This Year’s Oscars Had Plenty of Highs—and Some Very Real Lows

The blockbuster filmmaker’s long-awaited Best Picture victory is paralleled only by Spielberg’s. Read more about the precedent for Nolan’s triumph—and what sets the two victories apart. —Dan Kois

10:30 p.m.: It took a few minutes to even process that the final winner had been announced, thanks in part to the incredibly blasé way presenter Al Pacino mumbled, “My eyes see Oppenheimer” while peering at the Best Picture card. But the other part of the equation was that many people—both attendees in the theater and spectators online—seemed to be left reeling after Emma Stone ended up taking home the Best Actress award, beating out Lily Gladstone.

While Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon hasn’t gotten nearly as much love on the awards circuit as have Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, Gladstone had been considered one of the odds-on favorites in the tight race for Best Actress, racking up a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award along the way for her performance as an Osage woman betrayed by her white husband in the 1920s. Gladstone’s win would have been historic; she would have been not only the first Native Best Actress winner, but also the first out queer actor—she identifies as “middle-gendered” and uses the pronouns she/they—to take home the prize.

Stone, accepting her award onstage at the Dolby Theatre, appeared flustered and even a little discomfited. “Lily, I share this with you,” she said, in an echo of previous awards winners who have found themselves in the unenviable position of achieving a career high that many believe should have gone to someone else. This is Stone’s second Best Actress win, with her first being for her role in 2016’s La La Land. Her turn as Bella Baxter in Poor Things has been widely praised; Slate’s Dana Stevens calls it a “technically astounding yet thrillingly unhinged performance.” I don’t think anyone would argue that Stone doesn’t deserve her win; it’s more the wistful wish that she could have won any other way. —Jenny G. Zhang

9:50 p.m.: Ryan Gosling’s performance of “I’m Just Ken” was hands-down the best part of the Oscars. Read more about the electrifying moment and watch it again. —Nadira Goffe

9:44 p.m.: Given the choice between a funny, spirited showstopper and a weepy ballad, those in the academy will always pull out their handkerchiefs. Read about the glory of “I’m Just Ken” and the Oscars’ rejection of comic tunes here. —Dan Kois

9:30 p.m.: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, the lovely short bankrolled by Netflix and adapted by Wes Anderson from a Roald Dahl story, has won its expected Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film. This feels as if it should be illegal in some way, huge names dipping into a race meant to celebrate the little guy. Anderson didn’t even show up!

Except. Each year, I go to see these shorts. Each year, I think, This will be the year when each entry will not involve the horrible and bizarre death of a child(ren), usually for a “topical” reason, presented to manipulate academy dupes to give Oscars to the least worthy people possible. This year, once again, I was proved wrong. This year’s slate included:

There has been a periodic uproar over how the academy treats this category, sometimes threatening to cut it from the broadcast, and I am always sympathetic—except for once a year, when I see the actual nominees. —Jeffrey Bloomer

9:11 p.m.: More than anything, the Oscars are a celebration of how the movie industry sees itself: This is what we do. Which is part of what makes 20 Days in Mariupol such an interesting winner. Directed by the Associated Press reporter Mstyslav Chernov, the movie is composed of footage shot at the beginning of the Russian attack on the Ukrainian city. It’s often brutally graphic, featuring shots of dead children and infants, a true shock to the conscience. And yet, as he struggles to transmit his footage and waits to see if editors and networks will actually use it, Chernov frequently doubts in voice-over whether any of this will make a difference. “Thousands have died,” he says. “We keep filming. Things stay the same.”

20 Days ends on a note of minor triumph, with a montage of the images we’ve seen Chernov risking his life to capture being broadcast on major networks. But Chernov’s acceptance speech was bittersweet. “I will probably be the first on this stage to say I wish I would never make this film,” he said. “I wish to be able to exchange this to Russia never attacking Ukraine, never occupying our cities. I wish to give all the recognition to Russia not killing tens of thousands of my fellow Ukrainians.”

