Oppenheimer is ending the 2024 Golden Globes with a whopping five awards! The Christopher Nolan-directed film won the award for Best Motion Picture – Drama at the 2024 awards show Sunday.
“Can you hear my heart beating? Because it’s a go crazy,” said Emma Thomas, the film’s producer, who accepted the award on behalf of the cast and crew during the last award of the evening.
“This was just an incredible experience making this film. This is just the smallest portion of the many people that made the film what it is,” she continued. “I loved sitting here hearing everyone talk about their work. What’s so clear is that all we do is collaboration, and that’s amazing, and it’s exciting, and I find that to be completely magical.”
Thomas also celebrated Nolan’s Best Director win earlier in the evening. “I just think that what he does is unlike anyone else is doing,” she said. “Chris sort of brings the best out in people by being the very best himself.”
During his speech, Nolan teared up while talking about Heath Ledger. “The only time I’ve ever been on this stage before was accepting one of these on behalf of our dear friend, Heath Ledger,” Nolan said. “That was complicated and challenging for me.”
Oppenheimer — which became the highest-ever grossing biopic last year — stars Cillian Murphy as Robert J. Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb. The film also stars Emily Blunt as Kitty Oppenheimer and Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss.
Earlier in the night, Murphy won the award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama, while Downey Jr. won for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture. Nolan won the trophy for Best Director, and Ludwig Göransson won the award for Best Original Score for his work on the film.
Nolan was also nominated in the Best Screenplay category, and the film was up for the Cinematic and Box Office Achievement award. Rolling Stone called Nolan’s starry biopic, which is adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus, a “big, loud, must-see.”
“Oppenheimer is one of those shoot-for-the-moon projects that feels thrilling and wonky, brilliant and overstuffed, too much and yet not enough,” wrote David Fear. “It’s also a movie that brings to mind the difficult era-spanning epics of yesteryear, from Reds to The Right Stuff and is a movie made by adults for adults yet done with the sweep and majesty we now associate with movies made for kids and teens.
Oppenheimer was up against Anatomy of a Fall, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, Past Lives, and the Zone of Interest. Oprah Winfrey presented the award. “Movies have the ability to transform how we see the world,” Winfrey said as she presented the award.
Last year, Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans won the award over movies such as Elvis and Tár. Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog won the year prior.
This year’s Golden Globes marks the first that Dick Clark Productions and Eldridge Industries took full control of the show over the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. It aired on CBS and was hosted by comedian Jo Koy from The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills.