Emma Stone wins her second Oscar for ‘Poor Creatures‘, the film by Yorgos Lanthimos that received four statuettes. Bayona and Berger return to Spain without an award.

Oppenheimer, a biopic about the father of the atomic bomb, dominated the Oscar night, bagging seven awards including Best Picture, Best Director, and both male acting awards. The win coincided with a protest outside the Dolby Theatre, where the ceremony was held, demanding an end to the conflict in Gaza. The film’s lead actor, Cillian Murphy, dedicated his win to peacekeepers worldwide. Emma Stone won Best Actress for her role in ‘Poor Creatures‘, which took home four awards. Despite nominations, ‘The Society of the Snow’ by J.A. Bayona and ‘Robot Dreams‘ by Pablo Berger left empty-handed. Outside the Dolby, protesters waved Palestinian flags and blocked traffic, disrupting the arrival of stars. Inside, the ceremony, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, began late and touched on the recent screenwriters and actors strike but avoided the topic of Gaza. The night was also a redemption for Christopher Nolan, who, despite his success with the Batman trilogy, had been overlooked for nominations until his film ‘Dunkirk’ in 2017. Robert Downey Jr. received his first award for his role in Oppenheimer, while Emma Stone won her second Oscar for «Poor Creatures». Mstyslav Chernov won Best Documental for «20 days of Mariupol’, a film about the devastation of the Ukrainian city under Moscow’s control. Hayao Miyazaki won his third Oscar for ‘The Boy and the Heron‘, while ‘Anatomy of a Fall’ by Justine Triet and Arthur Harari won Best Original Screenplay. The night marked the end of the ‘Barbenheimer‘ phenomenon, with Oppenheimer’s success and ‘Barbie’ only managing box office victories. 

Kimmel began the night by acknowledging Greta Gerwig, director of the Barbie film, who was not nominated despite the film’s commercial success.