"Oppenheimer," the blockbuster biopic about the race to build the first atomic bomb, claimed the prestigious best picture trophy at the Academy Awards on Sunday.
Director Christopher Nolan's film starred Irish actor Cillian Murphy as theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, leader of the US effort in the 1940s to create a weapon devastating enough to end World War Two.
Murphy won the best actor trophy, and Nolan was named best director. Emma Stone won best actress for "Poor Things." A three-hour historical drama about science and politics, "Oppenheimer" became an unlikely box office hit and grossed $953.8 million, in addition to widespread critical praise.
It was the first of Nolan's films to win best picture. The director has previously won acclaim for "The Dark Knight" Batman trilogy, "Inception," "Memento" and other movies.
"Oppenheimer" triumphed over feminist doll adventure "Barbie," a movie it had battled in a box office showdown dubbed "Barbenheimer." Other best picture contenders included "The Holdovers," a dramedy set in a New England boarding school, and the Holocaust tale "The Zone of Interest." In supporting actor categories, Robert Downey Jr. of "Oppenheimer" and "The Holdovers" star Da'Vine Joy Randolph claimed their first Academy Awards.
Downey, who was nominated for an Oscar in 1993 before his career was derailed by drug use, won his honour for playing Oppenheimer's professional nemesis.
"I'd like to thank my terrible childhood and the Academy, in that order," Downey joked before he saluted his wife Susan, who he said found him as a "snarly rescue pet" and "loved him back to life." Randolph won the best supporting actress trophy for playing a grieving mother and cafeteria worker in the comedy set in a New England boarding school. She shed tears as she accepted her award.
"For so long, I always wanted to be different, and now I realize I just need to be myself," she said. "I thank you for seeing me." British Holocaust drama "The Zone of Interest" was named best international feature.
"The Boy and the Heron," Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki's semi-autobiographical film about grief, was named best animated feature.
Winners were chosen by the roughly 10,500 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
Jimmy Kimmel compliments, takes jabs at actors
Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, hosting the show for the fourth time, opened the ceremony by complimenting, and taking jabs at, many of the nominees and their films.
The comedian praised "Barbie," the pink-drenched doll adventure, for remaking a "plastic doll nobody even liked anymore" into a feminist icon.
Before the film, there was "a better chance of getting my wife to buy our daughter a pack of Marlboro Reds" than a Barbie, Kimmel said on the broadcast, which was shown live on the US ABC network.
Kimmel said many of this year's movies were too long, particularly Martin Scorsese's 3-1/2-hour epic "Killer of the Flower Moon" about the murders of members of the Osage Nation in 1920s Oklahoma.
"In the time it takes you to watch it, you could drive to Oklahoma and solve the murders," Kimmel joked.
As the stars celebrated, hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters angered by the Israel-Gaza conflict shouted and slowed traffic in the streets surrounding the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. "While you're watching, bombs are dropping," one sign read.
"The Oscars are happening down the road while people are being murdered, killed, bombed," said 38-year-old business owner Zinab Nassrou.
Actor Mark Ruffalo praised the protesters as he entered the theater and raised a clenched fist. "We need peace," he said.
Elsewhere on the carpet, stars strutted in strong silhouettes, sparkles and a splash of Barbie-inspired pink.
List of winners at the 2024 Oscars
BEST PICTURE
‘Oppenheimer”
BEST ACTRESS
Emma Stone, ‘Poor Things”
BEST ACTOR
Cillian Murphy, ‘Oppenheimer”
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Robert Downey Jr., ‘Oppenheimer”
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Da’Vine Joy Randolph, ‘The Holdovers”
DIRECTOR
Christopher Nolan, ‘Oppenheimer”
LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
‘The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar”
SOUND
‘The Zone of Interest,” Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn
ORIGINAL SCORE
‘Oppenheimer,” Ludwig Göransson
ORIGINAL SONG
‘What Was I Made For?” from ‘Barbie”
VISUAL EFFECTS
‘Godzilla Minus One”
FILM EDITING
‘Oppenheimer,” Jennifer Lame
DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM
‘The Last Repair Shop”
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
‘20 Days in Mariupol”
CINEMATOGRAPHY
‘Oppenheimer,” Hoyte Van Hoytema
ANIMATED SHORT FILM
‘WAR IS OVER! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko”
ANIMATED FILM
‘The Boy and the Heron”
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
‘Anatomy of a Fall,” Justine Triet and Arthur Harari
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
‘American Fiction,” Cord Jefferson
MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
‘Poor Things,” Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier and Josh Weston
PRODUCTION DESIGN
‘Poor Things,” James Price, Shona Heath and Zsuzsa Mihalek
COSTUME DESIGN
‘Poor Things,” Holly Waddington
INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM
‘The Zone of Interest” (United Kingdom)
As a film heavy with unease for human capacity for mass destruction, “Oppenheimer” also emerged – even over its partner in cultural phenomenon, “Barbie” – as a fittingly foreboding film for times rife with cataclysm, man-made or not. Sunday’s Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles unfolded against the backdrop of wars in Gaza and Ukraine, and with a potentially momentous U.S. election on the horizon.
