No other ceremony stirs attention and rakes in viewership like the Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars.
With nearly 20 million ratings on television this year, the 96th Academy Awards ceremony marks the highest viewership since 2020, possibly thanks to the revitalization of the film industry in the wake of ‘Barbenheimer’ and other breakout hits this previous year.
Jimmy Kimmel returned to host for a fourth time, marking his second consecutive year hosting the Oscars.
On Jan. 23, the nominations for the Academy Awards were announced. Oppenheimer received thirteen nominations, followed closely by Poor Things with 11 and Killers of the Flower Moon with 10.
Jumping forward to March 10, Oppenheimer proceeded to lead the ceremony in awards, receiving seven: Best Picture and Best Director included. This was a more-than-deserved sweep of the event and a predictable one at that.
Oppenheimer was an excellent piece of cinema and featured some incredible effort from the crew who worked on it. All those who worked on this project, from actors to cinematographers, deserve the praise it received.
With its perfect formula of drama, American history and twisting narratives, Oppenheimer was an easy pick for many of the Oscars categories.
Oppenheimer’s unlikely sister film of the 2023 summer, Barbie, unfortunately, received less acclaim at the Oscars than I would have liked to have seen. Whilst having eight nominations, Barbie only managed to squeeze out a single award, that being Best Original Song. Though the right choice for the category, it’s a shame that it was the only award Barbie picked up, especially considering the popularity of the movie.
Cillian Murphy and Emma Stone were awarded Best Actor and Actress respectively, Murphy for his performance in Oppenheimer and Stone for her role in Poor Things. These two are actors at the top of their class in contemporary cinema, and individually, both crushed their performances, boasting the same A-list acting and emotions viewers come to expect from both of these extremely talented professionals.
In the animation category, The Boy and the Heron took home the award, marking Studio Ghibli’s second win in Oscars history. With competition such as Elemental, Ramona, and Across the Spider-Verse, it’s refreshing to see a more unique film get the appreciation it deserves.
As far as the other categories go, Robert Downey Jr. won Best Supporting Actor for Oppenheimer, Da’Vine Joy Randolph won Best Supporting Actress for The Holdovers, Anatomy of a Fall won Best Original Screenplay, American Fiction won Best Adapted Screenplay, The Zone of Interest won Best International Feature Film and Best Sound and. 20 Days in Mariupol won Best Documentary Feature Film.
The Last Repair Shop won Best Documentary Short Film, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar won Best Live Action Short Film, War is Over! won Best Animated Short Film, Oppenheimer additionally won Best Score and Film Editing, Poor Things won Best Production Design, Best Makeup and Styling, as well as Best Costume Design and finally Godzilla Minus One won Best Visual Effects.
Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt gave their genuine speeches, giving thanks to the stunt people who worked incredibly hard to deliver some of the performances we, as the audience, get to see on the silver screen.
Too few are the crew and people who make movies possible given the credit they’re due, and it was heartwarming to see two prominent figures in the film industry draw attention to this.
Following their discussion on these unsung heroes, they spoke about their upcoming film The Fall Guy, aptly featuring Ryan Gosling as a stuntman.
The 96th Academy Awards had a mystique to it this time around that the last few Oscars have seemed to have lacked. John Cena’s risque performance to open the costume category and Ryan Gosling’s superb performance of “I’m Just Ken” solidified this year’s Oscars as a hopeful outlook on the near future of the film industry as a whole.
In the wake of Will Smith’s 2022 slap and subpar viewership in 2023, this year’s ceremony went exceptionally well, all things considered.