March is many people’s
favorite month for many different
reasons, maybe due to March
Madness, setting our clocks back to normal, the coming of spring, or what I’m here to talk
about today…the Oscars! The beloved Academy Awards the whole world gathers around to
watch each year. And this year marks the 96th anniversary of the Oscars, which started in 1929.
2023 was a year full of inspiration, creation, invention, and beauty. I’d say it’s one of the best
cinematic years we’ve had in a very long time in the movie industry. This year, the Oscars were
held on March 10, 2024, so if you didn’t have time to watch them, we’ll go over the
achievements and highlights together right here. And although the Academy Awards has
twenty-four awards, I’m just going to talk about four total awards.
All awards, big or small, are honorable achievements, however, we’re going to start with
the key achievements. Starting with the Actor in A Leading Role, there were five nominees in
this category which included, Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer in Oppenheimer,
Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein in Maestro, Colman Domingo as Bayard Rustin in Rustin,
Paul Giamatti with his role as Paul Hunham in The Holdovers, and Jeffery Wright who played
Thelonious ‘Monk’ Ellison in American Fiction. Although I have only seen two out of the five
movies, I have still seen their talent put forth in additional movies. Each actor, extremely skilled

Oppenheimer won Actor in A Leading Role. The movie demonstrates the intense emotion
behind the invention of the atomic bomb and how it completely changed the world forever.
Not only that but how it impacted the individuals involved and the haunting effects left behind.
Cillian Murphy is an incredible actor who has won numerous accolades, including a Golden
Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Critic’s Choice Movie Award,
three IFTA Film & Drama Awards, a Drama Desk Award, and now for the first time, this
Academy Award.
Now that brings us to the award for Actor in A Supporting Role. The five nominees
include Ryan Gosling with his role as Ken in Barbie, Robert Downey Jr. with his role as Rear
Adm. Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer yet again, Mark Ruffalo as Duncan Wedderburn in Poor
Things, Robert De Niro as William Hale in Killers of the Flower Moon, and Sterling K. Brown with
his role as Clifford ‘Cliff’ Ellison in American Fiction. And finally, the winner of Actor in A
Supporting Role goes to Robert Downey Jr. from Oppenheimer. This is another extreme
achievement due to the fact Robert won his first Oscar as well. The man can go from being the
world’s greatest superhero to the chairman of the world’s first atomic bomb. His immense
versatility to play this dynamic man in such a groundbreaking film.
Female actresses have some of the most brilliant and artistic work in the whole movie
industry, putting their expertise into each character and bringing the whole movie together.
Which brings us to the winner of Actress in A Leading Role. Our five nominees include Lily

with her role as Diana Nyad in Nyad, Emma Stone as Bella Baxter in Poor Things, Sandra Huller
as the writer Sandra in Anatomy of a Fall, and lastly Carey Mulligan as Felicia Montealegre
from Maestro. Each character is needed in each movie, giving it life and magic, however, Bella
Baxter was a character we could never forget. We have seen Emma Stone in every genre we
can think of, however her performance in Poor Things was absolutely remarkable. The
evolution and growth shown by Bella are completely two different people, yet Emma Stone did
it all. She expressed the naivete and youthfulness in all of us that somehow transformed into an
independent, curious yet animalistic woman exploring the world. She branched out of what she
knew and explored what she wanted to find out.
We know our Actress in A Leading Role but what about Actress in A Supporting Role?
The five nominees this time were Emily Blunt with her role as his wife, Kitty Oppenheimer
in Oppenheimer, Da’Vine Joy Randolph who played Mary Lamb from The Holdovers, Jodie
Foster with her role as Bonnie Stoll in Nyad, America Ferrera as Gloria in Barbie, and last but
certainly not least, Danielle Brooks as Sofia in The Color Purple. Every award has always been an
extremely hard decision. Nevertheless, our beautiful winner for Actress in A Supporting
Role was Da’Vine Joy Randolph from The Holdovers, playing the beloved lunch lady who gives
the control needed to see the character development brought out in Angus Tully (played by
Dominic Sessa) and challenges the mean old cranky mister Paul Hunham (played by Paul
Giamatti). According to AP News, they said, “She’d been favored all along to win best
supporting actress for “The Holdovers,” but she reduced many to tears with a poignant speech

“And now I realize I just need to be myself.” She thanked a mentor, saying “when I was the only
Black girl in that class, you saw me and told me I was enough.” And she thanked her publicist,
saying she knew that was unusual “but you don’t have a publicist like I have a publicist!”
Randolph added toward the end: “I pray to God that I get to do this more than once.” Hear,
hear.”
Now we’ve covered the awards, but what about the highlights? Who was there? What
did I miss? The adored host for the 96th Academy Awards Ceremony, and for the fourth time,
was Jimmy Kimmel who has his late-night talk show, Jimmy Kimmel Live. With his fun,
charismatic personality, we loved hearing his jokes and his love for each celebrity. One of the
best performances this entire year might see would be Ryan Gosling’s production of “I’m Just
Ken” with the awesome starring of Slash from Guns N’ Roses. Although Ryan Gosling left with
no award, he definitely left his mark. A hilarious back-and-forth smackdown between Emily
Blunt and Ryan Gosling about ‘Barbenheimer’ happened when the two strolled out on stage to
present a montage celebrating the amazing stuntmen and stuntwomen of the movie industry
yet ended up in such an amusing catfight. A quote from USA Today says, “…with Gosling saying
the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon wasn’t called “Oppenbarbie for a reason: “You’ve been riding
“Barbie’s coattails all summer.” Blunt shot Gosling a glare. “Thanks for Ken-splaining that to
me, Mr. ‘I need to paint my abs on to get nominated.’ You don’t see Robert Downey doing that!”
It was some of the best acting of the night.” To end the summary of the 96th Academy Awards,
I want to highlight the best dress of the night, John Cena. He really took that camouflage trend

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2024/03/11/best-worst-
oscars-2024-highlights/72873204007/
https://apnews.com/article/2024-oscars-highlights-
0c0316f1767edc9efc8180cfd192163f
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/10/entertainment/gallery/2024-academy-award-
ceremony/index.html