March 10 (UPI) — “Oppenheimer” was named the Best Picture of 2023 while its stars Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. won Best Actor and Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards gala in Beverly Hills, California, on Sunday.
“I’m a little overwhelmed,” Murphy said, dedicating his win to the “peacemakers everywhere.”
Addressing his director Christopher Nolan — with whom he also worked on “Dunkirk,” “Inception” and “The Dark Knight” trilogy — Murphy said: “It’s been the wildest, most exhilarating, most creatively satisfying journey you’ve taken me on over these last 20 years. I owe you more than I can say.”
Nolan also won the Best Director honor for “Oppenheimer.”
“I’d like to thank my terrible childhood and the Academy in that order,” Downey Jr. said as he collected his Oscar and basked in the glow of a standing ovation from his peers.
The actor, who always has been candid about his battles with drug addiction years ago, went on to thank his wife, Susan, who he said “found me a snarling rescue pet and loved me back to life.
“That’s why I’m here,” he added.
“Oppenheimer” also won the trophies for Best Director, Best Score, Editing and Cinematography.
Emma Stone won her second Oscar for Best Actress for “Poor Things,” which also picked up the Oscars for Best Hair and Makeup, Costume Design and Production Design.
“It’s not about me. It’s about a team that came together to make something greater than the sum of its parts,” Stone said. “That is the best part about making movies — all of us together.”
She also gave a shout out to her parents, brother, husband Dave McCary and their daughter, who she said will turn 3 this week, and has “turned our world technicolor.”
“I love you bigger than the whole sky, my girl,” Stone said.
Paul Giamatti escorted his “The Holdovers” co-star Da’Vine Joy Randolph to the stage so she could accept her Best Supporting Actress statuette.
“God is so good,” she said, with tears streaming down her cheeks.
In a heartfelt speech, she thanked all of the people — particularly her mother — who encouraged her to act when she thought singing was the path for her.
“I am so grateful to all of you beautiful people out there,” she added. “I’ve always wanted to be different and now I realize I just need to be myself. I thank you for seeing me.”
Moments later, “The Boy and the Heron” won the award for Best Animated Feature, while “Anatomy of a Fall” earned the honor for Best Original Screenplay and “American Fiction” scored the prize for Best Adapted Screenplay.
“The Zone of Interest” was named Best International Feature Film and also won for Best Sound, while “Godzilla Minus One” earned the accolade for Best Visual Effects and “20 Days in Mariupol” was voted Best Documentary.
Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell won for Best Song for “What Was I Made For” from “Barbie.”
Filmmaker Wes Anderson scored his first Oscar for Best Live Action Short for “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” but he wasn’t in attendance.
Jimmy Kimmel — who hosted the gala honoring excellence in film — joked that Anderson couldn’t be there because he was at home “building a diorama out of courdoray,” referring to the nostalgic aesthetic of Anderson’s movies.
The comedian opened the show by thanking the crowd of “beautiful human actors” — a dig at Hollywood’s recent battle to limit the use of artificial intelligence in cinema and TV — for the “partial standing ovation” they gave him.
The show aired live on ABC.
“Oppenheimer” went into the competition with 13 nominations, followed by “Poor Things” with 11 nominations and “Killers of the Flower Moon” with 10 nominations.
