Tim's Take by Tim O'Brien

"Oppenheimer" wins the night as it takes home 7 Oscars, including Best Picture. Christopher Nolan won for director while Cillian Murphy won actor and Robert Downey Jr won in a supporting role.

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Showtime:

• The Oscars starts early this year, at 6 p.m. CST/7 p.m. EST. That is an attempt to keep viewers as it drags on. 

• Truth be told, those who interview have not seen everything, but seem to love everything.  My style was more like Roger Ebert. Talk about the movies and not the other stuff. Or have someone else take care of that.

• After a few years away, those big Oscar statuettes have returned to the carpet. And each year, the carpet gets covered more and more.

Below, you will find a backstage quote or two from the virtual press room. enjoy.

Jimmy Kimmel hosts the 96th Academy Awards, live at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. Kimmel does his late night show directly across the street.

Kimmel's opening was real nice. On with the show.

Best Picture

"Oppenheimer"

Al Pacino did not mention the 10 nominees and just opened the envelope and said "Oppenheimer"

Backstage: Emma Thomas) I don't know. I think everybody should be supporting women in the industry. I'm just saying. We had the most incredible group of women working on this film, and I think that, you know, in -- eventually I think we'll get to the point where we have sort of 50/50 representation across the board. We're not quite there yet, but we're getting there. I think things are getting a lot better than they were, and, you know, I'm very proud to have worked on a film that had so many fantastically talented women on it. And really the way that we do, sort of, bring more women in is to keep hiring and keep supporting. So, yeah, it's an important thing.

      Backstage: Christopher Nolan) Yeah, I mean, I don't like to speak too specific about messages of films I make because I feel that if cinema is didactic, it tends not to work dramatically so well. But having finished the film and having seen audiences respond to it, I mean, it was very striking to me.

When I first embarked on the project, I told one of my teenage sons what I was working on, and he actually said to me, young people aren't that concerned about nuclear weapons. It's not really in the forefront of their fears. And that did seem to me to be something that this film could, to some extent, help in success and with a lot of people seeing it. And as far as any kind of broader message, the thing that I would like to point out is, the film ends on what I consider a dramatically necessary moment of despair, but in reality I don't think despair is the answer to the nuclear question.

If you look at the work on non-proliferations being done by individuals and organizations since 1945, there's been a reduction in the number of nuclear weapons on the planet since 1967 of almost 90 percent. In the last few years, it's gone the wrong way, and it's very important that rather than despair, in reality, people are looking at advocacy, they're looking at organizations who are working to pressure politicians and leaders to reduce the number of nuclear weapons on our planet and make the world safer.

Directing

Christopher Nolan - "Oppenhemier"

Backstage: It's just the most incredible thrill. When you make a film on a large scale, obviously, you -- you have to believe there's some audience for it out there. But starting with the release of the film in July, the response from people around the world far exceeded anything that I imagined possible, and, you know, winning this recognition from my peers, is just, I mean, the icing on the cake. It's just very -- it's very important to me. It's really a wonderful finish to what's been an incredible year.

Actress in a Leading Role

Emma Stone - "Poor Things" - this one an upset? Not to me.

Backstage: .​She is a character that is so, so important to me. It -- I think the chance to -- to play a person starting from scratch, but in a total metaphorical, can't-really-happen-in-real-life way, who's gaining language and skills at a rapid pace every day and getting to, sort of, chart that course and realize that she was just full of -- of joy and curiosity and true love, of not just the good, but the challenging in life and was fascinated by all of it, that was an amazing, an amazing lesson to take with me and to try to get to live in the shoes of every day. So I really miss playing her ever since we wrapped filming, which was a long time ago. It was like two and a half years ago. I miss Bella. And I'm really grateful that we got to celebrate the film tonight and over these past few months.

And, yeah, I just, I love her.

Actor in a Leading Role 

Cillian Murphy - "Oppenheimer"

Backstage:    It's a little bit of -- I'm a little bit of a

                  daze, you know.  I'm very overwhelmed.  I'm

                  very humbled.  I'm very grateful.  And you

                  know, very proud to be -- to be Irish standing here today.

 Actress in a Supporting Role - it will be a long night if we get a backstory for every nominee

Da'vine Joy Randolph

Actor in a Supporting Role

Robert Downey Jr - "Oppenheimer"

The supporting wins were spot on. For Downey Jr you had to do a double-take to realize it was him when he first appeared on "Oppenheimer." He was brilliant.

He did not go into the interview room after he won.

Animated Short Film

"War is Over" - Dave Mullins and Brad Booker

Animated Feature

"The Boy and the Heron" - Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki

Backstage: They were not here, but a message was sent and read: 

I am grateful to receive such an honor at my age and taking

     this as a message to continue our work, I will devote myself to

     work harder in the future.

     Thank you very much, Toshio Suzuki, Studio Ghibli."

      Thank you so much.

Original Screenplay

"Anatomy of a Fall" - Justine Triet and Arthur Harari

Adapted Screenplay 

"American Fiction" - Written for the screen by Cord Jefferson

Backstage: Yeah. I mean, the -- I wanted to depict a different kind of Boston than is normally depicted in the films. So I said no pictures of Fenway Park, no pictures of duck boats on the Charles, right. It's sort of -- I wanted to -- I wanted to explore a different side of Boston and, you know, one of the different sides of Boston is black people.

 Make-up and Hairstyling

"Poor Things" - Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier and Josh Weston

Production Design

"Poor Things" - James Price and Shona Heath; Set Decoration: Zsuzsa Mihalek

Costume Design

"Poor Things" - Holly Waddington

Thought: "Oppenheimer" is getting shut-out so far....

International Feature Film

"Zone of Interest" - United Kingdom

Thought: Will this category become obsolete since they are now being recognized as Best Picture more and more?

Visual Effects

"Godzilla Minus One" - Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi and Tatsuji Nojima

Editing

"Oppenheimer" - Jennifer Lame

Documentary Short

"The Last Repair Shop" - Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers

Documentary Feature

"20 Days in Mariupol" - Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner and Raney Aronson-Rath

Cinematography

"Oppenheimer" - Hoyte van Hoytema

Sound

"Zone of Interest" - Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn

Original Music Score

"Oppenheimer" - Ludwig Göransson

Original Song - "WHAT WAS I MADE FOR?"

       from Barbie; Music and Lyric by Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell

       Remember, the song has to be written for the film. It cannot be one that has already been a hit and then inserted into a film. But, I wish they could. Or at least make a different category for that idea.