The 2023 award season concluded on Sunday, March 10 when the 96th Academy Awards aired on ABC. The Oscars returned to form this year and celebrated by showing clips of the films throughout the night and bringing past award winners to speak on each nominee within the acting categories. For the first time in recent memory, the Oscars did not go over its allotted airtime and the only eyebrow-raising moment seemed to come from Al Pacino’s delivery of the Best Picture winner where he skipped over announcing the nominations. Despite the rushed Best Picture delivery and Jimmy Kimmel’s expectedly corny jokes as the host, the award show went the way most film fans could have hoped: pretty okay!
Da’Vine Joy Randolph accepted the first award of the night for her portrayal of Mary Lamb in “The Holdovers.” Paul Giamatti walked Randolph to the stage to deliver an emotional speech, where she told the audience, “I started off as a singer, and my mother said to me, ‘Go across that street to that theater department. There’s something for you there.’ And I thank my mother for doing that.”
“Oppenheimer” blew away the competition, winning seven awards throughout the evening. Leading man Cillian Murphy and supporting actor Robert Downey Jr. won their respective categories alongside Christopher Nolan for directing; all three men took home the first Oscar of their career. Nolan, who has been nominated eight times prior, said during his acceptance speech, “Movies are just a little bit over 100 years old. I mean, imagine being there 100 years into painting or theater. We don’t know where this incredible journey is going from here. But to know that you think that I’m a meaningful part of it means the world to me.”
The biopic about the atomic bomb creation also snagged a win in the cinematography and film editing categories. Composer Ludwig Göransson won the second Oscar of his career on Sunday with his epic orchestral score for the wartime film. Most importantly, “Oppenheimer” won Best Picture.
Emma Stone won the second Oscar of her career for Best Lead Actress as Bella Baxter in “Poor Things.” The fantasy film swept the craft categories, winning best makeup and hairstyling, production design and costume design.
A24’s “The Zone of Interest” won two awards, including Best Sound. In the past, the Academy has tended to gift the award to a more bombastic and louder film–opposite to what “The Zone of Interest” offers. The war drama depicts the simple life with a subtle yet horrifying twist by utilizing the power of background sounds and more natural noises.
The film also won Best International Feature on behalf of the United Kingdom. Director Jonathan Glazer accepted the award and, with shaky hands, read out his speech, “Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst; it shaped all of our past and present…Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people—whether the victims of Oct. 7 in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all are victims of this dehumanization.”
Within the writing categories, Justine Triet and Arthur Harari won Best Original Screenplay for “Anatomy of a Fall” and walked up to 50 Cent’s “P.I.M.P.” to accept the award. Cord Jefferson, more known for his television writing, won his first Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay of “American Fiction,” based on the novel “Erasure.”
Besides Jefferson, first-time Oscar winners include Wes Anderson, who won Best Live Action Short for “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” but Anderson did not attend the show. Another first-time Oscar winner, Godzilla, accepted the award for Best Visual Effects. The “Godzilla Minus One” team carried Godzilla action figures with them on the stage and wore shoes donned with the monster’s hand as the heel.
Despite its relativity, “Barbie” only took home one award: Best Original Song for Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” which she performed at the show with her brother, Finneas O’Connell. The doll movie continues to cement itself as a fan favorite with a show-stopping performance of “I’m Just Ken.” Ryan Gosling’s righteous performance included movie references galore and audience participation prompted by Gosling, who eventually grabbed the hand of the cameraman and dragged him on stage as he sang into the camera. A full company of Kens joined our leading man, including “Barbie” co-stars Simu Liu and Kingsley Ben–Adir, songwriter Mark Ronson and legendary guitarist Slash.
Grammy winner Jon Batiste performed the love song “It Never Went Away” from his Oscar-nominated documentary, “American Symphony,” while Becky G performed 15-time nominee Diane Warren’s “The Fire Inside.” The Osage Singers performed a powerful rendition of the original tribal song “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)” from “Killers of the Flower Moon” with incredible dancers on stage beside them.
Kimmel ended the show by reading a review made by former President Donald Trump, who wrote, “Has there EVER been a WORSE [sic] HOST than Jimmy Kimmel at the Oscars. His opening was that of a less than average person trying too hard to be something which he is not, and never can be.” Despite the scathing review, movie fans felt a return to form with this year’s Academy Awards as the show dedicated time to celebrating each nomination.
