I have always been fascinated by The Academy Awards. Whilst I do not often agree with a lot of the choices, there are usually some worthy winners. However, last year the Academy seemed to lose their collective minds showering Everything Everywhere All at Once, truly a film of all style and no substance, with most of the top gongs, whilst still finding space to give Brendan Fraser the Best Actor nod for his hammy turn in the mediocre The Whale.
This year augured better. My 3 favourite films of last year – Pat Lives, Oppenheimer and Anatomy of a Fall – were all included in the 10 nominees for Best Film, a category that only had 2 puzzling inclusions of the pedestrian Maestro and the troubling Poor Things.
For UK viewers the big change this year was that the ceremony was on ITV rather than Sky. Sky’s coverage was always a bit messy. Alex Zane was OK as a host but the quality of guests was poor. I am a big fan of the band The Fall, but Brix Smith’s repeated appearances were puzzling. Inevitably, ITV’s big star, the self satisfied, Johnathan Ross, was wheeled out to present with another strange panel of guests. Two TV stars, Richard Armitage and Fay Ripley, an anonymous radio and TV host Yinka Bokinni, plus the one good choice Ben Bailey Smith. After some painful opening exchanges, I resolved to fast forward through the rest of the studio based chat.
The semi permanent host Jimmy Kimmell was again centre stage and he made a few decent gags in his opening spiel though it was a relief when the awards started being given out, although the supporting actress award was one of the biggest foregone conclusions of the night with Da’vine Joy Randolph picking up her statuette.
The usual pattern of mostly awkward looking actors clumsily reading from autocues and delivering poorly written ad libs – though there were a few exceptions, mostly notably Ryan Gosling with Emily Blunt and the wonderfully funny Danny De Vito. We soon had one of the handful of the two horse races resolved when The Boy and The Heron beat Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse for best animated feature.
Early on, the 2 keenly contested Screenplay awards were given out, with the brilliantly written Anatomy of the Fall picking up the Original Screenplay award and American Fiction preventing Oppenheimer from really sweeping by gaining the Adapted award.
There followed a spell giving out some of the more technical awards, enlivened by a good joke involving a naked John Cena, mostly to Poor Things, and the start of the performances of the songs, all bar a couple – firstly, Wahzhazhe, which was given a standing ovation in lieu of the award that was obviously going to Billy Eilish – I scrolled through.
The next big award was given to the British film Zone of Interest for International Feature. That was pretty deserved though, having just seen Perfect Days, I would have liked to have seen that cause a surprise. Robert Downey Jr then picked up the shoe-in Supporting Actor award, and the first for Oppenheimer, giving one the best speeches of the night, that was surpassed by Mstyslav Chernov for 20 Days in Mariupol, the winner for Best Documentary.
We then finally get a real surprise, and a welcome one, with Godzilla Minus One, winning for Visual Effects, soon followed by another pleasing one when Zone of Interest wins for Best Sound.
The real show stopping moment of the evening occurred with the spectacular performance of I’m Just Ken by Ryan Gosling and hundreds of others, including Slash from Guns ‘n’ Roses. It got a rapturous reception which made the award of Best Song to Billy Eilish, for What Was I Made For? seem all the more silly.
Nearing the end of the show, we reach the main awards. For a long while it seemed that The Best Actor Oscar would be a real race between Paul Giamatti and Cillian Murphy, but in recent weeks, by dominating the precursor awards, Murphy’s win was guaranteed, and his speech was natural and heartfelt.
The Oppenheimer domination continued with Christopher Nolan deservedly winning for Best Director, before the last too close to call award, Best Actress. Emma Stone picked up the Oscar, beating out close contender Lily Gladstone, which absurdly left Killers of the Flowers Moon totally unrewarded.
Bringing to an end, a much better than usual show, the final award was presented by a pleasingly shambolic Al Pacino who announced Oppenheimer as winner of Best Film in a bizarre way.
Full list of winners:
Best Picture
“Oppenheimer,” Emma Thomas, Charles Roven and Christopher Nolan, producers
Best Director
Christopher Nolan — “Oppenheimer”
Actor in a Leading Role
Cillian Murphy — “Oppenheimer”
Actress in a Leading Role
Emma Stone — “Poor Things”
Actor in a Supporting Role
Robert Downey Jr. — “Oppenheimer”
Actress in a Supporting Role
Da’Vine Joy Randolph — “The Holdovers”
Adapted Screenplay
“American Fiction,” written for the screen by Cord Jefferson
Original Screenplay
“Anatomy of a Fall,” screenplay by Justine Triet and Arthur Harari
Cinematography
“Oppenheimer” – Hoyte van Hoytema
Original Song
“What Was I Made For?” from “Barbie,” music and lyric by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell
Costume Design
“Poor Things” – Holly Waddington
Sound
“The Zone of Interest,” Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn
Original Score
“Oppenheimer” – Ludwig Göransson
Live Action Short Film
“The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” Wes Anderson and Steven Rales
Animated Short Film
“War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko,” Dave Mullins and Brad Booker
Documentary Feature Film
“20 Days in Mariupol,” Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner and Raney Aronson-Rath
Documentary Short Film
“The Last Repair Shop,” Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers
International Feature Film
“The Zone of Interest” (United Kingdom)
Animated Feature Film
“The Boy and the Heron,” Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki
Makeup and Hairstyling
“Poor Things,” Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier and Josh Weston
Production Design
“Poor Things,” production design: James Price and Shona Heath; set decoration: Zsuzsa Mihalek
Film Editing
“Oppenheimer” – Jennifer Lame
Visual Effects
“Godzilla Minus One,” Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi and Tatsuji Nojima