SINGAPORE – The biopic Oppenheimer was the big winner on Oscar night on March 10 (March 11 morning, Singapore time), but it was not as clean a sweep as many had predicted.
Meanwhile, the musical comedy Barbie, which with Oppenheimer created the Barbenheimer trend of 2023 and which entered this year’s race with eight nominations, walked away with only one win, for Best Original Song.
Despite the snubs, Barbie shone by giving the event its two most memorable musical performances.
Optimists were hoping for Oppenheimer to snag 11 wins from its 13 nominations, allowing it to stand with 11-win elites such as Titanic (1997) and The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King (2003).
More realistic estimates predicted eight wins, but director Jonathan Glazer’s historical drama about the Holocaust, The Zone Of Interest, snatched the Best Sound award that was expected to go to the study of the life of physicist Robert J. Oppenheimer.
Still, it was not a bad haul overall. The drama nabbed the most prestigious prizes of Best Picture, Best Director (for Christopher Nolan), Best Actor (for Cillian Murphy) and Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr).
The husband-and-wife team of Nolan and Oppenheimer producer Emma Thomas on stage receiving the Best Picture prize at the end of the night was not the family affair of the evening.
American singer Billie Eilish with her elder brother Finneas O’Connell were there, performing the ballad What Was I Made For? from Barbie, then later receiving the Best Original Song award for the same composition.
The ballad, along with the song-and-dance rendition of I’m Just Ken performed by Barbie star and Best Supporting Actor nominee Ryan Gosling, gave the night its two high points.
At 22, Eilish is now the youngest person to receive two Oscars (the first for the 2020 James Bond theme song No Time To Die). O’Connell, at 26, is the second-youngest two-time winner.
Another touching moment came when Downey Jr took the stage to receive his first Oscar – his first win after a long career filled with ups and downs.
Known for his arrest-riddled, drug-fuelled past, the Hollywood star paid tribute to his producer-wife Susan Downey on the Oscar podium.
“She found a snarling rescue pet and loved me back to life,” he said.
The biggest upset of the night happened in the Best Actress category. A visibly shocked Emma Stone took the stage when her name was announced.
Her performance in the black comedy Poor Things had been strong, but many felt it was not strong enough to dethrone Lily Gladstone, the Native American actress whose performance in Martin Scorsese’s crime drama Killers Of The Flower Moon had earned her a clutch of best actress awards leading up to the Oscars, including at the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Two contingents from Japan scored two notable wins.
The monster epic Godzilla Minus One, made for a reported US$15 million (S$20 million), won Best Visual Effects, nudging out the big-budget favourites such as biopic Napoleon, Marvel superhero movie Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 and spy thriller Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.
The mid-budget science-fiction fantasy The Creator was expected to win in this category.
Japanese animation legend Hayao Miyazaki took home an Oscar for Best Animated Feature for his fantasy film The Boy And The Heron, his second after Spirited Away (2001). Miyazaki, 83, earns the honour of helming the only two non-English films ever to win in that category.
This year’s ceremony, which in recent years has struggled to halt falling viewership numbers, revived a tradition that it scrapped from the 2010 event onwards – inviting five past winners to present awards in the four acting categories: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress.
Instead of showing film snippets, stars such as Mahershala Ali and Jamie Lee Curtis delivered speeches praising the nominees.
The online verdict seemed to give the tribute format a thumbs down.
On X, formerly called Twitter, a user said “it feels more like an intervention clinic for the self-serious”.
The show-stopper, thankfully, was the big musical number fronted by Gosling, supported by Barbie castmates Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa, Kingsley Ben-Adir and Scott Evans. Like Gosling, they played Kens in the film.
The Canadian heart-throb performed Ken’s anthem and Best Original Song contender I’m Just Ken, backed by rock musician Slash and song co-composer Mark Ronson, along with more than 60 dancers.
On X, users were ecstatic, calling the performance “Oscar-worthy” and “bringing all the Kenergy”.
Arguably the biggest loser of the night was veteran film-maker Martin Scorsese, who seemed afflicted with the “10 nomination” curse.
