96th Academy Awards

The 96th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During the gala, the AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 23 categories honoring films released in 2023. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan, and was directed by Hamish Hamilton. Comedian Jimmy Kimmel hosted the show for the fourth time. He first presided over the 89th ceremony held in 2017, and had most recently hosted the previous year's ceremony.
In related events, the Academy held its 14th Governors Awards ceremony at the Ray Dolby Ballroom of the Ovation Hollywood complex in Hollywood, on January 9, 2024. The Academy Scientific and Technical Awards were presented by host Natasha Lyonne on February 23, 2024, in a ceremony at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles.
Oppenheimer won seven awards, including Best Picture. Other winners included Poor Things with four awards, The Zone of Interest with two, and American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, The Boy and the Heron, Godzilla Minus One, The Holdovers, The Last Repair Shop, 20 Days in Mariupol, War Is Over!, and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar with one. The telecast drew 19.49 million viewers in the United States.
The nominees for the 96th Academy Awards were announced on January 23, 2024, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, by actress Zazie Beetz and actor Jack Quaid. Oppenheimer led all nominees with thirteen nominations; Poor Things came in second with eleven. The winners were announced during the awards ceremony on March 10.
Oppenheimer was the first Best Picture winner to also win both male acting awards since 1959's Ben-Hur. For the first time in Oscar history, three Best Picture nominees were directed by women. At age 81, Martin Scorsese became the oldest Best Director nominee in Oscar history. Best Actress nominee Lily Gladstone was the first US-born Native American person nominated in that category. The 49-year gap between Robert De Niro's first nomination for The Godfather Part II and his latest for Killers of the Flower Moon set the record for longest gap between first and most recent career Oscar nominations. Having previously won for composing the titular song for 2021's No Time to Die, Best Original Song co-winner Billie Eilish became the youngest person to win two Oscars. Best Sound winner The Zone of Interest and Best Visual Effects winner Godzilla Minus One were the first non-English language films to win their respective categories.
Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger (‡).
The Academy held its 14th annual Governors Awards ceremony on January 9, 2024, during which the following awards were presented:
The following individuals, listed in order of appearance, presented awards or performed musical numbers:
In October 2023, the Academy hired television producers Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan to oversee production of the 2024 ceremony with veteran television director Hamish Hamilton selected to direct the telecast. "Raj and Hamish have been incredible Oscars collaborators, and we are delighted to welcome them and Katy to lead the 96th Oscars," said AMPAS CEO Bill Kramer and AMPAS President Janet Yang in a press release justifying their selection of the producers. "Their deep love of cinema, fresh vision, and tremendous live television expertise is perfect for our reinvigorated show." In response, Kapoor and Mullan released a statement saying, "As a Canadian boy of South Asian descent and a girl from London who grew up watching the Oscars, dreaming of being part of it, this is a 'pinch me' moment! This has been an exceptional year for the movies, and it's an absolute privilege to be leading the team celebrating the global film industry and the astounding talents that bring these cinematic stories to life. We're dedicated to making it a remarkable celebration for all."
The following month, comedian and talk show host Jimmy Kimmel was announced as host of the gala, and his wife Molly McNearney was hired to join Kapoor and Mullan as a co-producer. Kapoor and Mullan explained their reason to bring back the veteran comedian and talk show host saying, "Jimmy has cemented himself as one of the all-time great Oscars hosts with his perfect blend of humanity and humor, and Molly is one of the best live TV producers around. We are delighted to be working with them and their teams on the show." Kimmel responded to his selection as host in a press release retorting, "I always dreamed of hosting the Oscars exactly four times."
In an effort to increase ratings and viewership, the Academy and ABC announced that the ceremony's start time would be moved ahead by an hour to 4:00 p.m. PT (7:00 p.m. ET). Producers hoped that the earlier start time would result in winners in major categories being announced earlier in the evening and would therefore mitigate declining viewership on the East Coast. As a result of the changes, the red carpet pre-show that precedes the main telecast was shortened to 30 minutes from its usual 90 minute runtime. ABC would also have the ability to air a primetime program as a lead-out for the ceremony at 7:30 p.m. PT (10:30 p.m. ET), with the network scheduling a new episode of its sitcom Abbott Elementary.
