96th Academy Awards facts for kids

Quick facts for kids 96th Academy Awards
Official poster
Date	March 10, 2024
Site	Dolby Theatre Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Hosted by	Jimmy Kimmel
Preshow hosts	Amelia Dimoldenberg Vanessa Hudgens Julianne Hough
Produced by	Raj Kapoor Molly McNearney Katy Mullan
Directed by	Hamish Hamilton
Highlights
Best Picture	Oppenheimer
Most awards	Oppenheimer (7)
Most nominations	Oppenheimer (13)
TV in the United States
Network	ABC / ABC.com / ABC app
Duration	3 hours, 23 minutes
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The 96th Academy Awards ceremony, also known as the Oscars, was a big event held on March 10, 2024. It took place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. During this special night, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) gave out awards for the best movies released in 2023. There were 23 different awards given out!

The show was shown live on TV by ABC. It was produced by Raj Kapoor, Molly McNearney, and Katy Mullan, with Hamish Hamilton directing the show. The funny comedian Jimmy Kimmel hosted the Oscars for the fourth time. He had also hosted in 2017, 2018, and 2023.

Before the main show, there were other events. The 14th yearly Governors Awards ceremony happened on January 9, 2024. It was hosted by John Mulaney. The Academy Scientific and Technical Awards were given out on February 23, 2024, at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. This event was hosted by Natasha Lyonne. For the first time, the Academy also offered a special online broadcast with American Sign Language interpreters for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

The movies that were nominated for awards were announced on January 23, 2024. The movie Oppenheimer received the most nominations, with 13! Poor Things was next with 11 nominations, and Killers of the Flower Moon had 10.

Oppenheimer won the most awards, taking home seven Oscars. This included big awards like Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actor. Other movies that won many awards were Poor Things with four, and The Zone of Interest with two. Many other great films won one award each, like American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, and The Boy and the Heron.

Award Winners and Nominees

The list of movies and people nominated for the 96th Academy Awards was shared on January 23, 2024. Actors Zazie Beetz and Jack Quaid announced them from the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. The winners were then revealed during the main awards show on March 10, 2024.

A fun fact from the year was the "Barbenheimer" craze. This was when the movies Barbie and Oppenheimer were both very popular at the same time. Together, they received 21 nominations! Barbie got eight nominations, and Oppenheimer got thirteen. These two movies even competed against each other for six different awards, including the top award, Best Picture.

Many famous people received nominations. Steven Spielberg broke his own record with his thirteenth nomination for Best Picture. Martin Scorsese got his tenth nomination for Best Director, becoming the oldest person ever nominated in that category. Thelma Schoonmaker received her ninth nomination for Best Film Editing. Composer John Williams got his 54th nomination, which is amazing!

This year, ten actors received their very first Oscar nominations. Some of the actors nominated were openly LGBTQ+, like Colman Domingo, Jodie Foster, and Lily Gladstone. Lily Gladstone also made history as the first Native American actress to be nominated for an Oscar. Scott George, who wrote a song for Killers of the Flower Moon, was the first person from the Osage Nation to be nominated for an Academy Award.

For the fifth year in a row, at least one movie nominated for Best Picture was directed by a woman. This year, Greta Gerwig directed Barbie, Celine Song directed Past Lives, and Justine Triet directed Anatomy of a Fall. Justine Triet also became the eighth woman ever nominated for Best Director. It was a special year for couples too, as six couples were nominated for awards they worked on together.

Award Categories

Winners are listed first in bold text and marked with a double dagger (‡).

Governors Awards

The Academy held its 14th yearly Governors Awards ceremony on January 9, 2024. This event was hosted by John Mulaney. During this ceremony, special awards were given out to honor people for their amazing work in movies.

