The 2023 movie season was jam-packed with blockbusters and surprise hits, so it would be no surprise that this season’s Oscars was stacked with talent-filled productions. But who got away with an Oscar, who got snubbed, and what were some of the best moments of this year’s Academy Awards?

The night’s most highly anticipated films included the summer phenomenons Barbie and Oppenheimer. The night’s big underdog, however, was the A24 Film Poor Things which earned numerous nods in big categories. Other such movies included Maestro, The Zone of Interest, Killers of a Flower Moon and The Holdovers, along with many others. 

The Nights Big Winners: 

To no one’s surprise, Oppenheimer, which had a whopping 13 nominations, won 7 including the fabled Best Picture and both Best supporting and Best Lead actor. Poor Things came out with a surprising amount of victories during the show, winning four Oscars, including Emma Stone’s second best lead actress award. Another film with some big wins was the British made, German language film Zone of Interest, which won best international picture.

Biggest Snubs:

Despite all the hype for Barbie during the summer season, it surprisingly didn’t win as many Oscars as viewers were hoping for. Before the show, there was some controversy surrounding Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie being excluded from their category.  The Martin Scorsese drama, Killers of the Flower Moon similarly didn’t win anything, despite being nominated for so many awards. Lily Gladstone losing to Emma Stone was also a big shock, as many praised Lily’s performance in the film, however both deserved the award in their own right. 

Most Surprising: 

Some big shocks happened at the Awards as well, especially when it came to international film, Japan especially managed to earn some big cultural victories. The film The Boy and the Heron managed to upstage the crowd-favorite Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse for best animated feature. Godzilla: MInus One, an entree in Japan’s long running cultural icon, won their first ever Oscar for best visual effects, a surprise to many. A shocking new facet of the Oscars’ also took many by surprise as now they brought on stage several past winners of Best Supporting and Lead Actors to read out the nominations. Their speeches acted as touching tributes to the film and performance as well as perfectly setting up the reading of the winner. 

Best Moments: 

The night was filled with several performances from the Best Original Song category, with the performance of Ryan Gosling’s song from Barbie, “I’m Just Ken,” being widely praised as one of the best of the night. The performance included over 70+ dancers, a guest appearance from Guitarist Slash, as well as several people from the cast of Barbie, along with Emma Stone. Another Standout performance was by several Osage nation members as they played a traditional drum song and dance in a touching tribute to their heritage.

However, music wasn’t the only highlight. Several jokes and gags managed to land some laughs. John Cena’s ‘streaker’ sketch came as a total shock to all those watching in a humorous chain of events. Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt also took the stage where they bickered back and forth about their respective films. John Mulaney’s description of Field of Dreams came out of left field and of course the Twins themselves, Danny Devito and Arnold Schwarzenegger referenced their Batman villain portrayals in a joking banter with Michael Keaton. Of course we would be remiss to mention Messi the dog who stole the hearts of the audience for his performance in Anatomy of the Fall. 

Overall, this year’s Academy Awards proved to exceed the expectations set by previous years, with less cringe moments and more of a focus on the people who deserve praise.  The night highlighted just how hard all these talented individuals worked to bring us art for all to enjoy.