Several others participated in the production of the ceremony and related events. Production designers Misty Buckley and Alana Billingsley designed a new stage for the show. According to Buckley and Billingsley, the stage was designed to "create a modern plaza that invites people in." Furthermore, the set utilized several columns that subtly changed images during several awards presentations such as typewriters for screenwriters for the screenplay categories and sketches of the Best Costume Design nominees for the aforementioned category. Musician Rickey Minor was the musical director for the ceremony. Comedian and journalist Amelia Dimoldenberg served as a social media and red carpet correspondent, interviewing nominees at events including the Oscars nominees lunch and hosting videos showcasing behind the scenes preparations leading up the ceremony. In addition, Dimoldenberg and internet personality Reece Feldman interviewed nominees and guests of the ceremony on platforms such as Facebook and TikTok. Choreographer Mandy Moore oversaw production of Ryan Gosling and Mark Ronson's performance of "I'm Just Ken" which paid homage to the song "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" from the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The performance utilized 62 different actors portraying Ken, and featured cameos from Gosling's Barbie co-stars Kingsley Ben-Adir, Scott Evans, Ncuti Gatwa, and Simu Liu, and musicians Wolfgang Van Halen and Slash.
Initially, the Governors Awards were scheduled to be held on November 18, 2023, but they were postponed by two months to January 9, 2024, due to the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes. Meanwhile, actress Michelle Pfeiffer was planned to co-present Best Picture with her Scarface co-star Al Pacino. However, prior commitments on the East Coast prevented her from traveling in time for the ceremony, and Pacino presented the award solo.
In September 2020, the Academy announced that, starting with the 96th awards, all films submitted for Best Picture consideration must satisfy an established set of "representation and inclusion standards". In a press release, then-AMPAS president David Rubin and then-Academy CEO Dawn Hudson said of the new standards, "The aperture must widen to reflect our diverse global population in both the creation of motion pictures and in the audiences who connect with them. The Academy is committed to playing a vital role in helping make this a reality. We believe these inclusion standards will be a catalyst for long-lasting, essential change in our industry."
According to the rules, each film would be required to satisfy at least two of the four standards by hiring people from an "underrepresented" group namely individuals from a racial/ethnic minority, LGBTQ+ people, or persons with a cognitive or physical disability in order to compete in the category. Standard A involves "On-screen representation, themes, and narratives" which deals with a film's lead performers, cast, or subject matter. Standard B entails "Creative leadership and department heads" which involves creative heads in a film's production or the film's crew as a whole. Standard C encompasses "Industry access and opportunities" which refers to both paid internships and training opportunities. Standard D involves "Audience development" which refers to representation in marketing, publicity, and distribution. Filmmakers would have to submit a confidential Representation and Inclusion Standards Entry form (RAISE) indicating how their films would comply with the standards outlined by the Academy.
Three years after the new rules were announced, AMPAS released a statement affirming that films not submitted for Best Picture consideration could bypass submitting the RAISE forms reporting a film's gender, race, and disability data. In addition, Academy FAQs stated that British films that have complied with the British Film Institute's inclusion and diversity standards would also be deemed as satisfying the Academy's diversity requirements.
