Our team at the 96th Academy Awards runs down the moments you need to know about and why they mattered.
If you did not, for instance, down a double shot of espresso on the way out of the Governors Ball, or stop to buy a chicken salad sandwich in your tuxedo at Ralphs on your way home, you may have taken the responsible route Sunday and turned in at a reasonable hour. In which case the Times staffers who did stay out past their bedtimes are happy to help you catch up on the 96th Academy Awards before you’re flat-footed at the office watercooler.
Below are the top five takeaways from the 2024 Oscars, from those of us who were in the room.
1. The five-presenter format for the acting categories needs to stay. For good. It’s been since 2010 that the motion picture academy made its short-lived foray into the “Fab Five” format, but few Oscar hounds will forget Stanley Tucci professing his love for Meryl Streep or Shirley Maclaine giving Anne Hathaway the compliment of a lifetime? Sunday’s revival proved a potent reminder of why it succeeded so brilliantly then, and why it deserves to become an Oscar tradition for the next 100 years: From Lupita Nyong’o reducing Da’Vine Joy Randolph to tears even before she won for “The Holdovers” to Jennifer Lawrence covering her mouth with her hands in shock when Emma Stone edged out Lily Gladstone, the nostalgia, adulation and, yes, drama of sending an entire welcome wagon of peers to usher winners into the Oscar club turned out to be irresistible still.
