HOLLYWOOD - ‘Oppenheimer’ was named Best Picture at the 2024 Academy Awards on Sunday night.
The atomic bomb drama scooped the night’s most prestigious accolade ahead of ‘American Fiction’, ‘Anatomy of a Fall’, ‘Barbie’, ‘The Holdovers’, ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’, ‘Maestro’, ‘Past Lives’, ‘Poor Things’ and ‘The Zone of Interest’, capping off a hugely successful night for the film.
Accepting the honour with cast and crew - including her husband, the film’s director Christopher Nolan - producer Emma Thomas said: “Oh my goodness. Wow. I think any of us who make movies know you kind of dream of this moment. You know you do, right? I could deny it but I have been dreaming about this moment for so long but it seemed so unlikely it would ever happen and ow I’m standing here and everything’s gone up in my head.
“The reason this movie was the movie it was was Chris Nolan. He is singular, he is brilliant and I am so grateful to him. The thing that’s fantastic about our job is it’s about collaboration, it’s about team work and our team was just incredible on this movie so thank you to all of them, both cast and crew.
“Thank you to Universal for supporting us. I want to thank and everybody at IMAX for believing in this movie when maybe it didn’t make sense to do so.
“Thank you to all the theatres, as a moviegoer and a filmmaker, that’s why we do what we do so thank you so much.
“To my children, thank you. It’s UK Mother’s Day so I’m thinking of my mum who is no longer with us today and my mother-in-law Christina, who is here with my dad.
“Oh and thank you to the Academy, I’m so honoured to be here.”
Fellow producer Charles Roven then took the microphone at Los Angeles’ Dolby Theater and paid tribute to his long working partnership with Christopher and Emma.
After issuing some thank yous, he said: “I just want to say I’ve had this amazing 20+ year experience with Chris and Emma, five movies over 20 years and it’s been one of the most exhilarating experiences I’ve ever had. They’re a fantastic team and just to be part of making movies with them has been completely thrilling, so thank you so much.”
