Here's Everything You Might Have Missed At The 2024 Oscars

I’m sorry – was the announcement that “Oppenheimer” won best picture kind of weird for anyone else? I was still in a haze after that Emma Stone win for Best Actress that I can’t tell if I just blanked out or what. I will say that I have never been so glad for the last award to be announced at the Oscars. I’m TIRED of talking about these films lol. — Erin

Yes, that was a weird way to announce that win. Begging folks to not be weird about announcing the Best Picture win (still recovering from the “Moonlight” debacle in 2017). But hey, “Oppenheimer” — YAY!

Also: Did “Killers of the Flower Moon” win anything tonight? What a massively discussed movie filled with a lot of major stars and backed by a major director, going home empty. Same for “Maestro.” I have nothing else to add there, but I thought that was interesting. — Candice

Al Pacino gonna Al Pacino, I guess.

Whew, I’m still kind of in a daze. — Marina

Emma Stone wins Oscar for Best Actress for "Poor Things."

I just screamed! I’m surprised and happy! I thought Emma Stone was really incredible in “Poor Things.” I also felt so satisfied with the end of the film. I just knew Lily Gladstone — who I thought was great in “Killers of the Flower Moon” — was going to win. I can’t even think. Wow. Wow. — Erin

My stream is behind, so I found out this news through everyone going “WHOA.” — Marina

I was over here prewriting my little live blog about my complicated feelings around Lily Gladstone winning — and then she doesn’t even win. It’s fine. I hope that means white people watch her in films that show off her talent even more. Okay, with that said, Emma Stone is fabulous in “Poor Things” and I’m happy for her. But I also feel like Sandra Hüller was equally deserving here. Anyway, happy to see things shaken up a bit at the 11th hour, no less! — Candice

Same, I had a whole spiel ready to go. Emma Stone seems as stunned as we all are.
I can only hope people will check out Gladstone’s body of work, including her breakout role in “Certain Women” in 2016, and “Fancy Dance,” which finally got distribution from Apple — a whole year after it premiered at Sundance.

It’s hard to deny the technical precision and level of difficulty in Stone’s performance, so I’m happy for her, while also bummed for Gladstone. This was such a competitive category this year. I mean, we’ve all discussed how brilliant Sandra Hüller is in “Anatomy of a Fall.” And many deserving women didn’t even get nominated (ahem, Greta Lee, for one). — Marina

Christopher Nolan wins Oscar for Best Director for "Oppenheimer."

Christopher Nolan has given us such wild, technically fantastic and deeply challenging movies, many of which manage to be blockbusters and/or modern classics in their own right. That’s a lot for a moviegoing culture that too often desires art that is simple and that reaffirms audiences' own sensibilities. I’m truly in awe of his talent. Happy to see him finally win. — Candice

I remember seeing “Inception” twice in the theater, once on opening night — a formative moviegoing experience for me. And the reason we have 10 best picture nominees is basically because of “The Dark Knight.” I didn’t love “Oppenheimer” as much, but Nolan’s technical genius and ability to melt the artistic with the commercial is pretty astonishing. — Marina

“Inception” was the first movie I saw in theaters when I moved to New York City! — Erin

Cillian Murphy wins Oscar for Best Actor for "Oppenheimer."

No surprise here. I find Cillian Murphy so charming. “I’d like to dedicate this to the peacemakers everywhere,” Murphy said in his acceptance speech. — Erin

Yeah, definitely no surprise at all. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Cillian Murphy deliver a bad performance. Good for him. — Candice

Finally, an acknowledgment of the present-day relevance of “Oppenheimer.” It’s something I’ve thought about all awards season, and it’s among several big awards contenders this year that are about war or genocide and how history chooses to selectively memorialize those atrocities. — Marina

Billie Eillish is 22 years old and a two-time Oscar winner — a consecutive two-time Oscar winner. That’s wild. “What Was I Made For?” is really good. But damn, that’s just unusual. — Candice

My perhaps unpopular opinion is that I think “I’m Just Ken” is the better song from this film. It surprised me more. But I get why this one won. — Marina

Definitely not an unpopular opinion! — Candice

I actually was reading a piece on Slate earlier today about why “I’m Just Ken” should win instead. And it unpacks the long history of these less fun songs winning the award. — Erin

Ludwig Göransson wins the Oscar for best original score for "Oppenheimer."

