Last night’s 96th Oscars saw major wins for Oppenheimer and Poor Things cast and crew.
Oppenheimer, the historical drama about the life and struggles of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the creation of the atomic bomb, took home seven Oscars in total: Best Picture, Best Director (Christopher Nolan), Best Actor in a Leading Role (Cillian Murphy), Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr.), Film Editing, Best Score, and Cinematography.
After a decade of playing the superhero, millionaire, playboy, and philanthropist Tony Stark in Marvel films, Robert Downey Jr. showed his range in the dark, gritty drama. “Here’s my little secret: I needed this job more than it needed me,” Downey said after accepting his award. The actor, who faced the trials and tribulations of addiction in the ‘90s, thanked his lawyer of 40 years — “half of which he spent trying to get me insured and bailing me out,” Downey joked.
Christopher Nolan, director of major motion pictures such as Dunkirk, Inception, and The Dark Knight, won his first Oscar. “Movies are just a little bit over 100 years old,” Nolan remarked, “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.”
Cillian Murphy’s win was expected and well-deserved; his performance has been widely praised. “We made a film about the man who created the atomic bomb, and for better or for worse, we’re all living in Oppenheimer’s world,” Murphy noted in his acceptance speech.
Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things, a zany steampunk adaptation of Frankenstein, won four Oscars in total: Best Actress in a Leading Role (Emma Stone), Costume Design, Makeup and Hairstyling, and Production Design. Poor Things follows the incredibly unique Bella Baxter, a woman with the brain of an infant who discovers the world with childlike wonder and discovers the nature of her own body and female pleasure.
Stone, whose dress was a bit torn in the back, walked on stage in shock and gave an emotional, tear-filled acceptance speech. “My dress is broken. I think it happened during ‘I’m Just Ken,'” Stone said, referencing Ryan Gosling’s Barbie musical performance, “The women in this category … I’m in awe of you.” She took the time to honor Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon), the first Native American woman to be nominated in the category. Stone thanked her fellow cast and crew, as well as Lanthimos, her husband, and her almost three-year-old daughter. “I love you bigger than the whole sky, my girl,” she said, closing her speech.
View the full list of Oscar winners here.
