The 2024 Oscar night belongs to Oppenheimer. The biography of the father of the atomic bomb won seven statuettes tonight, including Best Picture, Directing and the two male acting awards. The triumph of the film that portrays the progress of the Manhattan Project has occurred while reality has knocked on the door of the industry party. A thousand people demonstrated around the Dolby to demand a ceasefire in Gaza. “We are living in Oppenheimer’s world, so I really want to dedicate this to the peacemakers everywhere,” said on stage Irishman Cillian Murphy, one of the ten actors who entered tonight’s theater being nominated for the first time and has emerged Oscar-winner for playing the American physicist in what was his sixth collaboration with Christopher Nolan. Poor Things won four awards, including Best Actress for Emma Stone.

Hollywood wanted to celebrate itself, but reality made itself heard outside the Dolby. Nearly a thousand people protested outside the theater, which was under heavy LAPD security. Demonstrators waved Palestinian flags. They also blocked traffic before the start of the ceremony, which hindered the arrival of the stars in their limousines. Carlos Bayona, brother of Juan Antonio Bayona, director of Society of the Snow, got out of the car ahead of schedule to arrive on foot. Carey Mulligan, nominated for best actress for Maestro, entered the theater after the first award, best supporting actress, was presented to Da’vine Joy Randolph, for The Holdovers.

The ceremony, which this year aired an hour earlier than usual, started late. Comedian Jimmy Kimmel, who hosted the ceremony for the fourth time, devoted more minutes to the strike that has paralyzed the industry for months. He did not touch on the issue, which has left more than 30,000 dead in Palestine, many of them innocent minors. The first reference came with Jonathan Glazer, the director of The Zone of Interest, which won two Oscars for Best International Film and Sound. “Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst, it shaped all of our past and present,” said the British filmmaker. “Whether the victims of October the 7 in Israel or the ongoing attack in Gaza (….) How do we resist this dehumanization?” he added.

This was a night of redemption for Christopher Nolan, who was first nominated in 2001 for the screenplay of Memento. Before Hollywood became a superhero movie factory, the filmmaker achieved box-office and critical success with his Batman trilogy. The second installment, where he directed a brilliant Heath Ledger, was overlooked in the 2009 Best Picture nominations. This caused such an uproar that it prompted the Academy to expand the main category from five to ten films to accommodate more titles. In 2017, Nolan received his first nomination as a director, for Dunkirk. Today he is considered one of the most important talents in the industry, to the extent of being compared to Stanley Kubrick.

Another actor with long experience in comic book films has been awarded for the first time. Robert Downey Jr. received his first nomination 32 years ago for playing Charlie Chaplin in Richard Attenborough’s film. Today he gets the statuette for playing another flesh-and-blood character, Lewis Strauss, the commissioner of the Atomic Energy Commission and who serves as the antagonist in Oppenheimer. “I want to thank my terrible childhood and the Academy, in that order,” the actor said in his thank-you speech. His career was marked, prior to the years as Marvel’s Iron Man, by addiction problems. “I needed this job more than it needed me,” he added.

Emma Stone starred in one of the great moments of the night when she picked up her second Oscar. The actress won for her portrayal of Bella Baxter, the creation of Godwin Baxter in the film Poor Things, directed by Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos and written by his collaborator Tony McNamara. The film took home four awards tonight. Many in the theater let out a surprised expression. Although Stone was the favorite, the pools also gave a chance to Lily Gladstone, who was the first Native American to be nominated for best actress for Killers of the Flower Moon. The film by Martin Scorsese, who at 81 was the oldest nominee in the directing category, came up empty-handed. The same happened with The Irishman and Gangs of New York.

The Poor Things team was one of the most supportive of Gaza. They wore a blood red pin to demand a ceasefire. “It’s a universal message of, ‘Let’s stop killing kids. Let’s not be part of more war.’” said Ramy Youssef, one of the actors. Billie Eilish, who won her second Oscar for the Barbie song, What Was I Made For? also wore it proudly on her outfit.

Japanese animation genius Hayao Miyazaki, who did not travel to Los Angeles, won his third Oscar for The Boy and the Heron, a film that took seven years to produce. It is the first Oscar he has WON since 2014, when he was awarded the honorary one for his career. The European filmmakers did not leave empty-handed. In addition to Glazer’s awards, Justine Triet and Arthur Harari, the French artist couple who used marital tensions as the basis for constructing the thriller Anatomy of a Fall, took home the award for original screenplay.

Tonight officially ended the year started by the Barbenheimer phenomenon. Oppenheimer triumphed and Barbie is left with the victories she achieved at the box office. Kimmel kicked off the night by digging into the wound, asking for recognition for Greta Gerwig, the director of the film about the Mattel doll. Gerwig was not nominated despite leading the year’s blockbuster, with more than $1.4 billion grossed. “Now you’re clapping but you’re the ones who didn’t vote for her,” Kimmel said. So began the night in which Hollywood celebrated itself by barely talking about the war.

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