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, 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, which was televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Raj Kapoor, Molly McNearney, and Katy Mullan, with Hamish Hamilton serving as director. Comedian Jimmy Kimmel hosted the show for the fourth time, following the 89th ceremony in 2017, the 90th ceremony in 2018, and the 95th ceremony in 2023.

In related events, the Academy held its 14th annual Governors Awards ceremony, hosted by John Mulaney, at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Ovation Hollywood on January 9, 2024. The Academy Scientific and Technical Awards were presented by host Natasha Lyonne on February 23, 2024, at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. An American Sign Language livestream was broadcast on the Academy's YouTube page featuring video of interpreters.

The nominations were announced on January 23, 2024. Oppenheimer led with 13 nominations, followed by Poor Things and Killers of the Flower Moon with 11 and 10, respectively.

Oppenheimer won seven awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actor. Other major winners include 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! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko, and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar with one.

Winners and nominees

The nominees for the 96th Academy Awards were announced on January 23, 2024, by actors Zazie Beetz and Jack Quaid at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. The winners were announced during the awards ceremony on March 10, 2024.

The cultural phenomenon of "Barbenheimer" received a total of twenty-one nominations (eight for Barbie and thirteen for Oppenheimer). The two films competed against each other in six categories, including Best Picture.

Several notable nominees include Steven Spielberg, who extended his record for the most Best Picture nominations to thirteen; Martin Scorsese, who received his tenth nomination for Best Director, and became the oldest nominee in the category; Thelma Schoonmaker, who received her ninth nomination for Best Film Editing; composer John Williams, who received his 54th nomination; and Willie D. Burton, who received his eighth nomination as a below-the-line crew member.

Ten actors received their first Oscar nominations this year. The acting nominees included portrayals from three openly LGBTQ+ actors: Colman Domingo, Jodie Foster, and Lily Gladstone. Gladstone also became the first Native American actress to be nominated. Scott George, who wrote the music and lyrics to "Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)", became the first member of the Osage Nation to be nominated for an Academy Award.

This was the fifth consecutive year with at least one Best Picture nominee directed by a woman: Greta Gerwig with Barbie, Celine Song with Past Lives, and Justine Triet with Anatomy of a Fall. Triet also became the eighth woman nominated for Best Director. Overall, six couples received nominations that they shared together in their respective categories.

Awards

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

Cillian Murphy, Best Actor winner

Emma Stone, Best Actress winner

Robert Downey Jr., Best Supporting Actor winner

Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Best Supporting Actress winner

Justine Triet, Best Original Screenplay co-winner

Arthur Harari, Best Original Screenplay co-winner

Mstyslav Chernov, Best Documentary Feature Film co-winner

Jonathan Glazer, Best International Feature Film winner

Hayao Miyazaki, Best Animated Feature co-winner

Wes Anderson, Best Live Action Short co-winner

Ludwig Göransson, Best Original Score winner

Billie Eilish, Best Original Song co-winner

Finneas O'Connell, Best Original Song co-winner

Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger (‡).

Governors Awards

The Academy held its 14th annual Governors Awards ceremony on January 9, 2024, which was hosted by John Mulaney, during which the following awards were presented:

Academy Honorary Awards

• Angela Bassett
• Mel Brooks
• Carol Littleton

Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award

• Michelle Satter

Films with multiple nominations and awards

Presenters and performers

The following presented awards and perform musical numbers.

In Memoriam

The following people who died are tributed to "In Memoriam" segment.

The image for Osvaldo Desideri's tribute was mistakenly that of Ferdinando Scarfiotti, who won the same award for The Last Emperor.

Ceremony information

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

On October 17, 2023, Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan were announced as executive producers, with Hamish Hamilton serving as director; Mullan is an executive of Hamilton's production company Done and Dusted. On November 15, Jimmy Kimmel was announced as host, returning for the second consecutive year and fourth Academy Awards overall. On the same day, his wife, Molly McNearney, was announced to return as executive producer for the ceremony.

On November 30, 2023, ABC and the Academy announced that the start time of the ceremony would be moved up by an hour to 4:00 p.m. PT (7:00 p.m. ET). This change enabled a half-hour of primetime programming as a lead-out for the telecast, which ABC would fill with a new episode of Abbott Elementary. The pre-show was hosted for the third consecutive year by Vanessa Hudgens, joined by new co-host Julianne Hough. Due to the scheduling change, the pre-show was shortened to 30 minutes. The start of the ceremony was delayed by six minutes, due to arrivals being slowed by Israel–Hamas war protests outside of the theatre.

On January 29, 2024, comedian and broadcaster Amelia Dimoldenberg, host of the YouTube interview series Chicken Shop Date, was announced as the social media ambassador and red carpet correspondent. Dimoldenberg was involved in multiple Oscar season events, including the Oscars Nominees luncheon, where she participated in an Academy video production with nominees. She was also involved with an "Oscars 96 Behind the Scenes Tour", in addition to interviewing nominees and other talent present at the Oscars red carpet.

Presenters were announced in a series of groups beginning on February 26, 2024. Performers were announced on February 28, 2024, although Ryan Gosling's performance of "I'm Just Ken" from Barbie was reported by Variety two days earlier. After the first batch of presenters was announced, The Hollywood Reporter learned that the Academy would revive a popular presenting format previously used during the 81st ceremony, where five Oscar-winning actors for leading and supporting performances took the stage together to introduce the current nominees in their respective categories. David Alan Grier was selected as the event's announcer.

Production designers Alana Billingsley and Misty Buckley designed an "inviting, colorful, and intimate" stage over the course of nine months. According to Billingsley and Buckley, they were inspired by contemporary spaces where people can "meet, exchange, create. Like a modern-day plaza". The stage utilized "soft plaster, warm whites, and tones that pull the whole design together". Kapoor wanted the stage to feel "immersive and innovative, and then at times we also wanted it to feel intimate. I think when you walk into the theater and when you see it, it has this very warm and enveloping feel and the gestures feel soft. It is kind of like a hug, because of how the screens and [structures] have this lovely curve shape. That's how we want people to feel". Throughout the ceremony, the stage subtly changed its design to honor the nominees; the screenplay categories included images of real typewriters, while the Best Costume Design category showcased images of several of the nominated costumes.

Diversity rules

This was the first year that the diversity rules for the Best Picture category became mandatory. In June 2020, under its Academy Aperture 2025 initiative, the academy established a set of "representation and inclusion standards" that a film would be required to satisfy in order to compete in the category. For the 94th and 95th Academy Awards (films released in 2021 and 2022), filmmakers were just required to submit a confidential "Academy Inclusion Standards" form for data purposes only. There are four general standards, of which a film must satisfy two to be considered for Best Picture: (a) "on-screen representation, themes, and narratives"; (b) "creative leadership and project team"; (c) "industry access and opportunities"; and (d) "audience development".

As explained by Alissa Wilkinson of Vox in 2020, the standards "basically break down into two big buckets: standards promoting more inclusive representation and standards promoting more inclusive employment". The standards are intended to provide greater opportunities for employment for "underrepresented" racial and ethnic groups, women, LGBTQ+ people, and persons with "cognitive or physical disabilities".

Box office performance of Best Picture nominees

When the nominations were announced, the 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 $327 million. Both the film, part of the cultural phenomenon Barbenheimer represented 88% of the cumulative box office haul generated by best-picture Oscar nominees prior to their nomination. Oppenheimer became the highest grossing Best Picture winner since The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King at the 76th Academy Awards in 2004. It also became the first one to gross more than $100 million at the domestic box office in decade since Argo at the 85th Academy Awards in 2013.

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