By John Corrado

The 96th Academy Awards were tonight. The big winner was unsurprisingly Christopher Nolan’s box office hit Oppenheimer, which took home a total of seven awards including Best Picture, Best Director (Nolan), Best Actor (Cillian Murphy) and Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr.).

In second place was Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things with four wins, including Best Actress for Emma Stone, who won her second Oscar for her fearless performance in the film. I was predicting her to win over presumed favourite Lily Gladstone, and I’m thrilled that she actually won near the end of the night. Rounding out the quartet of acting winners was Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who won the first award of the night for Best Supporting Actress for her wonderful work in The Holdovers.

Jimmy Kimmel was a decent host who did what he needed to do, and helped move things along. Despite a few rougher jokes in his opening monologue (including the obligatory bit about the movies being too long), the tone he struck was otherwise mostly celebratory and in good spirits. There were also a handful of amusing moments with the presenters, namely a Twins reunion with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito, and John Cena doing a bit as a streaker.

A pair of performances of the two nominated songs from Greta Gerwig’s Barbie were the true highlights of the night. Ryan Gosling delivered and then some with an incredibly fun production number of “I’m Just Ken” flanked by male backup dancers, while Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connel delivered a lovely performance of their winning song “What Was I Made For?,” receiving a standing ovation.

It was a night mostly free of surprises, with the biggest upset being Jonathan Glazer’s International Feature winner The Zone of Interest prevailing over Oppenheimer in the Sound category. In another more minor upset, Poor Things won over Barbie in Costume Design, adding to its win tally. I’m also very happy that Godzilla Minus One took home the award for Visual Effects, with the team accepting their trophies while holding their Godzilla figures.

I was very happy with the winners overall, and the show itself was actually mostly good. While there were no clips for the acting categories, they made up for it by having previous winners stand onstage to introduce each of the nominees individually, paying tribute to their work. Steven Spielberg also had the honours of presenting the Best Director trophy to Nolan, in a fitting cinematic moment. It was Al Pacino who had the honours of presenting the Best Picture trophy to Nolan’s film, by nonchalantly opening the envelope and saying “my eyes see Oppenheimer.”

The full list of nominees and winners is below in the order they were announced.

Best Supporting Actress:
Emily Blunt – Oppenheimer
Danielle Brooks – The Color Purple
America Ferrera – Barbie
Jodie Foster – Nyad
Da’Vine Joy Randolph – The Holdovers

Best Animated Short Film:
Letter to a Pig
Ninety-Five Senses
Our Uniform
Pachyderm
War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko

Best Animated Feature:
The Boy and the Heron
Elemental
Nimona
Robot Dreams
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Best Original Screenplay:
Anatomy of a Fall – Justine Triet and Arthur Harari
The Holdovers – David Hemingson
Maestro – Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer
May December – Samy Burch
Past Lives – Celine Song

Best Adapted Screenplay:
American Fiction – Cord Jefferson
Barbie – Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach
Oppenheimer – Christopher Nolan
Poor Things – Tony McNamara
The Zone of Interest – Jonathan Glazer

Best Makeup & Hairstyling:
Golda
Maestro
Oppenheimer
Poor Things
Society of the Snow

Best Production Design:
Barbie
Killers of the Flower Moon
Napoleon
Oppenheimer
Poor Things

Best Costume Design:
Barbie
Killers of the Flower Moon
Napoleon
Oppenheimer
Poor Things

Best International Feature Film:
Io Capitano
Perfect Days
Society of the Snow
The Teachers’ Lounge
The Zone of Interest

Best Supporting Actor:
Sterling K. Brown – American Fiction
Robert De Niro – Killers of the Flower Moon
Robert Downey Jr. – Oppenheimer
Ryan Gosling – Barbie
Mark Ruffalo – Poor Things

Best Visual Effects:
The Creator
Godzilla Minus One
Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Napoleon

Best Film Editing:
Anatomy of a Fall
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer
Poor Things

Best Documentary Short Film:
The ABCs of Book Banning
The Barber of Little Rock
Island In Between
The Last Repair Shop
Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó

Best Documentary Feature:
Bobi Wine: The People’s President
The Eternal Memory
Four Daughters
To Kill A Tiger
20 Days in Mariupol

Best Cinematography:
El Conde – Edward Lachman
Killers of the Flower Moon – Rodrigo Prieto
Maestro – Matthew Libatique
Oppenheimer – Hoyte van Hoytema
Poor Things – Robbie Ryan

Best Live Action Short Film:
The After
Invincible
Knight Of Fortune
Red, White And Blue
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

Best Sound:
The Creator
Maestro
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Oppenheimer
The Zone of Interest

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
Poor Things – Jerskin Fendrix

Best Original Song:
American Symphony – “It Never Went Away”
Barbie – “I’m Just Ken”
Barbie – “What Was I Made For?”
Flamin’ Hot – “The Fire Inside”
Killers of the Flower Moon – “Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)”

Best Actor:
Bradley Cooper – Maestro
Paul Giamatti – The Holdovers
Colman Domingo – Rustin
Cillian Murphy – Oppenheimer
Jeffrey Wright – American Fiction

Best Director:
Justine Triet – Anatomy of a Fall
Martin Scorsese – Killers of the Flower Moon
Christopher Nolan – Oppenheimer
Yorgos Lanthimos – Poor Things
Jonathan Glazer – The Zone of Interest

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

Best Picture:
American Fiction
Anatomy of a Fall
Barbie
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro
Oppenheimer
Past Lives
Poor Things
The Zone of Interest