“Oppenheimer” is really sweeping up tonight. I like seeing talent winning. But I would like to see them spread the wealth around. — Candice

I love me some Ryan Gosling. I was kind of half paying attention for the last, like, five awards — partially due to some computer issues — but whew, thanks, Ken, for breathing a little life into me just now. — Erin

That was fun and elaborate — and Ryan Gosling is so game. I really think “Barbie” is going to win Best Picture. They want it to so bad. And while they billed this as the “Ryan Gosling performance,” it looks like every single actor that performed it in the movie, including Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa and Kingsley Ben-Adir, were all here, too. — Candice

Here for it. — Candice

Yeah, this feels very well-deserved! — Erin

Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner and Raney Aronson-Rath win for Best Documentary Feature for "20 Days in Mariupol."

I have not seen this movie, and really wanted “Four Daughters” to win. But I appreciate that director Mstyslav Chernov took this winning moment to discuss the war in Ukraine, on which this film centers. — Candice

It's neat to see PBS and Associated Press journalists recognized on a glitzy night like tonight, given how grim things are in the nonprofit journalism world right now. Rigorous, fact-based war reporting is a difficult and often thankless job. — Graph

‘The Last Repair Shop’ is soooooooo good! I cried at the end. It also just really reminded me of my band days — I played the clarinet. It was just so so so well done. — Erin

This was my favorite of the documentary shorts, with “Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó” as a close second. It follows the incredible life stories of the various people who work at the instrument repair shop for the Los Angeles school district. It’s one of the few public school districts in the country where music students can still get free instruments. The film begins with great interstitial interviews with a bunch of wonderful students who talk about how meaningful it is to be able to have these instruments and what music means to them. But then, it becomes about the music technicians, each of whom has an incredible and unique story about how they came to this job and how it became their passion. I was really blown away by it, and the ending will really get you. — Marina

One of the things I thought of when I got out of a screening of “Oppenheimer” was damn, that was well-edited. Because how the hell is a movie that shows us a bunch of board meetings so riveting to watch? The editing is a big part of that. Also happy to see Jennifer Lame, a woman, earn this award. The industry far too rarely hires women as editors (Thelma Schoonmaker was also nominated for “Killers of the Flower Moon”), so it’s nice to see a tiny bit of diversity here. — Candice

I’m always here for reunions. Happy to see Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger represent for the great 1988 comedy “Twins.” — Candice

I think this was the only nomination for “Godzilla Minus One,” sadly,” but it was SO earned. I wish the academy cared about genre movies, because this one was one of many that was deserving of so much more recognition. Exquisite. — Candice

I still haven’t seen this and really want to!

I love that the team behind the film brought up little Godzilla statues onstage! — Marina

Robert Downey Jr. wins Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in "Oppenheimer."

Probably the best performance I’ve seen from Robert Downey Jr., though I’ve seen a number of terrific performances from him in the last several decades. As always, I’m most interested in seeing the academy shake things up with unexpected wins — i.e., Ryan Gosling or Mark Ruffalo. But hey, happy to see a deserving performance win. — Candice

I was high-key rooting for “The Teachers’ Lounge” here. “The Zone of Interest” has so much technical merit, but is an extremely distant movie that I couldn’t really jump into as a viewer. I am happy to see another Sandra Hüller film win tonight (she also stars in “Anatomy of a Fall”), and satisfied to see director Jonathan Glazer mention the Gaza conflict in his acceptance speech. — Candice

Happy to see director Jonathan Glazer talk about Gaza, which I’d been anticipating. The team behind the film has been virtually the only award winners this season to explicitly talk about Gaza on stage and point out the present-day parallels to the themes of their film. — Marina

Holly Waddington wins for best costume design for "Poor Things."

I now have a feeling that “Poor Things” is going to sweep these more technical, behind-the-camera awards, and not win any acting or directing awards. That’s not to take away from any of these achievements, which are deserving and just as important, but… I just get that feeling. — Candice

I thought the production design of “Poor Things” was so colorful and elaborate and imaginative and indicative of the journey Stone’s character goes on, and I’m happy to see it win for that. — Candice

Yes, and capturing all of the period details and the location shifts as the movie goes on: very impressive work. — Marina