The announced explosion took place: “Oppenheimer” won the Oscar for best picture on Sunday, along with six other statuettes, during a great evening for the French film “Anatomy of a Fall”, rewarded for its screenplay.
Blessed with rave reviews and impeccable casting, Christopher Nolan's portrait of the father of the atomic bomb largely dominated the evening.
“I can't stress enough the incredible team we've assembled for this film,” the filmmaker responded, taking advantage of his award for best director to thank all the actors.
Cillian Murphy, masterful as Robert Oppenheimer, a nuclear genius full of contradictions and doubts, won the Oscar for best actor.
“For better or worse, we live in the world of Oppenheimer” and the atomic bomb, observed the Irishman. “So I would really like to dedicate this award to peacemakers around the world.”
His on-screen antagonist, Robert Downey Jr., who plays a conservative bureaucrat who orchestrates the scientist's public humiliation, won best supporting actor.
The film's consecration was complemented by other technical statuettes – editing, photography, soundtrack – worthy of the reputation as a popular masterpiece that it has forged since its theatrical release this summer.
“Anatomy of a Fall” was unable to play spoilsport to prevent this announced triumph.
This legal thriller about the downfall of a dysfunctional couple of artists, where an ambiguous writer played by Sandra Hüller finds herself accused of the murder of her husband, had to be content with a single Oscar in the five categories in which it was nominated: that of best original screenplay.
“It will help me get through my midlife crisis,” joked the very moved French filmmaker Justine Triet, who rubbed shoulders with Nolan and Martin Scorsese for its direction.
“It's a crazy year,” she breathed, alongside her partner Arthur Harari, with whom she co-wrote the script.
Her work has established itself as the best representative of French cinema internationally since “Amour”, Oscar for best foreign film in 2013, and “The Artist”, which won five statuettes in 2012.
Palme d'Or at Cannes, “Anatomy of a Fall” was notably rewarded with two Golden Globes and a Bafta – the equivalent of the British Césars.
Emma Stone was the other big winner of the evening. After “La La Land” in 2017, the actress won her second Oscar for best actress for “Poor Creatures.”
This baroque tale by Yorgos Lanthimos won four statuettes in total, praising its retrofuturistic aesthetic.
She plays Bella Baxter, a suicide brought back to life by a crazy scientist, who implants the brain of the baby she was carrying inside her.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000The opportunity for her to deliver a joyfully regressive performance, as a creature who discovers sex and the thousand other pleasures of life, without any shame or prejudice.
This role was “the gift of a lifetime”, reacted the actress, thanking her director and expressing her admiration for all her competitors.
This category was the tightest: Lily Gladstone, remarkable as a Native American poisoned by her husband in “Killers of the Flower Moon”, by Martin Scorsese, left empty-handed.
Nominated for “Anatomy of a Fall”, Sandra Hüller was able to console herself with the other film in which she was starring: “The Zone of Interest” won the Oscar for best international film for its chronicle of the carefree life of a Nazi family right next to Auschwitz.
Its director Jonathan Glazer sent a message of peace to the Middle East, currently undermined by Israel's war in Gaza.
“Our film shows how dehumanization leads to the worst,” recalled the Jewish filmmaker, estimating that the Israelis killed on October 7 in the Hamas attack and the 31,000 Palestinian deaths are “all victims of this dehumanization.”
Several stars, including Billie Eilish, Ramy Youssef and French actor Swann Arlaud, wore a pin calling for a ceasefire, while several small demonstrations by activists took place in the streets of Los Angeles.
The atrocities of the war in Ukraine were also discussed, with the Oscar for best documentary awarded to “20 days in Mariupol”, on the siege of the city.
The rest of the evening was punctuated by comedian Jimmy Kimmel's many nods to the blockbuster “Barbie,” the absolute king of the global box office last year.
Billie Eilish performed the film's title track “What Was I Made For?,” which won an Oscar for best song. And Ryan Gosling set the room on fire in a pink sequined suit, singing his narcissistic ballad “I'm Just Ken.”
Among other major awards, Da'Vine Joy Randolph (“Winter Break”) was voted best supporting actress. “The Boy and the Heron”, by Japanese master Hayao Miyazaki, won the Oscar for best animated film.
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