Films, Chernov acknowledged, cannot change the past. But they can shape how we understand it. “Cinema forms memories,” he said, “and memories form history.” —Sam Adams

9 p.m.: Made for only $15 million, Godzilla Minus One is the lowest-budget winner of the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in years, but it has another, less happy distinction: It’s the only Oscar nominee that is currently impossible to see. Perhaps because of the forthcoming Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, the movie was removed from theaters on Feb. 1, but it’s currently not available on streaming or physical media. (A Japanese Blu-ray is due May 1, but there’s no U.S. date yet.) So, congratulations to the winners. Hope you can see their award-worthy work somewhere soon. —Sam Adams

8:38 p.m.: It is lovely that Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling did a little appreciation of Hollywood stunt performers. It is slightly less lovely when you realize that the academy is doing this instead of actually just approving an Oscar for Best Stunts. It is even less lovely when you think of it as just pre-publicity for The Fall Guy. On the other hand, that shot of the Bourne cameraperson hanging off a wire freaking ruled. —Dan Kois

8:35 p.m.: Although several celebrities added red buttons to their Oscar-night outfits to support a cease-fire in Gaza, the ceremony started off in a decidedly apolitical vein, unless you count Jimmy Kimmel showing solidarity with below-the-line union workers. But that changed when Jonathan Glazer stepped to the microphone to accept The Zone of Interest’s award for Best International Feature.

Pulling a piece of paper from his pocket, Glazer made clear, as he had since the movie premiered at Cannes last year, that it is a movie not just about the past, but about right now.

This isn’t the first time people involved with the movie have taken the opportunity to speak out on the subject. After winning the top prize at the BAFTAs last month, producer James Wilson noted, “It seems stark right now that we should care about innocent people being killed in Gaza or Yemen in the same way we think about innocent people being killed in Mariupol or in Israel.” And as she accepted an award from the London Film Critics’ Circle in January, composer Mica Levi drew a similar parallel between the movie’s historical atrocities and the ones going on right now. “The time we are in can’t be ignored,” they said. “I wish for a cease-fire, as I’m sure we all do, and for some change.”

The Oscars and politics have often been a potent, even explosive mix: In 1978 Vanessa Redgrave prompted boos when she used her acceptance speech for Julia, in which she played the supporting role of an anti-Nazi activist, to strike back at the “Zionist hoodlums” who attacked her support of a documentary about the PLO, and in 1993, presenter Richard Gere was disinvited from the broadcast after he denounced the Chinese government’s human rights abuses while reading out the nominees. But in a turbulent year, with an election looming and the death toll in Gaza surpassing 30,000, it’s been all quiet on the awards front. Outside the Independent Spirit Awards last month, protesters yelled “Free Palestine” loudly enough to be heard (if not necessarily understood) inside the ceremony. But only a few people onstage even noted the disruption, and none joined the cause. Instead, the ceremony’s organizers sent a bus to block the sound waves so the awards-bestowing could go on as planned.

As Glazer began his speech, the broadcast cut to a tearful Sandra Hüller, who plays the wife of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss in the film. And the crowd seemed with him, for a while. But when the camera cut to a wide shot after Glazer ended with a plea for “resistance,” you could see a handful of stars applauding, and many more staying politely uninvolved. —Sam Adams

8:10 p.m.: Well, there’s John Cena leaving very little to the imagination. —Jenny G. Zhang

8 p.m.: Anatomy of a Fall features some of the spikiest exchanges in any movie of the past year, and director and co-writer Justine Triet has accepted the many awards it has won in the same spirit. In May, Triet used her acceptance speech for the Palme d’Or, Cannes’ top prize, to lash out at the French government’s “commodification of culture” and lend her support to the masses protesting Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms—comments that may have cost Anatomy of a Fall its spot as the country’s Oscars submission. (That honor went to Tran Anh Hung’s lovely The Taste of Things, which then failed, perhaps because of the controversy, to make the International Film shortlist.) And when Anatomy racked up six awards, including Best Film, at the Césars (the French Oscars) last month, Triet graciously acknowledged the honor while underlining that she was only the second woman to win best director in the awards’ 49-year history.

But tonight at the Oscars, Triet and her husband and co-writer Arthur Harari accepted their award for Best Original screenplay in surprisingly tame fashion, cracking jokes about plunking their kids in front of cartoons so they could work on the script during lockdown. The broadcast gives many winners the biggest audience they’ve ever had, but the road to the ceremony is so long that some of them have exhausted everything they have to say by the time they get there. Either that or they just get cold feet and decide to play nice. —Sam Adams

7:50 p.m.: As is often the case, the Oscar for Best Animated Short went to the worst of the five nominees. War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko is a very silly short film about the opponents in some kind of war playing chess against one another via carrier pigeon, and it is simple-minded, uninteresting, and laughably dumb. Unlike last year, there wasn’t a slam-dunk winner in this year’s category—they were all pretty beautiful and pretty dull—but the one thing the other four nominees had in common was that they were, like, 10 times better than War Is Over. On the other hand, Sean Ono Lennon looks great. —Dan Kois

