"Oppenheimer" dominates Oscar with seven wins
"Oppenheimer" made a spectacular showing at the 2024 Academy Awards in Hollywood on Sunday night, claiming seven Oscars, including the prestigious Best Picture.
Cillian Murphy clinched the Best Actor Oscar for his role in the film, while Robert Downey Jr. was honored with Best Supporting Actor. Christopher Nolan secured the Best Director Oscar, contributing to the film's haul that also included Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, and Best Film Editing.
The narrative centers on physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his team's exhaustive efforts to develop the atomic bomb, culminating in the world's first nuclear explosion on July 16, 1945—a pivotal moment that altered history.
Murphy, dedicating his award to peacemakers globally, said, "I dedicate it to the peacemakers everywhere."
"Poor Things" also fared well, taking home four Academy Awards. Emma Stone won Best Actress, with additional Oscars for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Production Design, and Best Costume Design. The film, a dark comedy, features Stone as a Victorian London woman who embarks on a journey of self-discovery after receiving a brain transplant.
Stone highlighted the collaborative spirit of filmmaking in her acceptance speech: "It's not about me. It's about a team that came together to make something greater than the sum of its parts."
Da’Vine Joy Randolph received the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for "The Holdovers," portraying a school cafeteria head who, after losing her son in the Vietnam War, cares for students stranded at a New England prep school during Christmas break.
"Oppenheimer" led with 13 nominations at the 96th Academy Awards, ahead of "Poor Things" with 11, "Killers of the Flower Moon" with 10, and "Barbie" with eight. However, "Barbie" secured just one Oscar for Best Original Song with "What Was I Made For?" by Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell, while "Killers of the Flower Moon" did not win any awards despite its high expectations and star-studded cast.
"Oppenheimer" achieved a rare sweep of major guild and industry awards before the Oscars, echoing "Argo's" perfect season in 2012.
"Anatomy of a Fall" won Best Original Screenplay, exploring a woman's ordeal accused of her husband's murder, with their blind son as the sole witness facing a moral quandary.
"American Fiction" was awarded Best Adapted Screenplay. The film examines a frustrated author who, in a critique of discriminatory tropes in Black entertainment, writes a provocative book under a pseudonym that unexpectedly catapults him to fame and controversy.
