Sweeps major awards at Oscars
Oppenheimer swept the board on Sunday at the Oscars, Hollywood’s biggest night of the year, with seven awards including best picture and best director, crowning a triumphant year for filmmaker Christopher Nolan.
Nolan’s masterful drama about the father of the atomic bomb, half of last summer’s massive “Barbenheimer” phenomenon, also bagged acting prizes for lead Cillian Murphy and supporting actor Rob
Oppenheimer ert Downey Jr.
Nolan — a BritishAmerican filmmaker hailed as a generational talent — said that film as an art form still has room to grow.
“We don’t know where this incredible journey is going from here. But to know that you think that
I’m a meaningful part of it means the world to me.”
The movie also snapped up prizes for editing, cinematography and best original score.
The other huge smash of 2023, Greta Gerwig’s pop feminist blockbuster Barbie, only won one Oscar for best original song. Billie Eilish’s What Was I Made For? was the winning song.
Emma Stone won best actress for her daring performance in the surreal, Frankensteinesque Poor Things.
The U.K scored its firstever best international film Oscar with Auschwitz drama The Zone of Interest.
Political undertones
Several nominees wore lapel pins calling for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
There were also references to the war in Ukraine, with a best documentary statuette for 20 Days in Mariupol, and a brief tribute paid to Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, the subject of last year’s Oscarwinning documentary.