7:10 p.m.: Host Jimmy Kimmel brings a lot of surprisingly solid jokes—and a few clunkers, sure (looking at you, Robert Downey Jr.)—plus some good ol’ labor solidarity to the opening monologue. Has the curse of the awards-show host finally ended? Read our ranking of his opening-monologue jokes, from best to most groanworthy. —Jenny G. Zhang

6:50 p.m.: Messi, the breakout canine star of the Oscar-nominated French legal thriller Anatomy of a Fall, has triumphed over haters who apparently took issue with the pooch’s heart-winning presence on the awards circuit and at the annual Oscar nominees luncheon. After news outlets reported that Messi would not be making an appearance at the Academy Awards, the dog—in his best formalwear, no less—was spotted among the audience in the Dolby Theatre. Looks like he got the last word, and it’s “Woof!” —Jenny G. Zhang

6:30 p.m.: Mere hours ago, close to a thousand pro-Palestine protesters gathered in the streets surrounding the Dolby Theatre ahead of the Oscars ceremony. The Los Angeles Times reports that demonstrators shouted “Free Palestine!” and waved signs with messages like “While you’re watching, bombs are dropping.” But inside the steel barriers surrounding the theater, as red-carpet festivities kicked off it appeared to be largely business as usual, save for pins that a handful of attendees pointedly displayed. Actor Ramy Youssef and Oscar-nominated singer Billie Eilish are among the high-profile attendees who wore “Artists for Ceasefire” pins, while Anatomy of a Fall actors Swann Arlaud and Milo Machado-Graner sported pins decorated with the Palestinian flag. Youssef, speaking out directly on the red carpet, said in an interview, “We’re calling for an immediate, permanent cease-fire in Gaza. We’re calling for peace and lasting justice for the people of Palestine.” —Jenny G. Zhang

6 p.m.: One of the most interesting things to keep an eye on about this year’s Academy Awards will be just how many other people have their eyes on them. If all goes as predicted, Oppenheimer will end the night as the highest-grossing Best Picture since The Return of the King, with generous representation for the year’s box-office champ, Barbie. Will having popular movies in play bring audiences back to the Oscars?

Ratings for the broadcast have risen in the past two years, but only compared to the dire numbers put up by the pandemic-era broadcast in 2021. Last year’s ceremony was watched by 18.7 million viewers, just over a third of the 57 million who tuned in to witness Titanic win Best Picture in 1998—a record that, like the 120 million copies sold by Michael Jackson’s Thriller, changing technology has made virtually inconceivable to surpass. Critics have placed the blame on the academy’s supposedly rarefied taste, which, after The Dark Knight missed out on a Best Picture nomination in 2009, led the Oscars to expand the Best Picture field to 10 nominations in a bid to make room for more populist choices.

That hasn’t entirely worked out as planned; with a few exceptions, including 2022’s Avatar and Top Gun sequels, voters have used the extra slots mainly to recognize more small-budget and international fare. And the Academy Awards’ ratings have continued to dwindle. But is it really the movies’ fault? The Oscars’ most-watched broadcast of the 21^st century was in 2014, when Best Picture went to 12 Years a Slave—a historic winner, but no one’s idea of a blockbuster.

It’s true that the year of The Return of the King, in 2004, drew the Oscars’ second-biggest audience since the turn of the millennium. But this year’s Oscars will act as an acid test for the idea that having more popular nominees guarantees a larger audience. It seems more plausible that the Oscars’ ratings have shrunk for the simple reason that fewer people are watching TV overall, especially in the ways TV ratings measure. (At this point, acting as if the only audience that matters is people watching in real time on their TV sets comes close to professional malpractice.) If Oppenheimer wins and the ratings don’t soar, we’ll know for certain that the Oscars’ problems are bigger and more intractable than any blockbuster can fix. —Sam Adams

5:30 p.m.: This year, the 96^th Academy Awards have an early kickoff time of 7 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. As always, Slate’s Culture team will be weighing in on the broadcast all night, covering the triumphs, the outrages, the number of “Ken” puns uttered, and so much more. Will host Jimmy Kimmel bring groans or laughter? Will Cillian Murphy find some way to radiate his disdain for the British? Who will take home the ultimate prize (a pure and unsullied love of cinema)? Stick around and find out.

Read more in Slate about the Oscars.