The best and worst moments from the 2024 Oscars

The 96th Academy Awards provided some memorable moments and maybe a few we'd rather collectively forget.

The 96th Oscars had a lot to celebrate, what with a rough year plagued by two dueling strikes, a couple of world-rocking blockbusters, and a crop of truly great films. Noted safe bet Jimmy Kimmel returned to host and breezed through the night — well, as much as three-plus hours can breeze by. Here are the best and worst moments from the 2024 Oscars

Best: Messi's bow tie serve

Everyone looked great at the Oscars, but Messi from Anatomy of a Fall was already going to steal hearts when he showed up dressed to the K-9s in a doggy bow tie. Ryan Gosling, who? Messi's the handsomest boy of the night.

Best: Supporting actresses supporting other supporting actresses

The Supporting Actress race got a nice personal touch when former Supporting Actress winners Mary Steenburgen, Lupita Nyong'o, Jamie Lee Curtis, Rita Moreno, and Regina King came out to pay tribute to this year's nominees — who also happened to be their friends.

Worst: Supporting actors supporting other supporting actors

While the Best Supporting Actress presenters felt like a warm sisterhood, the Best Supporting Actors came off more like a sports bar at last call. But Sam Rockwell's lively tribute to eventual/inevitable Supporting Actor winner Robert Downey Jr. provided some welcome energy.

Best: Teamsters get a standing O

Host Jimmy Kimmel gave some much-deserved love to the Teamsters and IATSE members, who got to bask in the brief admiration of Hollywood's brightest. Kimmel thanked them for standing with SAG-AFTRA during the strike and vowed to stand with them in return when it came to their negotiations.

Best: Happy Mother's Day, Yoko!

Sean Lennon slipped in a birthday shout-out and a (U.K.) Mother's Day wish to his 91-year-old mom and perennial badass Yoko Ono, asking everyone to wish her a Happy Mother's Day right before he got played off while accepting the Best Animated Short award. The attendees at the 96th Oscars gamely complied. What a good son!

Worst: Stuntin' on the Oscars

The Academy is really dragging its feet with a category honoring stunts, but they decided to throw together a clip package of some iconic stunt work throughout cinema, presented by forthcoming Fall Guy star Ryan Gosling. While Gosling and Barbenheimer rival Emily Blunt were the best presenting duo of the night, Hollywood's stunt people deserve a little more based on the last decade of movies alone.

Best: John Cena

John Cena is not only a perfect physical specimen, but a great sport and an even better comedic actor. Paying "tribute" to the 1974 streaker at the Oscars, Cena reluctantly came on stage au natural, muttering, "Costumes...," before presenting the award for dressing actors. Honestly, any excuse to get John Cena naked is appreciated, but throw some jokes in there and the whole family's entertained.

Worst: The Diane Inside

The Academy is just trolling Diane Warren at this point, nominating her for a 15th(!) Best Original Song Oscar, for "The Fire Inside" from Flamin' Hot. Becky G and some conveniently adorable kids tried to sell Warren's latest trophy bid, but it definitely stood out from the other nominees. For not being good.

Best: Ryan Gosling's Kenergy

Ryan Gosling was never going to win the Oscar, but he won the Oscars. From his casual décolletage on the red carpet to his hilarious presentation with frenemy Emily Blunt to his magnum opus, an epic performance of "I'm Just Ken" (in a sequined hot pink suit, no less), Gosling proved that Kenergy is nothing more than good, old-fashioned star power. And he's got tons of it.

Worst: In Memoriam

Okay, the In Memoriam was lovely, but it was also a lot. We had dancers, we had a symphony, we had multiple screens of varying sizes, we had Andrea Boccelli and his son — there was just a lot going on and it pulled focus away from the stars we've lost, many whose names weren't even visible between all the over-the-top loveliness.

Best: The end of Barbenheimer

It's been months since Hollywood latched on with a steely jaw to the Barbenheimer craze, pitting Barbie and Oppenheimer against one another for a box office bonanza it hadn't seen in years. Barbie may have won the box office, but as it became increasingly clear during this awards season — and as Emily Blunt jabbed Ryan Gosling during the ceremony — "it wasn't much of a rivalry." Oppenheimer won seven awards, including Best Picture and Barbie won Best Original Song ... but remains a cultural phenomenon. So everybody wins and now we can all move on with our lives.

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