'Oppenheimer' dominates with 7 Oscars, including best picture; Christopher Nolan wins best director
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
"Oppenheimer," Christopher Nolan's portrait of the father of the atomic bomb, won best picture Sunday at the 96th Academy Awards, along with sixother awards.
The movie dominated the night, earning honors for best director (Nolan), best actor (Cillian Murphy), best supporting actor (Robert Downey Jr.), best cinematography (Hoyte van Hoytema), best film editing (Jennifer Lame) and best original score (Ludwig Goransson).
"Movies are just a little bit over 100 years old," Nolan said in his best director acceptance speech. "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 triumph of "Oppenheimer" cements Nolan's status as one of the premier filmmakers in contemporary Hollywood. He was already a brand name among cinephiles and casual moviegoers alike, cultivating an international following with the "Dark Knight" trilogy (2005-12), "Inception" (2010) and "Dunkirk" (2017).
"Oppenheimer" conquered a best picture field that included Greta Gerwig's "Barbie," the other half of the summertime phenomenon "Barbenheimer." The two blockbusters helped revitalize theatrical moviegoing in the streaming era, collecting a combined $2.4 billion worldwide; "Oppenheimer" made up more than $957 million of that global haul.
Nolan's three-hour epic is the most commercially successful best picture winner since Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," released in 2003. In recent years, the film academy's voters have handed the best picture prize to comparatively small-scale projects such as "CODA," "Nomadland," "Moonlight" and "Spotlight."
This year's other best picture contenders were Cord Jefferson's "American Fiction," Justine Triet's "Anatomy of a Fall," Alexander Payne's "The Holdovers," Martin Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon," Bradley Cooper's "Maestro," Celine Song's "Past Lives," Yorgos Lanthimos' "Poor Things" and Jonathan Glazer's "The Zone of Interest."
"Oppenheimer" revolves around J. Robert Oppenheimer's development of the atomic bomb during World War II. The film also chronicles Oppenheimer's tense relationship with bureaucrat Lewis Strauss (Downey), who engineered a push to remove Oppenheimer's postwar security clearance during the McCarthy era.
Nolan wrote the script, adapting it from the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography "American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer," written by the historians Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. The film, like the book, depicts the physicist as a scientific genius who later felt deeply conflicted about his destructive invention.
Cillian Murphy is J. Robert Oppenheimer in "Oppenheimer."Universal Pictures
The movie's sprawling ensemble cast includes Emily Blunt (in an Oscar-nominated supporting role), Florence Pugh, Matt Damon, Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, Benny Safdie, Jason Clarke, Rami Malek and Kenneth Branagh. (The cast was recognized with the top honors at the 30th Screen Actors Guild Awards.)
The other top winners at the 96th Oscars included Emma Stone, who picked up the best actress trophy for "Poor Things," and Da'Vine Joy Randolph, who scored best supporting actress for "The Holdovers."
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I thought Oppenheimer was a great story and I watched the movie enjoying (except for the length) - I did not think it was a great movie, especially not a Best Picture winner.
But I didn't get a vote, so congratulations to them.
There were no great movies last year.
As for the ceremony last night, it was terrible. Four terrible songs were featured and a naked actor making a presentation.
I have become resigned to the notion that I am out of step with current music. I remember the days when the nominated songs at the Academy Awards were ones that went on to become standards. over the rainbow, moon river, days of wine and roses, even colors of the wind. it's just a totally different thing now.
The song that won from Barbie by Billie eilish i find completely forgettable. And I'm not a fan of her whispering style of singing. But I don't have any expectations for the nominated songs anymore they're all forgettable.
The thing that struck me most about the Academy Awards last night was how few movie stars were there.
brad pitt, sandra bullock, keanu reeves, meryl streep, christian bale, tom hanks, julia roberts, denzel washington, tom cruise, morgan freeman, not a one of them were there or interviewed for the "red carpet".
Instead we got blather on the red carpet from clothes designers, television personalities, rappers, entertainment reporters interviewing each other, and Andrea Bocelli.
If not for the acting award segments where past winners were there to introduce the 2024 nominees they would have hardly been any top level movie people at the awards at all other than the nominees of the night.
A mediocre show
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as for the winners I have no problem with Oppenheimer it's a very good movie. I wish killers of the flower moon would have won something just to act as validation for the entire concept of centering a major motion picture around American Indian history but I guess that validation will have to come elsewhere than from the oscars
I can safely say that I haven't watched the awards once this century, and probably back into the early 70's. irdgaf...