Hollywood is back, baby! Well, rather, good movies are back. And although film, and the Oscar’s, took a serious hit during the Covid years, it appears that Barbenheimer has brought back some excitement for what was often known as the television event of the year. And, as predicted, Oppenheimer won (practically) everything, giving Christopher Nolan his first, and long awaited , Academy Award. One could argue that, much like Martin Scorsese finally getting the nod for 2006’s The Departed, that Nolan should, and could, have won for any one of his previous masterpieces, but we’ll let bygones be bygones. Oppenheimer was terrific, and aptly deserved Best Picture, Best Director, and many more.
Cillian Murphy wins best Actor for Oppenheimer
We’re just going to say it: all of our Oscar’s predictions came true. And we’re thrilled about it. Anyway, Cillian won for Oppenheimer and his acceptance speech reminded us all why we love him, further impressing with how such a doe-eyed Irish man can convincingly play a 1920s Birmingham gangster in Tommy Shelby.
Emma Stone beats Lilly Gladstone to win Best Actress for Poor Things
Emma Stone picks up her second Academy Award for best leading actress, becoming the 13th woman to win 2 Oscar’s for best leading actress, joining the likes of Cate Blanchett, and perhaps one day, Meryl Streep (who has three).
Christopher Nolan wins Best Director with the most eloquent speech ever
Not bad for a guy who openly says that two of his favourite movies of all time are Tokyo Drift and Talladega Nights. Nolan was nominated for best original screenplay for his 2000 big screen debut, Memento, and if you haven’t seen it, we can’t recommend it enough.
Robert Downey Jr. wins best Supporting Actor
In typical tongue-in-cheek, Tony Stark fashion, for which the sober Downey Jr has become famous, Iron Man himself thanked a lot of random people, and childhood chapters that we’ll hopefully one day read about in his autobiography.
Da’Vine Joy Randolph made everybody cry with her Best Supporting Actress speech
As of 24 hours ago The Holdovers’ filmmaker, Alexander Payne, has faced some controversy for allegedly plagiarising the entire script, and even distinct bits of dialogue, from another screenwriter. Whether or not this remains true, takes nothing away from Da’Vine’s career defining performance, and we hope she gets many more opportunities to show it.
Oppenheimer wins Best Picture
Everyone saw this coming, but still, that doesn’t reduce the excitement of Nolan and his long time producer and wife, Emma Thomas, getting to share such an incredible moment together after so many spectacular projects together.
Oscar Moment of the Night
Goes to John Cena. Only thing missing was a full suplex on Jimmy Kimmel, but perhaps that happened behind closed doors at the after party.
Other Notable Wins
Billie Eilish won her second Academy Award, alongside her brother, for their original song for Barbie, and thereby becomes the youngest person in history with two Academy awards to her name. Crazy.
Justine Triet picked up a well deserved Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Anatomy of a Fall, and Cord Jefferson picked up one for Adapted Screenplay for American Fiction.
Jonathan Glazier picked up an award for Best International Feature for his holocaust drama, The Zone of Interest (adapted from Martin Amis’s book of the same name).
Oppenheimer also picked up awards for best Original score, Best Editing, and Best Cinematography.
And another person who finally got a well deserved, long awaited Oscar was Wes Anderson, for his short film, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, but was apparently too cool to attend the ceremony. Many speculated that he was salty over his feature, Asteroid City, getting snubbed, but oh well.
And in case you missed it, here’s Jimmy’s opening monologue.
