In the world of the Academy Awards, we could call the presentation of the central trophy Sunday night an upset of sorts.
You see, the best picture won Best Picture.
That is not always the case, but the Academy is on a two-year winning streak, following up last year's proper selection of Everything, Everywhere, All at Once with the choice of Oppenheimer — indeed, the massive betting favorite — for the 96th Academy Awards' biggest prize.
Oppenheimer won seven Oscars overall, following a year in which it earned just short of $1 billion.
Poor Things was another big winner Sunday night, with Emma Stone winning best actress and the movie taking three other awards.
But Oppenheimer, which was nominated for 13 categories, wrapped up an awards season it largely dominated, winning Oscars for best picture, best actor (Cillian Murphy), best supporting actor (Robert Downey Jr.), best director (Christopher Nolan), best cinematography, best film editing and best original score.
The year's biggest hit, and one of the best films released in 2023, Barbie was presented only a single Oscar: for best original song, What Was I Made For, written by pop megastar Billie Eilish and her songwriting older brother, Finneas O'Connell.
Barbie was passed over in several categories it might have won, most notably production design, which instead went to Poor Things, for a conventional 19th century design that was presented in most unconventional ways in one of the year's most popular but unusual films.
The Academy's habit of picking the wrong movie is obvious enough The Washington Post dedicated a recent article to its contention that nearly every choice over the past half-century was wrong. The article had a point, but arguing The Godfather Part II should have lost to Chinatown in 1974 and that Terms of Endearment actually deserved its 1983 trophy — over The Right Stuff? Seriously? — undermined the credibility of the piece.
The choice of Oppenheimer, which scored an impressive 93 percent positive on the review consensus site Rotten Tomatoes, gave director Christopher Nolan his first two Oscars. Widely known for his entry in the Batman series titled The Dark Knight and such subsequent pictures as Inception and Dunkirk, Nolan won for best director and as a producer in the best picture category.
"It's such a thrill, to be recognized as a director by my peers," Nolan said in a press conference afterward. "For the film to win best picture is just a testament to so many different people who were involved in the film. That's really an unbelievable thrill."
Oscars 2024: Complete list of winners
Best Picture
- American Fiction
- Anatomy of a Fall
- Barbie
- The Holdovers
- Killers of the Flower Moon
- Maestro
- Oppenheimer - WINNER
- Past Lives
- Poor Things
- The Zone of Interest
Best Actor
- Bradley Cooper, Maestro
- Colman Domingo, Rustin
- Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers
- Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer - WINNER
- Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction
Best Actress
- Annette Bening, Nyad
- Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon
- Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall
- Carey Mulligan, Maestro
- Emma Stone, Poor Things - WINNER
Best Supporting Actor
- Sterling K. Brown, American Fiction
- Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon
- Robert Downey Jr., Oppenheimer - WINNER
- Ryan Gosling, Barbie
- Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things
Best Supporting Actress
- Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer
- Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple
- America Ferrera, Barbie
- Jodie Foster, Nyad
- Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers - WINNER
Best Director
- Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest
- Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things
- Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer - WINNER
- Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon
- Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall
Best Adapted Screenplay
- American Fiction, Cord Jefferson - WINNER
- Barbie, Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach
- Oppenheimer,Christopher Nolan
- Poor Things, Tony McNamara
- The Zone of Interest, Jonathan Glazer
Best Original Screenplay
- Anatomy of a Fall, Justine Triet and Arthur Harari - WINNER
- The Holdovers, David Hemingson
- Maestro, Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer
- May December, Samy Burch (story by Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik)
- Past Lives, Celine Song
Best Cinematography
- El Conde, Edward Lachman
- Killers of the Flower Moon, Rodrigo Prieto
- Maestro, Matthew Libatique
- Oppenheimer, Hoyte van Hoytema - WINNER
- Poor Things, Robbie Ryan
Best Film Editing
- Anatomy of a Fall
- The Holdovers
- Killers of the Flower Moon
- Oppenheimer - WINNER
- Poor Things
Best Visual Effects
- The Creator
- Godzilla Minus One - WINNER
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
- Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
- Napoleon
Best International Feature Film
- Io Capitano (Italy)
- Perfect Days (Japan)
- Society of the Snow (Spain)
- The Teachers’ Lounge (Germany)
- The Zone of Interest (United Kingdom) - WINNER
Animated Feature Film
- The Boy and the Heron - WINNER
- Elemental
- Nimona
- Robot Dreams
- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Best Original Song
- The Fire Inside, from Flamin’ Hot, music and lyrics by Diane Warren
- I’m Just Ken, from Barbie, music and lyrics by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt
- It Never Went Away, from American Symphony, music and lyrics by Jon Batiste and Dan Wilson
- Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People), from Killers of the Flower Moon, music and lyrics by Scott George
- What Was I Made For?, from Barbie, music and lyrics by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell - WINNER
Best Original Score
- American Fiction, Laura Karpman
- Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, John Williams
- Killers of the Flower Moon, Robbie Robertson
- Oppenheimer, Ludwig Göransson - WINNER
- Poor Things, Jerskin Fendrix
Best Costume Design
- Barbie
- Killers of the Flower Moon
- Napoleon
- Oppenheimer
- Poor Things - WINNER
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
- Golda
- Maestro
- Oppenheimer
- Poor Things - WINNER
- Society of the Snow
Best Production Design
- Barbie
- Killers of the Flower Moon
- Napoleon
- Oppenheimer
- Poor Things - WINNER
Best Sound
- The Creator
- Maestro
- Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
- Oppenheimer
- The Zone of Interest - WINNER
Best Live Action Short Film
- The After
- Invincible
- Knight of Fortune
- Red, White and Blue
- The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar - WINNER
Best Animated Short Film
- Letter to a Pig
- Ninety-Five Senses
- Our Uniform
- Pachyderme
- War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko - WINNER
Best Documentary Feature Film
- Bobi Wine: The People’s President
- The Eternal Memory
- Four Daughters
- To Kill a Tiger
- 20 Days in Mariupol - WINNER
Best Documentary Short Film
- The ABCs of Book Banning
- The Barber of Little Rock
- Island in Between
- The Last Repair Shop - WINNER
- Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó
How to watch the 2024 Oscars: TV channel, live stream
- Time: 7 p.m. ET
- TV channel: ABC
- Live stream: Fubo
The Academy Awards begin at 7 p.m. ET, an hour earlier than has been customary through the years. As has been the case since 1976, the Oscars will air on ABC, with Jimmy Kimmel in his fourth year as host. Only Bob Hope, Johnny Carson and Billy Crystal have been host more frequently. The awards show can also be streamed on Fubo, which offers a free trial.
