Oscars 2024: Nine things you might have missed

Oppenheimer was the big winner on the night, the Robert J Oppenheimer biopic taking home seven Academy Awards
Tom Davidson11 March 2024
The Weekender

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It was, truth be told, a rather staid ceremony - flashed up mostly by Ryan Gosling’s electric performance of Barbie’s ‘I’m Just Ken’.

Oppenheimer was the big winner on the night, taking home seven awards including Best Picture and Best Director for Brit Christopher Nolan.

Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr won Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor for their roles as rivals in the smash-hit epic about the creation of the first nuclear bomb.

Poor Things won four awards, including Emma Stone scooping her second Best Actress award, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph won Best Supporting Actress for The Holdovers.

Here are nine things you might have missed from the star-studded ceremony.

1. Wes Anderson winning his first Oscar!

Asteroid City may have been shut out entirely from the Oscars but auteur Wes Anderson, famous for The Grand Budapest Hotel and Rushmore, still took home his first Oscar - Live Action Short.

Anderson won the statuette for The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar.

Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Henry Sugar in The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
Netflix

Based on the story by Roald Dahl, the 39-minute film stars Benedict Cumberbatch and is available to stream on Netflix, after the streaming giant bought the rights to Dahl’s entire catalogue of children’s books in a landmark deal.

It also features Ralph Fiennes, Sir Ben Kingsley, Dev Patel and Richard Ayoade.

2. Martin Scorsese going 0/26 since The Wolf of Wall Street

Killers of the Flower Moon picked up ten nominations but took home zilch on another washout evening for Martin Scorsese.

The Goodfellas filmmaker has frequently been overlooked by the Academy, only finally winning the top prize in 2007 for The Departed.

But his record since then has been poor and a lot of his filmmaking team, such as musician Robbie Robertson (RIP) and editor Thelma Schoonmaker have failed to trouble the engravers.

Between The Wolf of Wall Street, Silence, The Irishman and Killers of the Flower Moon Scorsese’s films have racked up some 26 nominations but not won one. Ouch.

Lily Gladstone was the big hope for Sunday evening. The Indigenous actress, the first ever to be nominated at the Oscars, lost out on Best Actress to Emma Stone.

Also on the ‘snub’ list is legendary production designer Jack Fisk who likewise lost out to Poor Things in his category.

3. Jimmy Kimmel reads out live Trump reaction to his hosting efforts

Jimmy Kimmel was selected as the host for a fourth time, the talk show host widely seen as a safe if uninspiring pair of hands for the biggest night in showbiz.

The reviews have been mixed (jokes about Robert Downey Jr’s drug use probably belong in the 90s) but Kimmel endured no harsher criticism than from Donald Trump.

Kimmel made the decision to read out Trump’s reaction to his hosting efforts.

Trump wrote: “Has there EVER been a WORSE HOST than Jimmy Kimmel at The Oscars. His opening was that of a less than average person trying too hard to be something which he is not, and never can be. Get rid of Kimmel and perhaps replace him with another washed up, but cheap, ABC “talent,” George Slopanopoulos. He would make everybody on stage look bigger, stronger, and more glamorous. Also a really bad politically correct show tonight, and for years - Disjointed, boring, and very unfair. Why don’t they just give the Oscars to those that deserve them. Maybe that way their audience and TV ratings will come back from the depths. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Kimmel quipped: “Isn’t it past your jail time?”

4. Liza Koshy falling over on the red carpet

US-ENTERTAINMENT-FILM-AWARD-OSCARS-ARRIVALS
US actress Liza Koshy took a tumble on the red carpet
AFP via Getty Images

Oh dear, Liza Koshy. You are not the first and you will not be the last.

The American media personality and actress lost her footing on the red carpet, crashing to the floor (thankfully, she was uninjured).

Koshy, 27, was able to laugh off the incident, which was likely due to her outrageous footwear. Her 26m TikTok followers probably saw the funny side too.

5. Wolfgang Van Halen features on I’m Just Ken with Ryan Gosling and Slash

The highlight of the evening was Ryan Gosling’s electric performance of the Barbie smash hit song I’m Just Ken.

Oscar producers were even able to rope in iconic Guns ‘n Roses guitarist Slash to help out, his legendary hat firmly affixed to his head.

US-ENTERTAINMENT-FILM-AWARD-OSCARS-SHOW
Hiding behind Ryan Gosling is one Wolfgang Van Halen
AFP via Getty Images

Also alongside them was one Wolfgang Van Halen, son of rock legend Eddie.

Wolfgang told a cheeky lie on the red carpet and denied he would be performing I’m Just Ken... but the Ken-ergy was just too much for him to resist and he shred some licks too.

6. Lance Reddick, Suzanne Somers and Treat Williams left out of ‘In Memoriam’ section

The Academy faces annual criticism of their ‘In Memoriam’ section which remembers Hollywood stars lost in the past year.

This year it kicked off with a remembrance of Alexei Navalny, the political prisoner who died on February 16 and was profiled in last year’s documentary feature winner Navalny.

But it was who didn’t feature that drew ire on social media, with Lance Reddick, Suzanne Somers and Treat Williams all overlooked.

British filmmaking legend Terence Davies was reduced to simply the block of names at the end.

7. An Insomnia reunion for Best Picture

Whether by accident or design, there was a nice reunion on stage for Christopher Nolan and Al Pacino when the Brit came on stage to collect the Oscar for Best Picture.

Pacino’s presenting work maybe needed a bit more practice. He failed to give the other nominees their due, saying: “Ten wonderful films are nominated, but only one will take the award for best picture. And I have to go to the envelope for that. And I will. Here it comes. And my eyes see Oppenheimer, yes!”

96th Academy Awards - Oscars Photo Room - Hollywood
REUTERS

In Nolan’s first major studio picture, Insomnia, he directed acting legend Pacino alongside Robin Williams as two homicide detectives in Alaska investigating a murder while the sun never sets.

It’s the only film of Nolan’s that he doesn’t have screen-writing credit for and was enough of a success to land him Batman Begins (and the rest, as they say, is history).

8. Messi the dog given a plush seat - and giving out some applause

Messi, the dog from Anatomy of a Fall, was the star of awards season.

He was such a hit that other nominees are reported to have complained that he was giving the courtroom drama an unfair advantage with voters as he schmoozed with Hollywood’s great and good.

It was reported that he “overshadowed every human actor at the annual nominees luncheon”, making some jealous.

96th Annual Academy Awards - Show
A very good doggo
Getty Images

Despite this he was given a prime slot for the big night itself.

He even got a nod of approval from Barbie star Ryan Gosling, when the pup was seen 'clapping' for Robert Downey Jr - thanks to some fake paw trickery.

Anatomy of a Fall ended up winning Best Original Screenplay.

9. Mini-Godzillas take to the stage... sort of

Godzilla: Minus One was the low-budget box office hit of the year and it was rewarded with some silverware: a well-deserved Best Visual Effects Oscar. The computer work in the movie belied the $15m reported budget and the film became a surprise hit.

The award marks the first-ever Oscar for the legendary Godzilla franchise, which is 70 years old.

The winners decided to take their toy Godzillas to the stage with them to collect their awards, though they were dwarfed by the famous statuette.

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