Oscars 2024: Firsts

This year's Oscar Awards marked the first time many artists and filmmakers received this world's most prestigious award in cinema.

This year's ceremony marked a seven-Oscar sweep for “Oppenheimer,” the strongest contender on the nominations list, with awards for Best Director Christopher Nolan, Best Actor Cillian Murphy, Best Supporting Actor Robert Downey Jr., as well as awards for Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, and Best Original Score.

This is the first Oscar in the film career of director Christopher Nolan. Although he is a big name, and a guarantee of blockbusters at the box office, this is the first artistic award for this British director. Before that, he was the name that made the success of films such as Batman trilogy "The Dark Knight", "Inception" and "Memento".

Cillian Murphy, who plays the lead role of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb during World War II, also received his first Oscar. He began his acting career very early, in 1996 with the play “Disco Pigs”. In 20205, Cillian Murphy was nominated for a Golden Globe for his role in the film “Breakfast on Pluto”. The Oscar for Best Actor is the most prestigious film award he has won to date. He is also the first Irish actor to receive this award.

As the film's Supporting Actor, Robert Downey Jr. also held his own golden statuette for the first time. He had been nominated once in 1993, before his career was sunk by a drug-related scandal.

“Oppenheimer” is also the highest-grossing film to win an Oscar since 2004’s “Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.” Its global box office receipts to date are more than $957 million. “Oppenheimer” is also the first film to win both Best Picture and Best Actor. Only 1960’s “Ben Hur” has ever done so.

Actress Emma Stone caused a huge surprise when she beat out strong competition from Indigenous actress Lily Gladstone in “Killers of the Flower Moon” to win the Best Actress award.

She played Bella Baxter in “Poor Things,” a film adapted from the novel of the same name by Alasdair Gray. Before the Oscar, she had won a series of other important film awards for this role, such as the Golden Globe and BAFTA. This is the second Oscar for the actress, after the award for the film “La La Land” in 2017.

Da'Vine Joy Randolph won the Best Supporting Actress award for her role in the 70s film "The Holdovers". Among the actors receiving the golden statuette this year, Da'Vine Joy Randolph is a relatively new face. The role in the film brought this black actress a series of pre-Oscar awards such as BAFTA, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild of America... On stage to receive the award, she emotionally shared in tears: "For a long time, I always wanted to be different. And now I've realized that I just need to be myself."

“Oppenheimer’s” main “rival” “Barbie” this year failed miserably at the Oscars, winning only one award for Best Song, “What Was I Made For?” performed by singer Billie Eilish.

The British-Polish drama "The Zone of Interest" was awarded the Best Foreign Language Film award. The film, directed by Jonathan, is set in the 1940s and tells the story of a family of commandants of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland who live next to the Jewish crematorium.

Legendary Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki has won his second Oscar for his latest film, “The Boy and the Heron.” He is the only Japanese director to have two animated films win the prestigious award, which usually goes to American films and directors. In 2003, his film “Spirited Away” was the first Japanese film to be awarded the golden statuette.

Justine Triet and her partner Arthur Harari won Best Original Screenplay for the drama “Anatomy of a Fall.” Triet is also the first French woman to win an Oscar in this category.

Best Adapted Screenplay went to Cord Jefferson for “American Fiction,” his directorial debut, adapted from the novel “Erasure” by Percival Everett.

The film “20 Days in Mauripol” won the award for Best Documentary. The award for Best Visual Effects went to the crew of “Godzilla Minus One”, also a Japanese team.

HA CHI. (PHOTO: GETTY IMAGE)

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