When the nominations were announced, nine of the ten films nominated for Best Picture had earned a combined gross of $1.09 billion at the American and Canadian box offices at the time. Barbie was the highest-grossing film among the Best Picture nominees with $636 million in domestic box office receipts. Oppenheimer came in second with $326 million; this was followed by Killers of the Flower Moon ($67 million), Poor Things ($20.4 million), The Holdovers ($18.7 million), Past Lives ($10.9 million), American Fiction ($7.9 million), Anatomy of a Fall ($3.9 million), and The Zone of Interest ($1.6 million). The official domestic box office figures for Maestro were unavailable due to their distributor Netflix's policy of refusing to release such figures. Furthermore, with its win for Best Picture, Oppenheimer became the highest-grossing winner in that category since 2003's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
Television critic Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "It was a long night, as it always is, but not the slog it often is. The scripted banter was better than usual, and when it failed, personality took up the slack." Regarding Kimmel's performance as host, he commented that he was "a reliable, relatable presence liable to stir no controversy in a venue that has a low tolerance for controversy. At the same time he's sharp enough not to be boring." Alison Herman of Variety remarked that despite the lack of surprises amongst the winners, "The show delivered entertainment and emotion in spades, if not surprise." She also commended Gosling's performance of "I'm Just Ken" as "a maximalist, infectiously goofy singalong was the ideal way to channel the feel-good energy of an Oscars where none of the bonhomie felt forced, as it often can." The Hollywood Reporter columnist Daniel Fienberg lauded Kimmel as "A guy you can trust to do a monologue and then he'll hold together the disparate components and fill dead air and generally keep the mood light." He also singled out the decision to have five previous winners presenting the nominees in each acting category as a highlight of the festivities and acclaimed the witty banter between co-presenters.
Furthermore, The Zone of Interest director, Jonathan Glazer, received both praise and criticism for his acceptance speech calling for an end to Israel's bombardment of Gaza. One sentence from Glazer's speech, in which he said that he and fellow producer James Wilson "stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people", was widely misquoted. Some sources truncated his remarks after the words "refute their Jewishness", suggesting that Glazer was disavowing his Jewish identity. Many pro-Israel figures disapproved of the statement, and over 1,000 Jewish members of the film industry signed an open letter denouncing Glazer's speech and defending the actions of the Israeli government. Others, including playwright Tony Kushner and director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Piotr Cywiński, defended Glazer's comments. One month after the ceremony took place, over 450 Jewish members of the international film community, including Joel Coen, Elliott Gould, Todd Haynes, Joaquin Phoenix, and Wallace Shawn, signed an open letter in support of Glazer's speech.
The American telecast on ABC drew in an average of 19.49 million people over its length, which was a 4% increase from the previous year's ceremony. The show also held steady in Nielsen ratings compared to the previous ceremony with 9.9% of households watching the ceremony. However, it garnered a lower 18–49 demo rating with a 3.8 rating among viewers in that demographic.
In July 2024, the broadcast was nominated for seven awards at the 76th Primetime Emmys and its corresponding Creative Arts Emmy Awards. Two months later, the broadcast won four of those nominations for Outstanding Variety Special (Live) (Executive Producers: Raj Kapoor, Katy Mullan, and Molly McNearney; Co-Executive Producer: Rob Paine; Producers: Taryn Hurd and Sarah Levine Hall; Host: Jimmy Kimmel), Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special (Hamish Hamilton), Outstanding Music Direction (Rickey Minor), and Outstanding Production Design for a Variety Special (Production Designers: Alana Billinglsey and Misty Buckley; Art Directors: John Zuiker and Margaux LaPresle). It marked the first time since the 63rd ceremony in 1991, that an Academy Awards ceremony was awarded a top Primetime Emmy Award for variety programming.
The "In Memoriam" tribute, which featured singer Andrea Bocelli performing his song "Time to Say Goodbye" with his son Matteo, paid tribute to the following individuals:
Before the "In Memoriam" segment, the Academy paid tribute to Russian activist and dissident Alexei Navalny, who died nearly a month before the ceremony, by airing a clip from the Oscar-winning documentary Navalny (2022). Furthermore, a collage of additional names paying tribute to individuals such as Ron Cephas Jones, Norman Lear, Cormac McCarthy, Sinéad O'Connor, Lance Reddick, Suzanne Somers, Ray Stevenson, and Treat Williams appeared onscreen at the conclusion of the segment.
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