PATRICK T. FALLON-AFP
"Oppenheimer" swept the board on Sunday at the Oscars, Hollywood's biggest night of the year, with seven awards including best picture and best director, crowning a triumphant year for filmmaker Christopher Nolan.
To close out the night, the Academy Award for Best Picture goes to... 'Oppenheimer'! #Oscars pic.twitter.com/nLWam9DWvP
— The Academy (@TheAcademy) March 11, 2024
The haul was not quite complete -- "Oppenheimer" was nominated for 13 prizes, but with seven statuettes on the night it is still one of the most awarded films in Oscar history.
Robert Downey Jr was recognized for his stellar performance as J. Robert Oppenheimer's political nemesis Lewis Strauss.
Barbie
The other huge smash of 2023, Greta Gerwig's pop feminist blockbuster "Barbie," featured heavily throughout the gala in Los Angeles.
While the movie grossed $1.4 billion at the box office and only won one Oscar for Best Original Song, the bubblegum fun it generated provided fodder for the whole evening.
Supporting actor nominee Ryan Gosling brought the house down with a star-studded rendition of "I'm Just Ken," accompanied by Guns 'n Roses guitarist Slash, as well as some of his on-screen Ken pals like Simu Liu and Ncuti Gatwa.
The performance slid into a karaoke session as Gosling passed the microphone around to some of the A-list guests.
Billie Eilish's "What Was I Made For?" was the winning song from the summer hit film.
The 22-year-old, who delivered a heartfelt rendition of the reflective song, now has two Oscars to her name after a previous win two years ago for James Bond theme "No Time To Die" with her brother and frequent collaborator Finneas O'Connell.
"Four wins for 'Poor Things'
In one of the few competitive awards of the evening, Emma Stone won best actress for her daring performance in the surreal, Frankenstein-esque "Poor Things," which won three other technical prizes.
She pipped Lily Gladstone, who was bidding to become the first Native American to win an acting Oscar for her role in Martin Scorsese's crime saga "Killers of the Flower Moon."
Stone, who previously won an Academy Award for "La La Land," paid tribute to the other women in her category and the five women on stage who presented the category.
Stone also beat Sandra Hueller of Oscars sleeper "Anatomy of a Fall."
