Oppenheimer dominates Oscars with sweep of top awards amid shock Emma Stone win

As predicted, Christopher Nolan’s atomic bomb drama cleaned up at the annual film awards

Oppenheimer has emerged as the big winner as the 96th Academy Awards took place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday night, bringing the 2024 awards season to a dramatic end.

Hollywood’s A-listers, including Margot Robbie, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Sylvester Stallone, gathered to honour the best in cinema at a ceremony led by late-night veteran and four-time Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel.

Christopher Nolan secured his first Academy Award as Best Director for Oppenheimer, which triumphed in seven of its 13 nominated categories, including Best Picture. The British-American filmmaker, 53, has been nominated five times previously for films including Dunkirk (2017), Inception (2010), and Memento (2000).

Nolan kept his acceptance speech mostly industry-focused, thanking his stars, who are “all at the top of their game” and his “incredible crew”.

He reserved a special shout out for his wife, Emma Thomas, who has worked as a producer on all of his films since 1997. “Producer of all our films, and all our children,” said Nolan. “I love you.”

Earlier in the night, Oppenheimer stars Cillian Murphy, 47, and Robert Downey Jr, 58, also earnt their first ever Oscars, in the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor categories, respectively.

Following a touching introduction from Sir Ben Kingsley, Murphy dedicated his victory to all “peacemakers”, telling the crowd: “We made a film about the man who created the atomic bomb and for better or worse, we’re living in Oppenheimer’s world, so I’d really like to dedicate this to all the peacemakers out there.”

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The Oscars ceremony was slightly delayed, reportedly due to the hundreds of protesters who took to Sunset Boulevard calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

“As the press shuttle drove us towards the Dolby, we saw riot police gearing up and filing out in squadrons,” said The Independent’s Tom Murray who attended the ceremony. “We had to go through three separate security checkpoints to get in.”

Once the event did get underway, the biggest surprise of the night arrived when Emma Stone won Best Actress over frontrunner Lily Gladstone whose film, Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, went home empty-handed despite receiving 10 nominations.

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Stone, 35, won for her role as Bella Baxter, a child in a woman’s body, in Yorgos Lanthimos’s period fantasy comedy Poor Things – which won three additional awards in succession, for Makeup and Hairstyling, Production Design, and Costume.

The actor suffered a slight wardrobe malfunction when accepting her award on stage, and cracked a joke about the broken zip before launching into her speech.

“Don’t look at my dress!” joked Stone, who received her second Best Actress award having previously won in 2017 for her role in La La Land.

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The actor appeared overcome with emotion, tearing up as she acknowledged “all the incredible women in this category” and thanked her family and husband, who was spotted grinning up at the star from the crowd.

The UK enjoyed a history-making night, afterThe Zone of Interest won Best International Film. Jonathan Glazer’s harrowing Auschwitz drama, an adaptation of the 2014 Martin Amis novel, is the first British film to win in the category. It also took home the gong for Best Sound.

Glazer – who, like the film’s producer James Wilson, is Jewish – brought several members of the crowd, including the star of his film, Sandra Hüller, to tears with his acceptance speech, in which the director spoke about Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

“Right now we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation, which has led to conflict for so many innocent people, whether the victims of 7 October in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza,” said Glazer, who was one of many stars, including Billie Eilish and Mark Ruffalo, to wear a ceasefire pin at the event.

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Despite its huge success at the box office, Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie’s tentpole blockbuster Barbie only took home one award, for Best Song courtesy of “What Was I Made For?” the contemplative track co-written by Billie Eilish and Finneas.

Other winners included Da’Vine Joy Randolph who won the first statuette of the night for her supporting role in The Holdovers, Justine Triet and Arthur Harari for Best Original Screenplay (Anatomy of a Fall), and Cord Jefferson for Best Adapted Screenplay (American Fiction).

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Ukraine war film 20 Days in Mariupol, which was shot inside the besieged port city, won the Oscar for Best Documentary.

Taking to the stage, Chernov highlighted that it was the first ever Academy Award for a Ukrainian film. “I am honoured but I will probably be the first director on this stage to say that I wish I had never made this film,” he said.

“I wish to be able to exchange this for Russia never attacking Ukraine, never invading our cities. I wish to be able to exchange this for Russian not killing 10,000 of my fellow Ukrainians.”

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In the press room at the Dolby Theatre, the Japanese press erupted in cheers as Hayao Miyazaki’s critically acclaimed film The Boy and the Heron won Best Animated Feature.

When a second Japanese feature, Godzilla Minus One, took home the prize for Best Visual Effects, The Independent’s Tom Murray said the Japanese journalists shouted “double!” in celebration.

Follow along with updates from the Oscars at The Independent’s live blog here, and see the full list of winners here.