In the end, the Academy decided to go nuclear.
As expected, Christopher Nolan's 'Oppenheimer' was the big winner on Oscar night winning a total of seven statuettes from 13 nominations.
The haul comprised of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing and Best Musical Score.
Cillian Murphy also took home his first statuette at his first attempt in the Best Actor category, looking relieved that his time in the awards season spotlight was over and declaring himself "a proud Irishman".
Robert Downey Jr celebrated a Best Supporting Actor win with a self-deprecating quip, thanking his "terrible childhood and the Academy in that order".
Christopher Nolan saluted his wife and the producer of his film and his children, Emma Thomas on a night that saw him join the ranks of Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Francis Coppola, John Ford and David Lean as an Oscar winning director.
Throughout awards season, 'Oppenheimer's' march to Oscar glory deemed inevitable and so it proved for a film that was blessed the moment it was pitched against Greta Gerwig's 'Barbie' with a simultaneous release on July 21 last year.
That genius decision benefitted both films, with Gerwig's comedy smashing box office records to become the Number One film of the year and 'Oppenheimer' outperforming expectations for a three hour serious biopic, earning $1 billion as the third biggest movie of the year.
Was it really the best film?
Of course, not.
Justine Triet's Palme d'Or winner 'Anatomy of A Fall' and Celine Song's remarkable debut 'Past Lives' were undoubtedly superior.
Jonathan Glazer's remarkable Holocaust tale 'The Zone of Interest' was quite possibly the best of the crop and may well turn out to be the film that we all look back on as the most memorable cinematic experience of them all.
But the Academy Awards rarely give Best Picture to the right film.
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This was simply a night where they wanted to acknowledge the director behind cerebral thrillers and accomplished effects driven action tales like 'Memento,' 'Insomnia,' 'Batman Begins,' 'The Dark Knight,'The Dark Knight Rises,' 'Inception,' 'Interstellar,' 'Dunkirk' and 'Tenet'.
But if this was very much Nolan's night, the other big winner was Yorgos Lanthimos' 'Poor Things' which netted four awards including a second Best Actress win for Emma Stone, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design and Best Make-Up and Hairstyling.
An emotional Stone praised her daughter and thanked the cast and crew, insisting her win was not about her but about "a team that came together".
It was probably the biggest surprise of the night, denying Lily Gladstone a chance to make Oscars history as the first Native American to win Best Actress for 'Killers of The Flower Moon' in the one major category that was hardest to predict.
Martin Scorsese's epic Apple TV+ film went away empty handed, just like 'Past Lives' and Bradley Cooper's Leonard Bernstein biopic 'Maestro' while other Best Picture contenders mopped up at least one award.
As expected, Alexander Payne's comedy 'The Holdovers' landed a teary Da'Vine Joy Randolph Best Supporting Actress who spoke about how for much of her career she thought she needed to be different when "I just needed to be myself".
Murphy's Best Actor triumph meant it was not to be for the film's lead Paul Giamatti but he earned praise for generously guiding Randolph to the stage as she collected her prize.
'The Zone of Interest' deservedly captured Best International Feature and Best Sound, with its English director Jonathan Glazer delivering the most political speech of the night, bravely linking the dehumanisation of the Jews by the Nazis in his film to the attitudes behind the violence perpetrated by Israel and Hamas in recent months.
The screenplay categories again provided an opportunity to honour films that otherwise might have been overlooked.
Cord Jefferson picked up Best Adapted Screenplay for his literary satire 'American Fiction' and in one of the most passionate film industry speeches of the night pleaded with the studios: "Instead of making one $200 million movie, try making 20 $10 million movies or 50 $4 million movies."
After failing to land the right to be France's Best International Feature entry, there was justice of sorts with Justine Triet and Arthur Harari winning Best Original Screenplay.
On a night when its box office rival 'Oppenheimer' reigned supreme, 'Barbie' didn't go away empty handed with Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas Connell winning a second Best Original Song Academy Award for 'What Was I Made For?'
Although there was no doubt Ryan Gosling and his chorus of Kens featuring a guitar solo by Slash was the performance of the night, even if the song 'I'm Just Ken' failed to win.
Japan had two reasons to celebrate, with Hayao Miyazaki winning Studio Ghibli's first Best Animated Feature for 'The Boy and The Heron' in a surprise triumph over Sony's 'Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse'.
Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibua, Masaki Takahashi & Tatsuji Nojima also won Best Visual Effects for 'Godzilla Minus One,' meaning Englishman Neil Courbould's three shots at glory in the category for 'The Creator,' 'Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One' and 'Napoleon' all came to naught.
As predicted, Mstyslav Chernov's '20 Days In Mariupol' won the Best Documentary Feature, with the director telling the ceremony he hoped the film's win would remind people of the "humanitarian catastrophe" caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Wes Anderson bagged his first ever Oscar in the Best Live Action Short battle for his stylish adaptation of a Roald Dahl short story for Netflix 'The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar'.
