Oppenheimer Wins Best Picture at 2024 Oscars

2024 Oscars Recap: Naked Surprises, Wardrobe Malfunctions & More Must-See Moments!

And the 2024 Oscar goes to…

Oppenheimer, which took home the Best Picture prize at the Academy Awards on March 10. (Check out the full list of winners here.)

The J. Robert Oppenheimer biopic—which stars Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt, Matt Damon and Florence Pugh—beat out nominees American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, The Holdovers, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, Past Lives, Poor Things and The Zone of Interest for the honor.

The victory came after director Christopher Nolan won his first-ever Best Director Oscar. In the acting categories, Murphy nabbed the Best Actor prize, while RDJ was honored with the title of Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role.

“Any of us who make movies know that you kind of dream of this moment,” Oppenheimer producer Emma Thomas—who is married to Nolan—told the crowd. “I have dreaming about this moment for so long, but it seemed so unlikely that it would ever actually happened. And now I’m standing here, everything’s kind of gone out of my head.”

But before the award was handed out, this year’s Best Picture nominations already made history. After all, this was the first time three movies directed by women—Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall and Celine Song’s Past Lives—were simultaneously up for the Oscars’ biggest prize. (Only two women-helmed films have ever won Best Picture: Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker in 2010 and Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland in 2021.)

Patrick T. Fallon / AFP

Two married couples also saw nominations as colleagues, with Margot Robbie and Tom Ackerley as well as Nolan and Thomas receiving producer nods for Barbie and Oppenheimer, respectively. (Or “Barbenheimer,” if you will.)

Oppenheimer’s Best Picture Oscar caps off its sweeping award season, during which the movie also won prizes at the Golden Globes, SAG Awards, Critics Choice Awards, BAFTA Film Awards, DGA Awards and PGA Awards.

However, Nolan has always been a firm believer that a powerful story trumps any golden statuette.

Universal Pictures

“It’s always a tricky thing to try to analyze the zeitgeist or analyze success,” he said of Oppenheimer in a January interview with Associated Press. “I keep coming back to the unique nature of the story. I think it is one of the great American stories. It encompasses so much that’s important and dramatic about our history. That gives audiences a lot to hang to, when you get a great group of actors and incredible cast like we have, you can make this feel real and emotionally accessible.”

He added, “Beyond that, sometimes you catch a wave and it’s a wonderful and unique thing.”

To see who else won big at the Oscars, keep reading.

Best Picture

American Fiction
Anatomy of a Fall
Barbie
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro
WINNER: Oppenheimer
Past Lives
Poor Things
The Zone of Interest

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Annette Bening, NYAD
Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon
Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall
Carey Mulligan, Maestro
WINNER: Emma Stone, Poor Things

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Bradley Cooper, Maestro
Colman Domingo, Rustin
Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers
WINNER: Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer
Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer
Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple
America Ferrera, Barbie
Jodie Foster, NYAD
WINNER: Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Sterling K. Brown, American Fiction
Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon
WINNER: Robert Downey Jr., Oppenheimer
Ryan Gosling, Barbie
Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things

Best Directing

Anatomy of a Fall, Justine Triet
Killers of the Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese
WINNER: Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan
Poor Things, Yorgos Lanthimos
The Zone of Interest, Jonathan Glazer

Best Animated Feature Film

WINNER: The Boy and the Heron
Elemental
Nimona
Robot Dreams
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Best International Feature Film

Io Capitano, Italy
Perfect Days, Japan
Society of the Snow, Spain
The Teachers’ Lounge, Germany
WINNER: The Zone of Interest, United Kingdom

Best Documentary Feature Film

Bobi Wine: The People’s President
The Eternal Memory
Four Daughters
To Kill a Tiger
WINNER: 20 Days in Mariupol

Best Documentary Short Film

The ABCs of Book Banning
The Barber of Little Rock
Island in Between
WINNER: The Last Repair Shop
Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó

Best Live Action Short Film

The After
Invincible
Knight of Fortune
Red, White and Blue
WINNER: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

Best Animated Short Film

Letter to a Pig
Ninety-Five Senses
Our Uniform
Pachyderme
WINNER: War Is Over! Inspired by The Music of John & Yoko

Best Production Design

Barbie
Killers of the Flower Moon
Napoleon
Oppenheimer
WINNER: Poor Things

Best Original Song

“The Fire Inside,” Flamin’ Hot
“I’m Just Ken,” Barbie
“It Never Went Away,” American Symphony
“Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People),” Killers of the Flower Moon
WINNER: “What Was I Made For?,” Barbie

Best Original Score

American Fiction
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Killers of the Flower Moon
WINNER: Oppenheimer
Poor Things

Best Sound

The Creator
Maestro
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Oppenheimer
WINNER: The Zone of Interest

Best Makeup & Hairstyling

Golda
Maestro
Oppenheimer
WINNER: Poor Things
Society of the Snow

Best Costume Design

Barbie
Killers of the Flower Moon
Napoleon
Oppenheimer
WINNER: Poor Things

Best Original Screenplay

WINNER: Anatomy of a Fall
The Holdovers
Maestro
May December
Past Lives

Best Adapted Screenplay

WINNER: American Fiction
Barbie
Oppenheimer
Poor Things
The Zone of Interest