Academy Honorary Awards

These awards celebrate people who have made huge contributions to film throughout their careers:

• Angela Bassett
• Mel Brooks
• Carol Littleton

Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award

This award is given to someone in the film industry who has done great work for charity or helped others:

• Michelle Satter

Movies with Many Nominations and Wins

Some movies were nominated for many awards, and some won many! Here's a quick look:

Presenters and Performers

Many famous actors and musicians helped make the 96th Academy Awards exciting. Some presented the awards, while others performed songs from the nominated movies.

Ceremony Details

Jimmy Kimmel hosted the 96th Academy Awards, his fourth time hosting.

On October 17, 2023, Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan were announced as the main producers for the show. Hamish Hamilton was chosen to direct it. On November 15, it was announced that Jimmy Kimmel would host the show again, making it his fourth time. His wife, Molly McNearney, also returned as a producer.

A big change for this year was that the show started an hour earlier, at 4:00 p.m. PT (7:00 p.m. ET). This allowed ABC to show a new episode of Abbott Elementary right after the Oscars. The pre-show, which happens before the main event, was hosted by Vanessa Hudgens and Julianne Hough. It was shorter this year, lasting only 30 minutes. The start of the main ceremony was delayed by six minutes because of protests happening outside the theater.

On January 29, 2024, Amelia Dimoldenberg, known for her funny YouTube interviews, was announced as the social media person for the Oscars. She helped share behind-the-scenes content and interviewed nominees on the red carpet.

The people who would present the awards were announced in groups starting on February 26, 2024. The performers were announced on February 28, 2024. A special part of the show was bringing back a popular way of presenting awards. Five past Oscar winners for acting categories came together on stage to introduce the new nominees. David Alan Grier was the announcer for the event.

The stage for the ceremony was designed to feel "inviting, colorful, and intimate." The designers, Alana Billingsley and Misty Buckley, wanted it to feel like a modern meeting place. They used soft colors and curved shapes to make the audience feel hugged by the design. The stage even changed its look subtly during the show to match the awards being given out. For example, for the costume design award, images of the nominated costumes were shown.

Diversity Rules for Best Picture

This year was important because it was the first time that new rules about diversity became required for movies to be nominated for Best Picture. In 2020, the Academy created these "representation and inclusion standards." A movie now needs to meet at least two of four standards to be considered for Best Picture.

These standards aim to make sure that movies include more people from different backgrounds. This means more opportunities for people from various racial and ethnic groups, women, LGBTQ+ people, and people with disabilities to work on and be seen in films. The rules focus on two main areas: showing diverse groups on screen and hiring diverse people behind the scenes.

Box Office Success of Best Picture Nominees

When the nominations were announced, all the movies nominated for Best Picture had earned a lot of money in theaters. Together, they made over $1.09 billion in the United States and Canada! Barbie was the highest-earning movie among them, making $636 million. Oppenheimer was second with $327 million.

The "Barbenheimer" movies, Barbie and Oppenheimer, made up a huge part of the total money earned by all the Best Picture nominees. Oppenheimer became the highest-grossing Best Picture winner since The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2004. It was also the first Best Picture winner in a decade to earn over $100 million in the U.S. and Canada since Argo in 2013.

Images for kids

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  Christopher Nolan, Best Picture co-winner and Best Director winner

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  Cillian Murphy, Best Actor winner

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  Emma Stone, Best Actress winner

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  Robert Downey Jr., Best Supporting Actor winner

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  Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Best Supporting Actress winner

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  Justine Triet, Best Original Screenplay co-winner

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  Arthur Harari, Best Original Screenplay co-winner

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  Mstyslav Chernov, Best Documentary Feature Film co-winner

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  Jonathan Glazer, Best International Feature Film winner

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  Hayao Miyazaki, Best Animated Feature co-winner

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  Wes Anderson, Best Live Action Short co-winner

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  Ludwig Göransson, Best Original Score winner

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  Billie Eilish, Best Original Song co-winner

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  Finneas O'Connell, Best Original Song co-winner

See also

In Spanish: 96.ª edición de los Premios Óscar para niños

• List of submissions to the 96th Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature
• List of submissions to the 96th Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature
• List of submissions to the 96th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film