Disclaimer:
This article reviews the 2024 Oscars awards ceremony; however, iHoot and iUniversity Prep do not endorse or encourage students to watch or listen to any of the films or songs listed below as some may not be suitable for students under 13. Please consult with your parents or guardians before watching any clips from the Oscars or any movies/songs listed below.
Los Angeles, CA – On March 10th, 2024, at 9:30 p.m., with the commencement of the 96th annual Academy Awards Ceremony, the celebrations officially concluded. Hosted at the world-famous Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California, this final stop of the award season was one of the most memorable in recent history: Ryan Gosling’s performance, Nolan’s first Oscar, and Robert Downey Jr.’s best-supporting actor win, just to name a few of the most significant moments. However, as expected, this event didn’t come without its shock-value moments. In this article, we will discuss the entirety of the ceremony and get some feedback from iUniversity Prep’s movie-going students. So, without further ado, let’s roll out the red carpet for “The Oscars Through iUP’s Eyes.”
One of the most important performances at the Oscars is always the opening monologue. We’ve seen comedians such as Chris Rock, Neil Patrick Harris, and Jon Stewart knock their bits out of the park while we’ve also seen others such as Billy Crystal completely bomb. So, according to tradition, the night started with Jimmy Kimmel’s opening monologue, which lasted around 14 minutes and included plenty of jokes, production crew praise, and the newly famous dog, Messi (from Anatomy of a Fall). While Kimmel’s introduction was not perfect by any means, it set a solid comedic tone for the rest of the event and made for some funny moments such as John Cena’s cameo and Ryan Gosling’s back-and-forth with Emily Blunt.
Immediately after the monologue concluded, we got one of the most emotional moments of the night when former winners Mary Steenburgen, Lupita Nyong’o, Jamie Lee Curtis, Rita Moreno, and Regina King presented Da’vine Joy Randolph with an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in “The Holdovers.” This new format was used for a more heart-pulling and touching moment between the presenter and nominee. “I think this was a great way to honor the past Oscar winners who served as Presenters, and to give an equal amount of respect, gratitude, and admiration to all of the nominees whether or not their name was on the card or not, and to summarize the nominees’ work as the Awards Season came to a close,” said a student at iUniversity Prep. Beating out other great actors such as Jodie Foster and America Ferrera, Randolph gave a fiery speech as she accepted her first career Oscar award, “For so long, I’ve always wanted to be different, and now I realize I just need to be myself and I thank you for seeing me,” she said with heartfelt emotions.
Moreover, in the “supporting actor” category, Robert Downey Jr. received his first Oscar for his role in the blockbuster film Oppenheimer, winning the award over other extremely talented actors such as Robert De Niro, Ryan Gosling, and Mark Ruffalo. After a career that includes iconic roles such as Iron Man, Charlie Chaplin, and Paul Avery, this recognition was a long time coming for himself and his supporters, “I was rooting for RDJ for Best Actor and Supporting Actor”, said Adelina Lee, an 11th grade student at iUPrep. The award was presented to him by former supporting actor winners Sam Rockwell, Tim Robbins, Ke Huy Quan, Christoph Waltz, and Mahershala Ali. And, after hearing that he won the award, in true RDJ fashion, he smoothly walked up the stage and cracked a couple of witty jokes, such as the iconic line, “I’d like to thank my—veterinarian, I meant wife Susan Downey, over there,” and joyfully made his way behind the red curtains.
