Oscar Blitz 2024 – Live Diary

It’s finally time! The categories have been broken down, the votes have been cast, and all the idiotic questions about who someone is wearing have been asked. It’s time to get down to brass tacks and hand out the gold. It’s the 96th Academy Awards!

We’re mere minutes away from the beginning of the ceremony, and I’ll be here with live commentary and reactions the entire way through. Keep this blog bookmarked and refresh often for the most up-to-date information and speculation as the evening unfolds. We’ve come to the finish line at last. Let’s enjoy ourselves!

4:00pm PT – It’s SHOWTIME!

4:04pm – Well, we’re starting off behind the 8-ball, as the red carpet nonsense ran over and we still had to sit through an entire ad break before the broadcast officially starts. If you had any hopes of things ending on time tonight, abandon them now.

4:08pm – The “Close Your Eyes and Feel” theme for the opening montage was a late edition. The original theme, based on 2023 cinema, was “Give Me Another Cigarette.”

4:10pm – Kimmel coming out of the gate saying Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie should have been nominated. Bold to take a shot at the voters.

4:12pm – MESSI THE DOG!

4:13pm – Part of Jimmy Kimmel’s charm is the ability to lean into a groaner joke, and the “Yorgos is a good as mine” bit is a perfect example.

4:17pm – Great cutaway gag to Spielberg.

4:18pm – I love these jokes about the strike. They’re both funny and inspiring as a pro-labor message. And even more appropriate, a standing ovation for the stage workers who are negotiating to avoid a stoppage of their own. Perfect.

4:21pm – And now to the actual awards. First, Supporting Actress. Typically the inverse gender winner from the previous year awards the current one, but this time it’s like-for-like, with Jamie Lee Curtis co-presenting with four other past winners. I like the idea.

4:24pm – Ok, clearly we’re going to go over if every nominee is going to get a dedication in the acting categories. That said, I love the speech Mary Steenburgen just gave to Emily Blunt, as well as Lupita Nyong’o to Da’Vine Joy Randolph. Also, you’ll never hear me complain about Rita Moreno singing even a single note of “America,” even if it’s in reference to America Ferrera.

4:25pm – And the award goes to Da’Vine Joy Randolph! A much-deserved win. She was the heart and soul of The Holdovers, as well as its grounded reality. 1-for-1 on my predictions.

4:34pm – The animation categories are up next. I predicted Spider-Verse for Animated Feature, but would be so happy to be wrong and see The Boy and the Heron win.

4:36pm – Animated Short goes to War is Over! 2-for-2! Such a beautiful film based on a tremendous real event and one of my favorite songs of all time. Sean giving a UK Mother’s Day shoutout to Yoko is touching in the extreme.

4:38pm – Animated Feature goes to Miyazaki-san! I’m so happy to be wrong! 2-for-3! If you have not seen this gorgeous masterpiece, do yourself a favor and watch it as soon as you can.

4:44pm – On to the writing categories, presented by Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer in a bit that is, ironically, terribly written.

4:46pm – Original Screenplay goes to Anatomy of a Fall, completing its sweep of Awards Season. I’d argue the script is the weakest part of the movie, but such was the case for Promising Young Woman as well, and look how that turned out. 3-for-4.

4:48pm – I feel like we’re trying to get all the non-Oppenheimer awards out of the way as quickly as possible.

4:50pm – Adapted Screenplay goes to American Fiction! Excellent! Cord Jefferson wrote what was by far the best script of the year. 4-for-5!

4:52pm – The perfect meta moment for this speech would be for actors playing cops to come out and pretend to shoot Jefferson. Bad joke aside, Jefferson’s message that even blockbusters are “risky” for the Hollywood system is the best point made so far. Instead of risking it all on a $200 million franchise bomb, risk making 20 movies for $20 million. The investment will likely pay off much better.

4:54pm – I’m not a fan of Billie Eilish, but I do love “What Was I Made For?” Also it’s just nice to see her look like a normal person instead of a manufactured faux-emo persona.

5:04pm – On to Makeup & Hairstyling, which goes to Poor Things! Absolutely brilliant work, especially on Willem Dafoe, and it may end up being the only win for the second-best film in the Best Picture category. 5-for-6!

5:07pm – Production Design goes to Poor Things as well. First legit surprise of the night for me. I was sure that literally using up the world’s supply of pink would have given it to Barbie, but Poor Things had amazing sets and art design. Much deserved. 5-for-7. Speaking of great sets, I really liked the lighting design of the stage with the greys and blues for the last two categories.

5:10pm – This bit commemorating the streaker with John Cena is really well done. “Jorts are worse than naked.” And he’s doing it to present Costume Design! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

5:11pm – Costume Design goes to Poor Things! Okay, legitimate shock that Barbie will be left only with Original Song. Wow. I understand giving Poor Things as many consolation prizes as possible, but again, wow! 5-for-8.

