'Oppenheimer' wins best picture at Academy Awards, Emma Stone takes best actress
Oppenheimer, a solemn three-hour biopic that became an unlikely billion-dollar box-office sensation, was crowned Best Picture at a 96th Academy Awards that doubled as a coronation for Christopher Nolan.

After passing over arguably Hollywood’s foremost big-screen auteur for years, the Oscars made up for lost time by heaping seven awards on Nolan’s blockbuster biopic, including Best Actor for Cillian Murphy, Best Supporting Actor for Robert Downey Jr and Best Director for Nolan.

British director Christopher Nolan accepts the award for Best Director for 'Oppenheimer'. Photo: AFP

In anointing Oppenheimer, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts did something it hasn’t done for more than a decade: hand its top prize to a widely seen, big-budget studio film.

In a film industry where a cape, dinosaur or Tom Cruise has often been a requirement for such box office, Oppenheimer brought droves of moviegoers to theatres with a complex, fission-filled drama about J. Robert Oppenheimer and the creation of the atomic bomb.

"For better or worse, we’re all living in Robert Oppenheimer’s world," said Murphy in his acceptance speech. "I’d like to dedicate this to the peacemakers.”

Robert Downey Jr. reacts onstage after 'Oppenheimer' won the award for Best Picture. Photo: AFP

The most closely watched contest of the Academy Awards went to Emma Stone, who won Best Actress for her performance as Bella Baxter in Poor Things.

In what was seen as the night’s most nail-biting category, Stone won over Lily Gladstone of Killers Of The Flower Moon.

Gladstone would have become the first Native American to win an Academy Award.

ALSO READ: Robert Downey Jr. wins best supporting Oscar for 'Oppenheimer'

Instead, Oscar voters couldn’t resist the full-bodied extremes of Stone’s Poor Things performance.

The win for Stone, her second Best Actress Oscar following her 2019 win for La La Land, confirmed the 35-year-old as arguably the preeminent big-screen actress of her generation.

The list of women to win Best Actress two or more times is illustrious, including Katherine Hepburn, Frances McDormand, Ingrid Bergman and Bette Davis.

"Oh, boy, this is really overwhelming,” said Stone.

Emma Stone (third from right) accepts the award for Best Actress for 'Poor Things' from (from left) US actress Sally Field, US actress Jennifer Lawrence, Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh, US-South African actress Charlize Theron and US actress Jessica Lange. Photo: AFP

Nolan has had many movies in the Oscar mix before, including Inception, Dunkirk and The Dark Knight. But his win Sunday for direction is the first Academy Award for the 53-year-old filmmaker.

In his acceptance speech, Nolan noted cinema is just over a hundred years old.

"We don’t know where this incredible journey is going from here,” said Nolan. "But to think that I’m a meaningful part of it means the world to me.”

Sunday's broadcast, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, had plenty of razzle dazzle, including a sprawling song-and-dance rendition of the Barbie hit I'm Just Ken by Ryan Gosling, with an assist on guitar by Slash.

A sea of Kens swarmed the stage.

Canadian actor Ryan Gosling (centre) performs 'I'm Just Ken' from 'Barbie'. Photo: AFP

Barbie, last year’s biggest box-office hit with more than US$1.4bil in ticket sales, didn’t win an award until almost three hours into the ceremony.

It won Best Song (sorry, Ken) for Billie Eilish and Finneas’ What Was I Made For? It’s their second Oscar, two years after winning for their James Bond theme, No Time To Die.

The night's first award was one of its most predictable: Da'Vine Joy Randolph for Best Supporting Actress, for her performance in Alexander Payne's The Holdovers. An emotional Randolph was accompanied to the stage by her Holdovers co-star Paul Giamatti.

"For so long I've always wanted to be different,” said Randolph. "And now I realise I just need to be myself."

Da'Vine Joy Randolph poses in the press room with the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for 'The Holdovers'. Photo: AFP

Though Randolph’s win was widely expected, an upset quickly followed. Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy And The Heron won for Best Animated Feature, a surprise over the slightly favoured Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse.

Miyazaki, the 83-year-old Japanese anime master who came out of retirement to make The Boy And The Heron, didn’t attend the ceremony. He also didn’t attend the 2003 Oscars when his Spirited Away won the same award.

Best Original Screenplay went to Anatomy Of A Fall, which, like Barbie, was penned by a couple: director Justine Triet and Arthur Harari. "This will help me through my midlife crisis, I think," said Triet.

In Adapted Screenplay, where Barbie was nominated – and where some suspected Greta Gerwig would win after being overlooked for director – the Oscar went to Cord Jefferson, who wrote and directed his feature film debut American Fiction. He pleaded for executives to take risks on young filmmakers like himself.

ALSO READ: Christopher Nolan wins best director Oscar for 'Oppenheimer'

"Instead of making a US$200mil movie, try making 20 US$10mil movies,” said Jefferson, previously an award-winning TV writer.

The Oscars belonged largely to theatrical-first films. Though it came into the awards with 19 nominations, Netflix was a bit player.

Its lone win came for live action short: Wes Anderson's The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar, based on the story by Roald Dahl.

Singer-songwriters Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell win the Oscar for Best Original Song for 'What Was I Made For'. Photo: AFP

While Barbie bested (and helped lift) Oppenheimer at the box office, it appears likely it will take a back seat to Nolan’s film at the Oscars.

Gerwig was notably overlooked for Best Director, sparking an outcry that some, even Hillary Clinton, said mimicked the patriarchy parodied in the film.

Margot Robbie talks to Greta Gerwig while Ryan Gosling looks on before the Oscars show. Photo: Reuters

Historically, having big movies in the mix for the Oscars’ top awards has been good for broadcast ratings. The Academy Awards’ largest audience ever came when James Cameron’s Titanic swept the 1998 Oscars.

Last year’s ceremony, where a very different Best-Picture contender in Everything Everywhere All At Once triumphed, was watched by 18.7 million people, up 12% from the year prior. A

BC and the academy are hoping to continue the upward trend after a nadir in 2021, when 9.85 million watched a pandemic-diminished telecast relocated to Los Angeles’ Union Station. – AP
Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster biopic won a total of seven awards, including best actor for Cillian Murphy, best supporting Actor for Robert Downey Jr. and best director for Nolan.