Following the supporting awards came a long bombardment of movie and production awards. In this section, the most notable films were Poor Things and Oppenheimer, which together took the awards for cinematography, costume design, editing, makeup, hairstyling, music, and much more. However, mixed in this section were a couple of surprises, such as “The Boy and the Heron” beating out “Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse.” Danny Hall, a student at iUniversity Prep, said, “I had watched Across The Spider-Verse and thought it was phenomenal, and I felt it deserved to win something even though it didn’t” and “I was rooting for Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse so I was surprised when it didn’t win Best Animated Feature Film.” Another surprise was the zero Oscars that “Killers of The Flower Moon” took home. “I feel like Killer of the Flower Moon didn’t get enough appreciation. It’s a wonderful film and it was nominated for a total of 10 Oscars this year but didn’t end up winning any, “ and “The biggest surprise for me was probably Killers of the Flower Moon not winning a single Oscar,” said two students. While Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece on corruption and greed didn’t win big, it was still labeled as one of, if not the best movie of the year by many critics. Despite some shock value moments, such as KOTM going home dry, it was nice to see films like The Boy and The Heron, The Zone of Interest, Anatomy of a Fall, American Fiction, and 20 Days in Mariupol win Oscars for their brilliant on and off screen work.
In between the awards, talented musicians and actors played some of the best film music of the year. This included Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?”, “Wahzhazhe” by the Osage Singers, and John Baptiste’s “American Symphony,” all of which were beautiful tributes to their respective movies. With that being said, none of them came close (in terms of entertainment value) to Ryan Gosling’s performance of “I’m Just Ken.” “Ryan Gosling performing ‘I’m Just Ken’ has to be my favorite out of all the musical performances. A performance that stood out amongst the rest of them” said Danny Hall. The performance was so impressive that it left professional signers and his fellow actors in awe, “He went all out and over the top and it was awesome! The reactions from his co-stars were so fun to watch, especially his interaction with Emma Stone,” 11th grader Adelina Lee said in regards to Gosling’s performance. Not only did it mark the best performance of the night but it was also widely thought of as the best moment of the entire awards season.
With a vast majority of the performances being over and awards handed out, it was time for the biggest stars in Hollywood to have their moment with the announcement of best actor and actress respectively. Unsurprisingly to the Actor’s side, Cillian Murphy beat out Pual Giamatti, Bradley Cooper, Jeffery Wright, and Colman Domingo to take home his first Oscar for his role in Oppenheimer. With a presentation crew of greats such as Matthew McConaughey and Nicolas Cage, Cillian humbly accepted his much-deserved award for his historic portrayal of Robert Oppenheimer. “I was rooting for Cillian Murphy for Best Actor,” a student said in support of Cillian. On the other hand, the best actress pick was a little more surprising when Emma Stone was awarded her 2nd Oscar from Sally Field, Jennifer Lawrence, Michelle Yeoh, Charlize Theron, and Jessica Lange for her performance in “Poor Things.” While her performance in the movie was well deserving of the award, it was somewhat widely thought that the new up-and-comer, Lily Gladstone would take home the award. In response to this, iUP Student Adelina Lee said “The biggest surprise for me was Emma Stone winning Best Actress a second time. She’s an amazing actress in all the films I’ve seen her in, but I hadn’t heard much about the film Poor Things when her nomination came out, and I’d heard a ton about Killers of the Flower Moon, so it did come a bit of a surprise when she won the Oscar for Best Actress.” All in all, Emma Stone won the award and took home her 2nd Oscar after a beautiful speech where she recognized her fellow actresses and showed touching emotions, “The women on the stage, you are all incredible, and the women in this category: Sandra [Hüller], Annette [Bening], Carey [Mulligan], Lily [Gladstone], I share this with you. I am in awe of you, and it has been such an honor to do all of this together.”
Last but not least, it was time to award the best film and best director, and in the year 2023, who did it better than Christopher Nolan in his creation of the masterpiece, Oppenheimer. Nolan’s depiction and direction for one of the greatest films of the last decade show his talent and the deservingness of the award. Surprisingly, this was his first Oscar. However, I can make a guess and say that this won’t be his last. After receiving the award from Steven Spielberg, Nolan humbly left his talented wife, Emma Thomas, to make a beautiful acceptance speech, marking an end to a wonderful night of recognizing talent across the entertainment industry and rolling up the red carpet until the next Academy Awards Show in 2025.
Works Cited:
The New York Times. (2024, March 11).
Best and worst moments from the 2024 Oscars. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/movies/oscars-best-worst.html
NPR. (n.d.). Oscars 2024.
NPR.
