The 96th Academy Awards held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California, saw Oppenheimer leading the winners list with seven awards and Christopher Nolan being honored with his first-ever Oscar for Best Director, with Robert Downey Jr. also taking home his first at the prestigious ceremony. Although there were no major upsets, Emma Stone was quite surprised after bagging the Best Actress accolade for Poor Things as she secured the win over Lily Gladstone, who was the frontrunner and a hot favorite for her performance in Killers of the Flower Moon. Hosted once again by Jimmy Kimmel, the Oscars 2024, were, for the most part, quite eventful and packed in a number of moments that will be remembered for time to come.
Below are some of the most memorable moments from Oscars 2024:
Messi stealing the show in a bow tie
As with every Oscars ceremony, we see stars descend looking an absolute delight for the eyes, while at times making us wonder what were they even thinking. However, the evening at the 96th Academy Awards saw Messi from Anatomy of a Fall being the big star attraction showing up in a doggy bow tie. Undoubtedly the most handsome good boy of the night!
Jimmy Kimmel celebrating the real folks who kept spirit of Hollywood alive
Jimmy Kimmel, as true to his self, over the years and this time too, in his opening monologue gave everyone a bit of everything in his jokes, including one about Robert Downey Jr.’s drug past, while also touching over how Greta Gerwig got snubbed. However, the most memorable moment of the night turned out to be when the popular American talk show host went on to give a big shoutout to the film crews and how Hollywood pulled itself up through the writers' and actors' strikes. "This very strange town of ours, as pretentious and superficial as it can be, at heart is a union town," he said, before bringing out members from the lighting crew, sound, camera, gaffers, grips, including teamsters and ruck drivers, and then adding, "All the people who refused to cross the picket line."
The 'Barbenheimer' showdown
Looks like there's no end yet to the big Barbenheimer debate, which this time took over the Oscars stage. While Oppenheimer received 13 nominations, Barbie landed eight, with stars from both the films, Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling, went back on forth about the events that had transpired up until the day today. As both the stars recognized the legacy of stunt performers while teasing their upcoming film Fall Guy, Blunt spoke about how Barbie had performed "pretty well" on the awards circuit, with Gosling taking a shot at his co-presenter claiming the Oppenheimer team were "riding Barbie’s coattails all summer." Blunt did give it back to Gosling accusing him of "Ken-splaining" and delivering a mic drop moment referring to him as "Mr. ‘I Need to Paint My Abs to Get Nominated'." In his response, Gosling then called for an end to the feud saying, "This has got to stop. We have to squash this."
John Cena presenting the Best Costume Award... without a single shred of clothing
In what came as a completely shocker and an unexpected moment that will be remembered for a long time, John Cena decided to do a reenactment of a streaker interrupting David Niven’s introduction of Elizabeth Taylor. Commemorate the 50th anniversary of the incident, we see Cena getting stage fright and telling, "Psst, Jimmy (Kimmel), I changed my mind. I don’t want to do the streaker bit anymore." Standing onstage and covering himself with only the Costume Design nominees card, Cena says, "I can’t open the card. The male body is not a joke," with Kimmel responding, "Mine is."
Kenergy ruling the night
Ryan Gosling's "I’m Just Ken" performance was highly-anticipated and he came out firing away on all cylinders in a glittering pink suit during his performance of the smash hit Barbie track alongside the song's co-writer Mark Ronson, with his co-stars from the film also seen grooving around him. Gosling's energy, dubbed as Kenergy, indeed brought the house down at the Oscars 2024, with the star at one point even going to the front row where his Barbie castmates were seated, with Poor Things' Emma Stone also seen singing along.
Oppenheimer delivering the big kaboom winning the Best Picture award
It was indeed one that was anticipated quite a lot with Oppenheimer leading the pack in nominations. "I think any of us who make movies know that you kind of dream of this moment," Oppenheimer producer Emma Thomas said in her acceptance speech after winning the Best Picture trophy, adding, "You know you do, right? I could deny it, but I have been dreaming of this moment for so long but it seemed so unlikely that it would actually happen." With Oppenheimer entering the night with 13 nominations at Oscars 2024, the film won seven awards that included Best Picture, Best Director (Christopher Nolan), Best Actor (Cillian Murphy), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Robert Downey Jr.), Best Original Score (Ludwig Goransson), Best Cinematography (Hoyte van Hoytema), and Best Film Editing (Jennifer Lame). Oppenheimer triumphing at the 96th Academy Awards is a win once again for larger-than-life films reminding exactly why we love Hollywood.