Ben Proudfoot and Chris Bowers' 'The Last Repair Shop' won Best Documentary Short, while Dave Mullins and Brad Brooker's 'War Is Over! Inspired By The Music of John Lennon & Yoko Ono' won the Animated Short award.
As for the ceremony itself, it was a mixed bag.
The acting category presentations were a bit toe curling, with over the top gushing tributes to the nominees from previous winners that felt like something out of an awkward high school pageant.
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A jokey appearance of an almost nude Jon Cena during the Best Costume Design presentation misfired.
A gag in the host Jimmy Kimmel's opening monologue about Messi the dog from 'Anatomy of A Fall' appearing in the audience was ruined by a flat gag about Gerard Depardieu being the last French star to eat vomit.
The switch from Mstyslav Chernov's speech about Ukraine to the crowd pleasing performance of 'I'm Just Ken' jarred ever so slightly.
Kimmel, though, was his usual self, mixing sharp satirical gags with the corny.
A joke about Emma Stone's performance in 'Poor Things' as a woman with the mind of a baby inspiring the Republican response to President Joe Biden's State of the Union address landed really well.
So too did a quip about the length of some films, with the talk show host observing you could have driven to Oklahoma and solved the murders in 'Killers of the Flower Moon' before the credits rolled.
A gag about last year's 'The Fablemans' at the expense of Steven Spielberg went down well.
However Kimmel's jokes about Downey Jr's drug addiction and an alternative pronunciation of Cillian Murphy's first name really deserved some tumbleweed.
Not that it mattered.
This was 'Oppenheimer's' night.
It always going to be and as Best Picture winners go, it will hold up decently even if it wasn't the best film.
At least, though, the top prize went to a film a lot of the public has actually seen.
That makes a change.
Whether that victory will inspire studios to heed Cord Jefferson's call and invest in a more diverse range of movies that will get the same kind of commercial push remains to be seen.
Here's hoping they do.
© Getty Images2024 OSCAR NOMINEES AND WINNERS
BEST PICTURE
American Fiction
Anatomy of A Fall
Barbie
The Holdovers
Killers of The Flower Moon
Maestro
Oppenheimer
Past Lives
Poor Things
The Zone of Interest
Winner: Oppenheimer
BEST DIRECTOR
Jonathan Glazer (The Zone of Interest)
Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things)
Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer)
Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon)
Justine Triet (Anatomy of A Fall)
Winner: Christopher Nolan
BEST ACTOR
Bradley Cooper (Maestro)
Colman Domingo (Rustin)
Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers)
Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer)
Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction)
Winner: Cillian Murphy
BEST ACTRESS
Annette Bening (Nyad)
Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon)
Sandra Huller (Anatomy of A Fall)
Carey Mulligan (Maestro)
Emma Stone (Poor Things)
Winner: Emma Stone
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer)
Danielle Brooks (The Color Purple)
America Ferrera (Barbie)
Jodie Foster (Nyad)
Da'vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers)
Winner: Da'vine Joy Randolph
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Sterling K Brown (American Fiction)
Robert De Niro (Killers of the Flower Moon)
Robert Downey Jr (Oppenheimer)
Ryan Gosling (Barbie)
Mark Ruffalo (Poor Things)
Winner: Robert Downey Jr
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FEATURE
Io Capitano (Matteo Garrone - Italy)
Perfect Days (Wim Wenders - Japan)
Society of the Snow (JA Bayona - Spain)
The Teachers Lounge (Ilker Catak - Germany)
The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer - UK)
Winner: The Zone of Interest
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
The Boy and The Heron (Hayao Miyazaki)
Elemental (Peter Sohn)
Nimona (Troy Quane & Nick Bruno)
Robot Dreams (Pablo Berger)
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse (Joaquin Dos Santos, Justin K Thompson & Kemp Powers)
Winner: The Boy and The Heron
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Bobi Wine: The People's President (Moses Bwayo & Christopher Sharp)
The Eternal Memory (Maite Alberdi)
Four Daughters (Kaouther Ben Hania)
To Kill A Tiger (Nisha Pahuja)
20 Days In Mariupol (Mstyslav Chernov)
Winner: 20 Days In Mariupol
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Anatomy of A Fall (Justine Triet & Arthur Harari)
The Holdovers (David Hemingson)
