Oscars 2024 updates | ‘Oppenheimer’ wins seven awards, including Best Picture and Actor

Well that marks the end of what was largely a fuss-free, slick event with host Jimmy Kimmel keeping things ticking along very nicely indeed. Kimmel even found time to get a last zinger in before best picture was announced... to Donald Trump. Trump called Kimmel the worst Oscars host ever on Truth Social, to which the Oscars host responded, “Isn’t it past your jail time?”

Though there were no real upsets or shocks, a couple of memorable performances and funny jokes will ensure this goes down as one of the nicer Academy Award ceremonies in recent times.

Well, that completes the sweep! Producers Emma Thomas, Charles Roven and Christopher Nolan take the stage with some of their cast and crew to accept the Oscar.

Well, we finally have pretty much the first real surprise of the night. Emma Stone wins for her astonishing turn in Poor Things, though Lily Gladstone was widely considered the frontrunner. A sobbing Stone is all hoarse as she gives her speech on stage while accepting her second Oscar, and thanks her director Yorgos Lanthimos, her cast and crew members, husband Dave McCary and her daughter!

The Oppensweep continues, and no surprises here at all. Though it was a star-studded category with names like Martin Scorsese and Yorgos Lanthimos, it is Nolan who ultimately wins his first Oscar, and accepts the award from presenter Steven Spielberg.. He keeps his speech smart and succinct, mainly thanking his wife Emma, “producer of all our films.. and our children!”

And it’s the Irish star from Nolan’s blockbuster who wins! This came down to a shootout between Murphy and Paul Giamatti, and it’s the Oppenheimer lead actor who comes out trumps. He thanks Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas for the last 20 years of collaborating with him, and dedicates his awards to peacemakers everywhere, because “for better or worse, we are living in Oppenheimer’s world”.

First up is best actor and past winners Nicolas Cage, Matthew McConaughey, Brendan Fraser, Ben Kingsley and Forest Whitaker are here to present. And the Oscar goes to...

Now, the In Memoriam segment pays tribute to those we lost over the last year, and Andrea Bocelli and his son Matteo deliver a rousing performance on stage.

The likes of Matthew Perry, Michael Gambon, Tina Turner and several more are remembered during the segment.

“What Was I Made For?” from Barbie wins, and the brother-sister duo of Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell (both wearing Gaza ceasefire pins) come on stage to accept. No win for Gosling, but he won’t mind at all!

This is Billie Eilish’s second Oscar after she earlier won for No Time to Die in 2021.

Swedish composer Ludwig Göransson wins his second Oscar for Nolan’s epic, and that’s yet another win for Oppie!

Gosling expectedly KILLS it (he might just win the Oscar for song) and his performance is even accompanied by SLASH of all people for a guitar solo! Several other Kens are on stage too, including Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa and Kingsley Ben-Adir. Gosling even runs down for Gerwig, Ferrara and Robbie to yell a few lyrics into his mic, before ending the song with a flourish. Easily the most fun live act of the night!

The Zone of Interest wins its second award of the night, and a very deserving one at that, as Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn take to the stage to accept.

Wes Anderson’s fantasy short, which is adapted from Roald Dahl’s short story, wins him his first Oscar! The filmmaker isn’t present at the ceremony, so presenters Issa Rae and Ramy Youssef accept on his behalf.

Another win for Nolan’s biographical epic, as Zendaya presents the award to Dutch-Swedish cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, who has worked with Nolan in films like Interstellar (2014), Dunkirk (2017) and Tenet (2020).

Unfortunately, To Kill A Tiger misses out on the win. The award instead goes to 20 Days in Mariupol, directed by Mstyslav Chernov, which wins the first Oscar in Ukrainian history.

The documentary follows an AP team of Ukrainian journalists trapped in the city of Mariupol in a conflict zone, struggling to continue their work covering the Russian invasion and capturing horrific images of the war, from dying children to the mass bombings.

Directed by Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers, the documentary talks of how Los Angeles is one of the last American cities to provide free and freely repaired musical instruments to its public schoolchildren, which has been a continuous service since 1959.

Jennifer Lame wins best editing for Oppenheimer, and she’s presented the award by the hilarious duo of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito, in a reunion from their Junior days.

The team of the epic kaiju outing, Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi and Tatsuji Nojima come on stage carrying little Godzilla models to accept the award!

Another expected win. Downey has been on a winning spree for Oppenheimer and Iron Man saunters up on stage with his usual swagger to accept his Oscar. Previous winners Ke Huy Quan, Sam Rockwell, Mahershala Ali, Christoph Waltz and Tim Robbins are all on stage to congratulate him!

While the nominees were being announced, Tim Robbins accidentally calls DeNiro’s performance in Killers of the Flower Moon as “Oscar-winning” instead of “Oscar-nominated”.. to much sniggering from the audience. However, it is Downey who had the last laugh, and he makes a special note to thank his agent and wife “who found me a snarling rescue pet and loved me back to life.” Woot woot!

Before the next award, Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling take to the stage for some friendly banter about the Barbenheimer rivalry, and to give a shoutout to stunt performers everywhere. Naturally, the pair is a huge hit with the crowd...

Ryan: “I’m just happy we can put this Barbenheimer rivalry behind us.” 

Emily: “The way this award season turned out, it wasn’t that much of a rivalry…”

Jonathan Glazer’s historical drama, starring actors Christian Friedel and Sandra Hüller, wins its first Oscar of the night! With this win, The Zone of Interest also becomes the first British movie to win the Best International Film Oscar.

The filmmaker also spoke about the war in Gaza, while accepting his award: “Our film shows where dehumanisation leads, at its worst. It’s shaped all of our past and present. 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.”

