ever Oscar nominations and wins for their work on the courtroom drama "Anatomy of a Fall," earning trophies for Best Original Screenplay. Triet was also nominated for Best Director.
Additionally, a Ukrainian filmmaker took home an Oscar, the first in the nation's history. Associated Press war correspondent Mstyslav Chernov won for Best Documentary Feature for the film "20 Days in Mariupol," which tells the story of the nearly three weeks that he and his colleagues spent in the besieged city of Mariupol at the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In his heartfelt acceptance speech, Chernov stated that he wished he had never made the film and that he could exchange the prize for Russia never attacking Ukraine or occupying its cities.
Congratulations to everyone. See the full list of winners here.