5:16pm – These early awards for Poor Things can mean one of two things. One, it’s giving them as much as possible knowing it won’t win Best Picture. Two, it’s setting up Emma Stone to win Best Actress over Lily Gladstone. Both are major possibilities.

5:19pm – Absolutely lovely performance of “Wahzhazhe.” Love the staging and lighting design for it as well.

5:22pm – International Feature goes to The Zone of Interest, as we all knew it would, even though it’s the worst of the field by a country mile. I hate when it’s so obvious, but I’ll take the point. 6-for-9 (nice?).

5:24pm – Kudos to Jonathan Glazer for making his speech about victims on all sides of the Israel-Gaza conflict. It’s about dehumanization.

5:26pm – This “Barbenheimer” bit is pointless in the extreme, and a cynical exercise in trying to equate box office with quality. All of this to set up a tribute to stunt performers? What does these movies have to do with stuntmen?

5:28pm – To stunt performers and coordinators, we salute you! We won’t give you a category or an actual award, but enjoy the montage!

5:33pm – Another well-earned shot at AMC’s bullshit.

5:34pm – Sterling K. Brown to Ke Huy Quan, “You’re gonna make me cry, man!”

5:39pm – Supporting Actor goes to Robert Downey Jr. for what may be the greatest performance of his illustrious career! We all saw it coming, but it was wholeheartedly earned and deserved. 7-for-10!

5:40pm – “I’d like to thank my terrible childhood, and the Academy, in that order.” This is a man taking a long overdue victory lap.

5:46pm – On to Visual Effects, one of the hardest to predict this Awards Season, as the two major winners from previous ceremonies weren’t nominated here. Schwarzenegger and DeVito calling out “Batman” Michael Keaton is a clever (and mercifully short) gag.

5:47pm – The winner for Visual Effects is… GODZILLA MINUS ONE! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! There is no more deserving award of the night apart from the majors. What Takashi Yamazaki and his team did on such an incredibly small budget, to make the greatest Godzilla film of all time is nothing short of miraculous! HELL YES! 8-for-11!

5:52pm – Film Editing goes to Oppenheimer, to the surprise of no one! Jennifer Lame did absolutely masterful work, and as a former editor, my hat’s off to her. 9-for-12!

5:54pm – God I love Jon Batiste’s voice and songwriting ability. “It Never Went Away” is a song I want played at my wedding and my funeral.

6:00pm – Oh, so that’s what “Barbie Girl” was missing, a string section!

6:01pm – If you don’t love Guillermo, I feel sorry for you!

6:02pm – On to the Documentaries, presented by the stars of a plastic movie. Oy.

6:04pm – Documentary Short goes to The Last Repair Shop. I had it down to this or The ABCs of Book Banning. They were by far the top two in a very strong category. A worthy winner indeed, and the young girl looks adorable in her dress. 9-for-13.

6:07pm – Documentary Feature goes to 20 Days in Mariupol! Given the horrors still going on in Ukraine, and given that Vladimir Putin just killed last year’s winning subject, you had to see this rebuke coming. Thank God for this team who bravely stayed behind to bring the truth of Putin’s genocide to light. 10-for-14.

6:13pm – Nine awards remain, and Oppenheimer is the favorite in at least four of them.

6:15pm – Cinematography is the first of those prizes, and it goes to Oppenheimer as expected. That eliminates Maestro from any real consideration, and it will join Past Lives in being shut out tonight. Barbie and Killers of the Flower Moon only have a realistic chance at one each, so we could have 40% of the Best Picture field go away with nothing. Anyway, 11-for-15.

6:15pm – Hoyt Van Hoytema making a plea for filmmakers to go back to shooting on celluloid. I concur!

6:17pm – Ladies and gentlemen, Wes Anderson has an Oscar! The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar wins Live Action Short, and sadly, along with Miyazaki, he’s not here to accept. I’m surprised I correctly called two of the three Short categories this year. 12-for-16.

6:18pm – And now for our annual exercise in pretending Diane Warren matters, though this time she’s not pretending to play piano on stage. Instead we have Becky G and a chorus of tween girls trying to make a fake feminist statement even though the song is from a movie about a dude. Mercifully, the performance was cut down to a minute. It’s still a minute of our lives we’ll never get back for yet another undeserved nomination that serves as the height of chicanery in this process, but just a minute nonetheless.

6:24pm – Next up is Sound, the only tech that Oppenheimer might not win. John Mulaney killing it with his intro deconstructing Field of Dreams.

6:27pm – Interesting choice to present the nominees for Sound without narration, just leaving the effects and mix to speak for themselves. Nice touch. Anyway, the award goes to The Zone of Interest in a minor upset. As I said, this was the one tech award that Oppenheimer didn’t have locked down, and to its credit, Zone of Interest lived and died by the background noises of the Auschwitz prisoners over the wall, so despite the god-awful noises during the night sequences, I can’t hate on this too much. 12-for-17.