Glazer’s The Zone of Interest is a Holocaust movie unlike anything before, one which leaves you confused about how you wish to remember it (before the realisation sets that the film only gets more disconcerting and bizarre the more you ponder about it). 

Read The Hindu’s review:

‘The Zone of Interest’ movie review: A harrowing, one-of-a-kind portrayal of apathy

‘The Zone of Interest’ is a Holocaust movie unlike anything before; a one-of-a-kind portrayal of the despicability and apathy that human beings can bear to do the gnarliest things as a mundane part of their everyday life

Kimmel comes on to help the former WWE star open the envelope... and it’s a hattrick for Poor Things! Holly Waddington wins for her gothic-inspired masterpieces that transported audiences into a magical universe

Poor Things takes two back-to-back awards winning for both Make-up and Hairstyling and Production Design.

Yorgos Lanthimos’ fantasy drama wins, in what is quite a surprise beating out the likes of Maestro and Oppenheimer in the Make-up and Hairstyling category.

Production Design was a stacked category with the likes of Barbie and Oppenheimer competing.. but Lanthimos’ vision won out in the end.

Writer Cord Jefferson accepts the award on stage, beating heavyweights like Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Gerwig’s Barbie for the honour.

Jefferson’s directorial debut is a glorious ride through the earnest silliness of academia and the publishing industry.

Read The Hindu’s review of American Fiction:

‘American Fiction’ movie review: Write stuff from Jeffrey Wright 

‘American Fiction’ movie review: Cleverly satirical, ‘American Fiction’ challenges stereotypes in academia and publishing industry, with a stellar cast and engaging storyline

The French legal drama wins for its screenplay by Justine Triet and Arthur Harari. That’s a first win for Messi’s film, that is a hot favourite in several other categories going forward as well..

This is Miyazaki’s second Oscar, and it comes more than two decades after he last won for his legendary Spirited Away in 2001.

This was always going to be a hotly-contested two-horse race between Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron.. and the Japanese master wins! Unfortunately, he’s not at the ceremony much to the disappointment of his fans across the world.

The animated feature section is next, and is hosted by Chris Hemsworth and Anya Taylor Joy — both of them looking stunning — and the best animated short film goes to War Is Over, that is inspired by the music of John Lennon and Yoko Oko.

The Holdovers star has been on a hot streak on the awards circuit for Randolph’s fantastic performance in Alexander Payne’s latest, and she delivers a gorgeous speech that moves everyone in the auditorium to celebrate her Oscars win. This one felt like a shoo-in ever since the nominations were announced, but still was an exciting start to the evening.

Each acting nominee has a former Oscar winner talking about them before the award is handed out, so we had Jamie Lee Curtis, Mary Steenbergen, Lupita Nyong’o, Rita Moreno and Regina King delivering heartfelt tributes to all the actresses... before Joy Randolph deservedly wins! She’s already in tears.

Kimmel keeps it going with a bunch of jibes at Hollywood’s finest, and his experience shows; nobody is spared, not even Christopher Nolan, Bradley Cooper or Robert Downey Jr. He finishes his monologue with a shoutout to all the crew members. And we move on to the first award for best supporting actress!

A montage of the past year’s most memorable moments in cinema, followed by Jimmy Kimmel sitting next to Margot Robbie as Barbie is how this year’s Oscar began.

“It was a hard year, but it was also a great year for movie,” Kimmel says in a reference to the SAG-AFTRA strikes of 2023.

Host Jimmy Kimmel begins with jokes on everything from Madame Web to how hot he finds Ryan Gosling to the length of Killers of the Flower Moon. There’s lot more coming on this front!

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Oscars 2024: Oscars red carpet opens with strong metallics, reds and some Old Hollywood glam

The Oscars red carpet opened Sunday in Los Angeles with some stunning looks on Hollywood’s biggest night

Anatomy of a Fall has been described as a “Hitchcockian procedural thriller”, and reminds one of all the courtroom thrillers where the Perry Mason-type lawyer conducts their investigations to prove the innocence of their client while revealing the real criminal.

While Anatomy of a Fall has a death and a trial to prove the innocence or guilt of a person, like all the best stories, the film goes beyond its genre boundaries. 

Read more here...

With Killers of the Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese’s filmmaking has transcended all his previous genres. 

His 26th feature film, discards all his earlier styles to opt for a more silent meditation on the events. The story follows the Osage murders that created history in the 1920s post the oil boom in Fairfax, Oklahoma.

Read more about how Scorsese’s film bristles with its stunning imagery, magnificent performances from the lead stars, and a villain for the ages 

Stars are arriving at the 96th Academy Awards, where protests over Israel’s war in Gaza are taking place near the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

Scattered demonstrations were held in the vicinity around the Oscars on Sunday. Los Angeles police, which had expected protests, beefed up their already extensive presence. The Dolby Theatre and the red carpet leading into it are cordoned off for several blocks in every direction, though protesters disrupted traffic for some making their way to the awards.

Read here

‘The Queen of Dreams meets the Lord of Death’

The release of Greta Gerwig’s ‘Barbie’ and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer’ on the same day, rejuvenated the thrill of going to the cinema. Aptly termed Barbenheimer, the phenomena not only swiftly delivered these great films to greater economic successes, but also allowed for an organic fan culture to dominate the zeitgeist.

Read more about how the release became a cultural event of epic proportions

The 96th Academy Award is set to round off an exhilarating year of cinema. Hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, the ceremony will take place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. 

Viewers can watch it live on Disney+ Hotstar from 4 a.m. (IST) onwards.

The Academy is also broadcasting the ceremony in American Sign Language, which ​can be viewed here​