Oscars 2024: Where was Wes Anderson and why didn’t he accept his award?

Filmmaker was nominated for eight Oscars over the past 22 years but had never previously won

After being nominated eight times over the past 22 years, Wes Anderson finally won his first ever Academy Award at the Oscars on Sunday Night – but he wasn’t there to collect it.

His short film The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, a 39-minute adaptation of Roald Dahl’s 1977 story of the same name, won Best Live Action Short Film. The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, Sir Ben Kingsley, Dev Patel and Richard Ayoade.

Anderson was not present at the Dolby Theatre to collect the prize as, according to a statement read out on his behalf, he is in Germany shooting a new movie.

“If I could have been there, I (along with Steven Rales) would have said ‘Thank you’ to: the family of Roald Dahl, the team at Netflix, Benedict and Ralph and Ben Kingsley and Dev and Richard and Bob and Adam and Jeremy and John and Jim and Rich and Jim and Polly and more.”

Anderson paid tribute to actor and his frequent collaborator Owen Wilson, whom co-wrote and starred in a number of Anderson’s films, including his breakout debut Bottle Rocket, Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums.

Issa Rae and US comedian Ramy Youssef accept the award for Best Live Action Short Film on behalf of Anderson (AFP via Getty Images)

“And also I would have said: if I had not met Owen Wilson in a corridor at the University of Texas between classes when I was 18 years old, I would certainly not be receiving this award tonight – but unfortunately Steven and I are in Germany and we start shooting our new movie early tomorrow morning, so I did not actually receive the award or get a chance to say any of that.”

American Fiction star Issa Rae and US comedian Ramy Youssef were on stage to accept the award on the filmmaker’s behalf.

Anderson, who is known for his distinctive visual style and use of pastel colour palettes, received his first Academy Award nomination for The Royal Tenenbaums, for Best Original Screenplay, back in 2001.

Anderson photographed in 2023 (Getty Images for Netflix)

He had received nods from the Academy for Best Animated Picture with his 2009 film Fantastic Mr Fox, Best Original Screenplay for Moonrise Kingdom (2012), and Best Animated Picture for the 2018 movie Isle of Dogs.

His 2014 film The Grand Budapest Hotel brought Anderson his best nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay, but it is only forThe Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar that he scored a win at the film awards.

At the Oscars, it was a night of fierce competition with Oppenheimer, Poor Things, and Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon leading the tally of nominations, earning 13, 11, and 10 nods respectively.

As expected, Christopher Nolan’s atomic bomb epic wiped out the competition, with Nolan, Murphy, and Robert Downey Jr all earning their first-ever Academy Awards thanks to their involvement in the film. The film had 13 nominations going into the night and won seven.

Other big winners of the night included Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things, which took home four prizes including Best Actress for Emma Stone.

Read the full Oscar winners list here.