'Oppenheimer' sweeps Oscars with seven wins
"Oppenheimer", the blockbuster biopic about the race to build the first atomic bomb, claimed seven Academy Awards including the prestigious best picture trophy on Sunday as Hollywood celebrated a triumphant year in film.  Irish actor Cillian Murphy won best actor for playing theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, leader of the US effort in the 1940s to create a weapon that ended World War Two.  "Oppenheimer" director Christopher Nolan took home the directing Oscar.  "We made a film about the man who created the atomic bomb, and for better or worse we are living in Oppenheimer's world," Murphy said as he held his trophy on stage.  "So I would really like to dedicate this to the peacemakers everywhere."  A three-hour historical drama about science and politics, "Oppenheimer" became an unlikely box office hit and grossed US$953.8 million, in addition to widespread critical praise.  It was the first of Nolan's films to win best picture. The director has previously won acclaim for "The Dark Knight" Batman trilogy, "Inception," "Memento" and other movies.  Emma Stone was named best actress for playing a woman revived from the dead in the dark and wacky comedy "Poor Things."  It was the second Academy Award for Stone, who landed the best actress honor for 2016 musical "La La Land."  "This is really overwhelming," she said on stage.  The best actress race had been considered one of the tightest competitions with Lily Gladstone nominated for “Killers of the Flower Moon.”  In supporting actor categories, Robert Downey Jr. of "Oppenheimer" and "The Holdovers" star Da'Vine Joy Randolph claimed their first Academy Awards.  Downey, who was nominated for an Oscar in 1993 before his career was derailed by drug use, won his honor on Sunday for playing Oppenheimer's professional nemesis, Lewis Strauss.  "I'd like to thank my terrible childhood and the Academy, in that order," Downey joked before he saluted his wife Susan, who he said found him as a "snarly rescue pet" and "loved him back to life."  Randolph received the best supporting actress trophy for playing a grieving mother and cafeteria worker in the comedy set in a New England boarding school.  "For so long, I always wanted to be different, and now I realize I just need to be myself," she said. "I thank you for seeing me."  Winners were chosen by the roughly 10,500 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.  After 2023 was marred by labor strikes by actors and writers, the Oscars gave Hollywood a chance to celebrate two blockbusters, "Oppenheimer" and "Barbie," which brought in a combined US$2.4 billion at theaters and made movies the center of pop culture last summer. "Barbie" ended the night with one Oscar. (Reuters)