Oscars 2024: ‘Oppenheimer’ sweeps wins in the major categories
At the 2024 Oscars ceremony, Oppenheimer proved to be the big winner, sweeping the most awards out of all the nominees.
Christopher Nolan’s movie, which was released in July 2023, coincided with Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and spawned the ‘Barbenheimer’ phenomenon, one of the cinema industry’s biggest success stories since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
The film stars Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, one of the leading men responsible for creating the atomic bomb. Nolan charts the highs and lows of his career, including his relationships with Emily Blunt’s Kitty and Florence Pugh’s Jean.
Since its release, Oppenheimer has taken award season by storm, winning seven Baftas, including ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Actor’ for Murphy.
However, at the Academy Awards, the most prestigious of all film ceremonies, Oppenheimer has proved triumphant with seven wins. The film was predicted to win big following its consistent success at other award shows.
Robert Downey Jr grabbed the first award for Oppenheimer by picking up his first Oscar after his third nomination, in the ‘Best Supporting Actor’ category. The actor not only thanked his wife who “loved him back to life,” but the cast of Oppenheimer. It wasn’t the end of the evening for the colossal Chris Nolan project, quickly picking up the second gong of the night, ‘Best Editing’.
Hoyte Van Hoyten joined Downey Jr in picking up an award for Oppenheimer, who grabbed the award for ‘Best Cinematography’ and invited the room to work with the “crazy new invention” celluloid in the future. ‘Best Original Score’ was the next award to find its way to one of the hands of the Oppenheimer collective.
Cillian Murphy became the first Irish actor to win a prestigious award, beating Bradley Cooper, Colman Domingo, Paul Giamatti and Jeffrey Wright to win ‘Best Actor’. Talking to the stage, Murphy said in his acceptance speech: “We live in Oppenheimer’s world, whether we like it or not. I dedicate this to the peacemakers.” Oppenheimer also swept home the ‘Best Directing’ award, with Christopher Nolan grabbing his first Oscar win. He thanked his wife, Emma Thomas, saying, “you produced all our movies and all our children.”
Oppenheimer then claimed the biggest prize of the night by taking home the award for ‘Best Picture’. Al Pacino may have bumbled the news, but the team behind the project were still thrilled to take the stage and collect their prize. “You dream of this moment,” said Emma Thomas, “the reason this movie was the movie it was is Chris Nolan. He is singular. He is brilliant.”
In a four-and-a-half-star review of Oppenheimer, Far Out said, “With Oppenheimer, [Nolan] hasn’t just delivered an entertaining, thought-provoking movie as he had done with his previous efforts, but a thoroughly important one that informs even the most sheltered of us about the global situation we find ourselves in today.”
How many Oscar categories are there?
Every Oscars ceremony has 24 categories with prizes up for grabs. Some of these categories are more widely discussed than others, such as the acting, directing, and writing awards, while the technical awards usually attract fewer industry eyes.
In 2026, a ‘Best Casting’ category will be added to the ceremony for the first time in its almost 100-year history. Releasing a statement that outlines the plan, the Academy wrote: “On behalf of the members of the Casting Directors Branch, we’d like to thank the Board of Governors, the Awards Committee and Academy leadership for their support. This award is a deserved acknowledgement of our casting directors’ exceptional talents and a testament to the dedicated efforts of our branch”.
Did Christopher Nolan use a real atomic bomb in Oppenheimer?
No. There is no way that Nolan would’ve been able to set off a real atomic bomb for use in Oppenheimer – that would’ve been incredibly dangerous. However, he didn’t use CGI, leaving many audience members wondering how he achieved the finished effect.
Much camera trickery was used to create the atomic bomb, such as letting off a small explosion in a controlled environment. This was just 200 feet high, yet the crew filmed it extremely close up so that it appeared much larger and impressive on screen.
Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema stated that many different experiments were played with before the crew were satisfied with the most realistic-looking explosion. He explained, “We created science experiments. We built aquariums with power in it. We dropped silver particles in it. We had moulded metallic balloons which were lit up from the inside”.
Never Miss A Scene
The Far Out Film Newsletter
All the latest film news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.