Oscar highlights: ‘Oppenheimer’ wins big, while Ryan Gosling and past winner cameos stole the show

With special kudos to Ryan Gosling, a breakdown of the highlights – and lowlights – from the Academy Awards.

The Oscar telecast always juggles three major objectives: Honoring the year’s best films and those who made them; broadly celebrating and promoting the movie-going habit; and putting on a good show, both for the bigwigs in the theater and the folks at home. The second one of those priorities has taken on greater significance amid a slump in theatrical ticket sales, victimized by a one-two punch from Covid and streaming. Yet the 96th Academy Awards shined the brightest in that third basket, delivering an award telecast defined by its playfulness and punctuated by moments of fun, with Ryan Gosling’s contributions worth the price of admission alone. Those qualities were both necessary and welcome, since the awards themselves followed the anticipated script, closing with the unsurprising act of handing the coveted best-picture prize to “Oppenheimer,” one of seven statuettes amassed by director Christopher Nolan’s historical epic. Indeed, the main challenge facing the producers hinged on the general lack of suspense regarding who would win in key categories other than best actress. That award went to Emma Stone for “Poor Things,” whose emotional acceptance somewhat compensated for the fact the choice deprived Lily Gladstone of what would have been a historic win. Otherwise, the selections went according to form, recognizing those who had plenty of time to rehearse and fine-tune their acceptance speeches over the course of the awards season that began way back in early January. It’s worth noting, too, that even a great show – and this was, by Oscar standards, a very good one – might not be enough to boost TV ratings. The Oscars faced the double whammy of starting an hour earlier and the switch to Daylight Savings Time. Then again, in the current TV environment, just holding steady against the gravitational pull of audience fragmentation amounts to a victory.