2024 Oscars: ‘Oppenheimer’ Cleans Up And The Night’s Other Big Winners
And the Oscar went to …
Hollywood glitz and glamour was on full display on Sunday at the 96th annual Academy Awards held at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles.
“Oppenheimer” was the night’s big winner, taking the Oscar for “Best Picture” and six other Academy Awards.
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The movie — a biopic about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the American physicist credited with being the “father of the atomic bomb” — also took home statuettes for best actor (Cillian Murphy), best supporting actor (Robert Downey Jr.) and best director (Christopher Nolan).
Did any faith-based films win any awards? Alas, no — at least not the ones made and produced by studios outside of secular Hollywood.
Our film critic Joseph Holmes explained why in a recent piece:
Fans of faith-based movie industry typically reject the “low quality” argument and instead blame Hollywood’s bias against faith in general and Christians in particular. But a bunch of Academy Award nominations were given to faith-based films such as “Hacksaw Ridge” and “Killers of The Flower Moon.” Clearly, there is some openness to at least some faith-heavy projects.
While both of these explanations (lack of quality and anti-Christian bias) certainly play some sort of role in the lack of faith-based representation at mainstream award shows each year, there is a bigger factor at play that gets to the heart of what movies and shows get nominated for major awards. It’s known as “the campaign.”
The box-office hit “Oppenheimer” — one of the year’s most popular movies — stirred many religious debates, as Manmeet Sahni pointed out in a piece from last summer when the film was released:
For example, the issue of how the Bhagavad Gita, a 700-verse Hindu scripture, has been depicted for cinematic effect is a subject of much controversy since the film came out late last month.
An intimate scene between Oppenheimer, played by Cillian Murphy, and Jean Tatlock, played by Florence Pugh, has sparked public outrage in India, specifically among Hindu devotees, with the country’s Information Commissioner Uday Mahurkar penning a fervorous letter on behalf of the Save Culture Save India Foundation to the director on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter, explaining the importance of the Hindu scripture and its use in this manner being “a direct assault on religious beliefs of a billion tolerant Hindus.”
Meanwhile, many wore red lapel pins — featuring an outline of a hand and a black heart — calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The pins were handed out by the group Artists4Ceasefire.
Finally, among the biggest movies so far this winter — in terms of revenue — have been faith-based films such as “Cabrini” and “The Chosen.” Maybe these two movies will be considered for Oscar nominations next year.
Here’s a complete list of this year’s winners:
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 Holdoovers”
DIRECTOR: Christopher Nolan, “Oppenheimer”
LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM: “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar”
SOUND: Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn, “The Zone of Interest”
ORIGINAL SCORE: Ludwig Göransson, “Oppenheimer”
ORIGINAL SONG: “What Was I Made For” (“Barbie”)
VISUAL EFFECTS: “Godzilla Minus One”
FILM EDITING: Jennifer Lame, “Oppenheimer”
DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM: “The Last Repair Shop”
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: “20 Days in Mariupol”
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Hoyte Van Hoytema, “Oppenheimer”
ANIMATED SHORT FILM: “War Is Over!: Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko”
ANIMATED FILM: “The Boy And The Heron”
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Justine Triet and Arthur Harari, “Anatomy of a Fall”
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Cord Jefferson, “American Fiction”
MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING: Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier and Josh Weston, “Poor Things”
PRODUCTION DESIGN: James Price, Shona Heath and Zsuzsa Mihalek, “Poor Things”
COSTUME DESIGN: Holly Waddington, “Poor Things”
INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM: “The Zone of Interest” (United Kingdom)