6:29pm – And now for the moment we’ve been waiting for, “I’m Just Ken,” and of course it begins with Ryan Gosling singing right behind Margot Robbie. This is already glorious!

6:31pm – I love every second of this, from Gosling’s pink suit and indoor sunglasses, to the choreography, to the lighting design, to the cardboard cutouts of Barbie. “What Was I Made For?” will probably win Original Song, but this was the pinnacle of Barbie‘s musical profile, topped off with MUTHAFUCKIN’ SLASH ON GUITAR!

6:32pm – Gosling leading the whole cast, plus Greta Gerwig, Mark Ruffalo and Emma Stone in a sing-along that they all know the words to. THAT’S WHAT MAKES THE OSCARS SO SPECIAL!

6:34pm – While our adrenaline returns to normal levels, a friendly reminder that six categories remain, and Oppenheimer is predicted to win four of them. One of the two Barbie tracks will get Original Song, and Best Actress is between Gladstone and Regular Stone, but otherwise it should be all Oppenheimer.

6:35pm – And yet, despite these near-certainties, watch it somehow take 45 minutes to present them all (plus “In Memoriam”).

6:38pm – The music categories are next, and Ariana Grande apparently decided to honor the occasion by wearing a comforter stuffed full of sound-proofing foam that weighs more than her.

6:39pm – Original Score goes to Oppenheimer. It was a very strong field this year (except for Indiana Jones), but the best score definitely came out on top. 13-for-18.

6:41pm – Original Song goes to “What Was I Made For?” as expected. This is the second Oscar for Billie Eilish, and the first one she’s actually deserved. 14-for-19.

6:49pm – I cannot imagine a better opening for “In Memoriam” than Alexei Navalny himself. Rest in power, good sir.

6:52pm – That said, as much as I love the Bocellis, I would have much preferred to listen to them and watch the montage on full screen, rather than watch them and interpretive dancers. I am glad they had time to get Richard Lewis into the reel, though.

6:55pm – I just booked a ticket to see Imaginary in one hour. Four awards left. Will I make it?

6:57pm – Brendan Fraser doesn’t look like he’s stopped crying from last year, and that is just darling.

6:57pm – Nicolas Cage giving a dedication to Paul Giamatti is gold!

7:00pm – And Best Actor goes to… Cillian Murphy! He looks like a boy out of school right now, his grin infectious to the world! 15-for-20!

7:02pm – The 30th anniversary of Schindler’s List. God I feel old.

7:04pm – Steven Spielberg gives Best Director to his heir apparent, Christopher Nolan! You couldn’t have a more appropriate presenter to hand over the prize to the next truly great visionary auteur! 16-for-21!

7:09pm – And now for the biggest nail-biter of the evening. Will it be Emma Stone? Will it be Lily Gladstone? Will the Academy get it completely wrong? We’re about to find out!

7:14pm – And Best Actress goes to… Emma! I would have preferred Lily Gladstone, but Emma Stone gave a tremendous and unique performance, truly the best of her career so far. In an odd case of history repeating itself, in the last 10 years, only two other times has the SAG winner for Best Actress lost the Oscar. One of those was Olivia Colman beating out Glenn Close for her performance in The Favourite. So that’s twice that Yorgos Lanthimos leading ladies have pulled the upset. 16-for-22!

7:17pm – Good La La Land joke after Emma Stone’s win. “Tear up the envelope just to make sure there’s no confusion for Best Picture.”

7:18pm – Excellent slam on Trump!

7:19pm – Al Pacino on to present Best Picture. He looks like he was celebrating backstage. But who cares, it’s Al Pacino!

7:21pm – After a very awkward stumble where we didn’t even run down the nominees one last time, Best Picture goes, as we all expected, to Oppenheimer. This was the best film of the year the moment it came out in July, blowing everything before it in 2023 out of the water, and nothing else came close the rest of the way. This is the third straight year where the Best Picture winner has come out BEFORE Awards Season, and hopefully it represents a changing trend in the industry.

7:22pm – Final prediction tally, 17-for 23, which isn’t too shabby. Three of my six misses came from my “Gimme” picks, so that should be proof positive that you can never be too sure.

7:25pm – I’m literally typing out the following update: “Biggest surprise of the night is Kimmel NOT mentioning Matt Damon in the signoff,” only for the shot to cut to Messi the dog pissing on Damon’s Walk of Fame star! Never change, Jimmy! And also, even more proof that Messi is inarguably superior to Ronaldo!

7:27pm – That’s it for the 96th Academy Awards. I’ll be back in a couple of days to conclude the Oscar Blitz with the annual Postmortem, er, post. In the meantime, I’ll have a couple of new reviews to tide you over. Thanks as always for taking the ride with me. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go watch a movie!

Join the conversation in the comments below! Which winners surprised you the most? What was the best joke from Jimmy Kimmel? What moment will stay with you long after the ceremony is over? Let me know! And remember, you can follow me on Twitter (fuck “X”) and YouTube for even more content!