Maestro (Bradley Cooper & Josh Singer)
May December (Samy Burch & Alex Mechanik)
Past Lives (Celine Song)
Winner: Anatomy of A Fall
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
American Fiction (Cord Jefferson)
Barbie (Greta Gerwig & Noah Baumbach)
Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan)
Poor Things (Tony McNamara)
The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer)
Winner: American Fiction
BEST ORIGINAL MUSIC SCORE
American Fiction (Laura Karpman)
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (John Williams)
Killers of the Flower Moon (Robbie Robertson)
Oppenheimer (Ludwig Goransson)
Poor Things (Jerskin Fendrix)
Winner: Oppenheimer
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
'The Fire Inside' (Diane Warren from 'Flamin' Hot')
'I'm Just Ken' (Mark Ronson & Andrew Wyatt from 'Barbie')
'It Never Went Away' (Jon Batiste & Dan Wilson from 'American Symphony')
'Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)' (Scott George from 'Killers of the Flower Moon')
'What Was I Made For?' (Billie Eilish & Finneas Connelly from 'Barbie')
Winner: What Was I Made For?' (Billie Eilish & Finneas Connelly from 'Barbie')
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Edward Lachman (El Conde)
Matthew Libatique (Maestro)
Rodrigo Prieto (Killers of the Flower Moon)
Robbie Ryan (Poor Things)
Hoyte Van Hoytema (Oppenheimer)
Winner: Oppenheimer
BEST FILM EDITING
Anatomy of A Fall (Laurent Senechal)
The Holdovers (Kevin Tent)
Killers of the Flower Moon (Thelma Schoonmaker)
Oppenheimer (Jennifer Lame)
Poor Things (Yorgos Mavropsaridis)
Winner: Oppenheimer
BEST SOUND
The Creator (Ian Voigt, Erik Aadahi, Ethan Van der Ryn, Tom Ozanich & Dean Zupancic)
Maestro (Steven A Morrow, Richard King, Jason Ruder, Tom Ozanich & Dean Zupancic)
Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One (Chris Munro, James H Mather, Chris Burdon & Mark Taylor)
Oppenheimer (Willie Burton, Richard King, Gary A Rizzo & Kevin O'Connell)
The Zone of Interest (Tarn Willers & Johnnie Burn)
Winner: The Zone of Interest
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
The Creator (Jay Cooper, Ian Comley, Andrew Roberts & Neil Corbould)
Godzilla Minus One (Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibua, Masaki Takahashi & Tatsuji Nojima)
Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 (Stephanie Ceretti, Alexis Wajsbrot, Guy Williams & Theo Bialek)
Mission Impossible, Dead Reckoning Part One (Alex Wuttke, Simone Coco, Jeff Sutherland & Neil Corbould)
Napoleon (Charley Henley, Ewen Martin-Fenouillet, Simone Coco & Neil Corbould)
Winner: Godzilla Minus One
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Barbie (Sarah Greenwood & Katie Spencer)
Killers of the Flower Moon (Jack Fisk & Adam Wills)
Napoleon (Arthur Max & Elli Griff)
Oppenheimer (Ruth De Jong & Claire Kaufman)
Poor Things (James Price, Shona Heath & Zsuzsa Mihalek)
Winner: Poor Things
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Barbie (Jacqueline Durran)
Killers of the Flower Moon (Jacqueline West)
Napoleon (Janty Yates & Dave Crossman)
Oppenheimer (Ellen Mirojnick)
Poor Things (Holly Waddington)
Winner: Poor Things
BEST MAKE UP AND HAIRYSTYLING
Golda (Karen Hartley Thomas, Suzi Battersby & Ashra Kelly-Blue)
Maestro (Kazu Hiro, Kay Georgiu & Lori McCoy-Bell)
Oppenheimer (Luisa Abel)
Poor Things (Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulter & Josh Weston)
Society of the Snow (Ana Lopez-Puigcerver, David Marti & Montse Ribe)
Winner: Poor Things
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT
The After (Misan Harriman & Nicky Bentham)
Invincible (Vincent Rene-Lortie & Samuel Caron)
Knight of Fortune (Lasse Lyskjaer Noer & Christian Norlyk)
Red, White & Blue (Jaxon Choudhury & Sara McFarlane)
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (Wes Anderson & Steven Rales)
Winner: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
BEST ANIMATED SHORT
Letter To A Pig (Tal Kantor & Amit R Gicelter)
Ninety-Five Senses (Jared & Jerusha Hess)
Our Uniform (Yegane Moghaddam)
Pachyderme (Stephanie Clement & Marc Rius)
War Is Over! Inspired By The Music of John Lennon & Yoko Ono (Dave Mullins & Brad Booker)
Winner: War Is Over! Inspired By The Music of John Lennon & Yoko Ono
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
The ABCs of Book Banning (Sheila Nevins & Trish Adlesic)
The Barber of Little Rock (John Hoffman & Christine Turner)
Island In Between (S Leo Chiang & Jean Stein)
The Last Repair Shop (Ben Proudfoot & Chris Bowers)
Nai Nai & Wai Po (Sean Wang & Sam Davis)
Winner: The Last Repair Shop
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