Three of his features – period crime drama Gangs Of New York (2002), gang thriller The Irishman (2019) and Killers Of The Flower Moon – entered the Oscar race with 10 nominations. None had won a prize.
Killers’ 10 nominations, including for Best Director, was the 10th such nod for Scorsese, making him the most nominated living director, beating Steven Spielberg’s nine.
However, Scorsese has won Best Director only once, for crime thriller The Departed (2006). Spielberg has won that honour twice, for Holocaust biopic Schindler’s List (1993) and war epic Saving Private Ryan (1998).
It has been said that Scorsese is respected in Hollywood and loved by critics, but Academy voters do not respond well to his frequent use of violence and his preference for morally reprehensible leading male characters, with Killers being one more film built around villains.
Speeches that earned positive reactions during the night were ones that touched on world affairs.
Mstyslav Chernov, the Ukrainian director of 20 Days In Mariupol, winner of Best Documentary Feature, said in his acceptance speech that he was honoured to be the first Ukrainian to win an Oscar, but that he wishes he never had to make the film.
“I wish to exchange this for Russia never attacking Ukraine,” he said.
British film-maker Glazer, when accepting the award for Best International Feature for The Zone Of Interest, said he was speaking as a Jewish person criticising the conflict in the Middle East.
To applause, he said that the happenings in Gaza was “an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people, whether the victims of Oct 7 in Israel or the ongoing attack in Gaza”.
Of the no-shows, Miyazaki – who now holds the record of the oldest director to win Best Animated Feature – and American director Wes Anderson were the ones most noticed on social media.
The Boy And The Heron, based on the film-maker’s own life experiences, is reportedly Miyazaki’s last film, so his absence was especially glaring.
Host Jimmy Kimmel could not resist making a joke about it.
“The Boy And The Heron people couldn’t make it? I can see the boy not showing up, but the heron should be here,” he quipped.
Speaking to journalists after the win, Mr Kiyofumi Nakajima, chief operating officer for Studio Ghibli, said Miyazaki and long-time producer Toshio Suzuki, 75, could not make the trip from their home country to Los Angeles because of their age.
In a statement made in Tokyo, Suzuki said he was very happy about the win. The famously blunt and perfection-driven Miyazaki, according to Suzuki, had a response that was described as “normal” and “good”.
Anderson has had a long and acclaimed career, but no Oscar wins despite receiving nominations for Best Picture and Best Director for The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014).
But when his short film, The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar, was announced as the winner of the Best Live Action Short Film category, Anderson was away in Germany, working on his next film.
In a post on X, he credited American actor Owen Wilson, who has appeared in nearly all of his films, but was not involved in Henry Sugar.
“If I had not met Owen Wilson in a corridor at the University of Texas between classes when I was 18 years old, I would certainly not be receiving this award tonight,” he said.
Oscars 2024: List of winners
- Best Picture: Oppenheimer
- Best Actor: Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer
- Best Actress: Emma Stone, Poor Things
- Best Director: Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
- Best Supporting Actor: Robert Downey Jr, Oppenheimer
- Best Supporting Actress: Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers
- Best Adapted Screenplay: American Fiction
- Best Original Screenplay: Anatomy Of A Fall
- Best Animated Feature Film: The Boy And The Heron
- Best Animated Short: War Is Over! Inspired By The Music Of John & Yoko
- Best International Feature: The Zone Of Interest, United Kingdom
- Best Documentary Feature: 20 Days In Mariupol
- Best Documentary Short: The Last Repair Shop
- Best Original Score: Oppenheimer
- Best Original Song: What Was I Made For?, Barbie
- Best Sound: The Zone Of Interest
- Best Production Design: Poor Things
- Best Live Action Short: The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar
- Best Cinematography: Oppenheimer
- Best Makeup And Hairstyling: Poor Things
- Best Costume Design: Poor Things
- Best Visual Effects: Godzilla Minus One
- Best Film Editing: Oppenheimer
