The Best Actress Oscar stirred deep emotion as Emma Stone collected her second statuette, this time for the film Poor Creatures. Director Yorgos Lanthimos’s project earned two additional wins out of eleven nominations: Best Production Design for James Price, Shona Heath, and Zsuzsa Mihalek, and Best Makeup and Hairstyling for Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier, and Robert Hammond.
The triumph by the American actress left Lily Gladstone, star of Moon Killers, with a quiet, measured reaction. Gladstone had hoped to become the first Native American to win Best Actress, a milestone that remained out of reach that night.
Oppenheimer dominated the night at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, a film crafted by Christopher Nolan that collected the top prizes including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Leading Actor for Cillian Murphy, and Best Supporting Actor for Robert Downey Jr. The movie’s array of awards made it the big winner of the ceremony.
Complete list of winners of the 96th Oscars
35-year-old Emma Stone had already earned a Best Actress Oscar for La La Land in 2017. This year, she added another victory for Poor Creatures. The film also claimed the Oscar for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, a category up against Juan Antonio Bayona’s The Snow Society.
In a lighter moment of the evening, the actress shared a laughter-filled anecdote about the dress she wore: a tear at the back had become visible as she left the stage, prompting a playful request to audiences not to focus on the wardrobe mishap as she exited the spotlight.