The 96th Academy Awards took place on March 10 at the Dolby Center in Hollywood, Los Angeles, honouring movies released in 2023.
It was a big night for Christopher Nolan’s biographical war film Oppenheimer, which won seven prizes, including Best Picture and Best Director.
While accepting the award for Best Director, Christopher Nolan thanked industry stakeholders who believed in the project, as well as the cast and crew whom he said were “at the top of their game.”
“Movies are just a little bit over a hundred years old. Imagine being there a hundred years into painting or theatre. 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,” Nolan said.
The film continued its winning streak by securing wins for Best Actor (Cillian Murphy), Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Junior), Best Cinematography, and Best Film Editing among others.
“We made a film about the man who created the atomic bomb, and for better or for worse, we are all living in Oppenheimer’s world,” Murphy said in his acceptance speech.
It wasn't such a good outing for what was seen as its biggest rival, Barbie.
Although Greta Gerwig’s Barbie came into the evening with eight nominations, it took home only one win- Original Song.
LA Times reports: “The conversation on nominations morning in January was dominated instead by what “Barbie” wasn’t nominated for. Gerwig was left off the directing list, and Margot Robbie, the titular star, who also executive produced the film, wasn’t nominated for lead actress. Numerous observers pointed out that these snubs reflected the same problems the film identified in the broader culture.”
The underwhelming recognition for Barbie came even after the film topped Box Office sales, grossing over $1.4 billion (over Sh192 billion) worldwide.
Fans and celebs alike had dubbed the playful competition between Barbie and Oppenheimer as #Barbenheimer.
The Guardian analyses that Oppenheimer pulled the extraordinary Oscar wins through a ‘slow-burning campaign’ and the director’s approach to his material which consistently piqued audiences.
“Back in the summer, Barbie looked set to clean up, with its smart comedic chops and beautifully detailed design. It also had the extra oomph, in diversity-conscious Hollywood, of showcasing a stellar female writing-and-directing job from hitherto three-time nominee Greta Gerwig,” the report notes.
It adds: “But the Oscars tends to reward more weighty, message-bearing work. You could also argue that Poor Things got the nod for funny and stylised, and there wasn’t room for two at the ball, so Barbie and Gerwig got squeezed out.”
The element of war was an elephant in the room during the award ceremony, with several hundred protesters lining up blocks away calling for a ceasefire to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, as reported by Variety Magazine. The report notes that winners used their speeches to decry the humanitarian crisis in that region, along with the one sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“The pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the heart of Hollywood snarled traffic around the Dolby Theatre, the venue where the show is held, resulting in a late start for the ceremony as A-listers scrambled to make it to their seats.”
Another film that had a big night at the Oscars was Yorgos Lanthimos’s film Poor Things. Actress Emma Stone won Best Actress for her starring role as Bella Baxter in the period fantasy comedy adapted from the novel by Alasdair Gray.
“This is very overwhelming,” an emotional Emma said in her acceptance speech, adding, the women in this stage, you are all incredible, and the women in this category. I share this with you, and I’m in awe of you. I am so deeply honoured to share this with every cast member, every crew member and every single person who poured their love and care and brilliance into the making of this film.”
This year, the Oscars were widely watched, with the award show’s rating going up for the first time since the Covid pandemic.
The Hollywood Reporter notes that the 2024 Oscars were the most watched in four years.
Closer home, Africa had celebrated the nomination of the Ugandan documentary Bobi Wine: The People’s President at the Academy Awards.
The documentary however failed to clinch the win, losing out to 20 Days in Mauripol, which has been described as a harrowing first-person account of the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.