By Liana Walker and Mawunyo Gbogbo
Ryan Gosling is just Ken. (Getty: Kevin Winter)
This year's Oscars had an almost naked John Cena gingerly stepping across the stage to present an award, a wardrobe malfunction from Emma Stone and a cameo from Messi the dog. But it will be remembered for something else entirely.
As the three-hour ceremony neared the business end, the show ground to a halt to clear the way for Ryan Gosling to glam it up with a rousing rendition of I'm Just Ken, complete with a singalong and some special guests.
Here are the key moments from the 2024 Academy Awards:
Oscars feels the Ken-ergy
After the roster of Original Song nominees performed earlier in the show, Gosling took to the stage to perform Barbie movie hit I'm Just Ken in a show-stopping performance.
Opening the performance from his seat in the audience behind a giggling Margot Robbie, Gosling — sporting a sparkly pink suit with matching gloves — made his way to the stage to be joined by a troupe of cowboy-hatted dancers.
As the number shifted from power ballad to operatic rock, Gosling disappeared under giant Barbie masks, emerging in time for Guns and Roses guitarist Slash to let rip with a typically frenetic solo.
Slash joined Gosling on stage, showing he is also just Ken. (Getty: Kevin Winter)
Gosling then descended into the crowd to pass the mic around for a singalong, first joined by Robbie, America Ferrera and Greta Gerwig before he made his way to Stone. The performance ended with Gosling back on stage with the other Kens, including Simu Liu and Kingsley Ben-Adir.
Margot's revenge dress
Margot Robbie stunned fans as she opted out of a final pink Barbie number.(Getty: Mike Coppola)
Stepping away from the Barbie pink once again, Robbie stepped onto the red carpet in a gorgeous black Versace dress.
There was some suggestion the outfit could be a nod to Princess Diana's iconic black revenge dress because Robbie was not nominated for the Best Actress award.
Previous red carpet appearances from Robbie this awards season have been themed around iconic Barbie looks from past decades.
Emma Stone's broken dress
Emma Stone blamed the Kenergy for her wardrobe mishap.
(Reuters: Mike Blake)
After making her way to the stage to accept the Best Actress award, Stone opened her speech by warning the crowd that the back of her dress had "broken".
She blamed the I'm Just Ken moment for the costume drama.
A visibly shaken Stone — whose win is her second in the category — also told the crowd to avert their eyes as she walked offstage.
Messi a crowd favourite
And no we aren't talking about the Argentinian footballer.
This is Messi.
"Messi in the audience at the #Oscars." (Posted on X by Film Updates)
The Anatomy of a Fall star looked adorable in the audience and was even spotted clapping for some of the winners.
Sadly, there was no award for Best Good Boy at the Oscars.
"The cutaway to Messi clapping at the #Oscars is already a top 10 all time #Oscar moment" (Posted on X by Matt Neglia)
Best costume … without a costume
John Cena made a last-minute attempt to get out of appearing naked on stage. (Getty: Kevin Winter)
From Versace to vastly naked, John Cena took to the stage in nothing but a pair of sandals to hand out the Best Costume Design award.
Cena tried at the last minute to bail out of the streaking bit before reluctantly coming on to the stage.
The wrestling star asked host Jimmy Kimmel to help read out the awards — given he couldn't quite move the envelope without the show becoming R rated.
And in case you were wondering, no, he wasn't fully naked. We have proof.
So it turns out John Cena was not entirely naked after all.( Photo by Al Seib/AMPAS/Getty Images)
Barbenheimer rivalry ends
Well, at least Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling tried to end it.
Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling tried to end their rivalry. They did not succeed. (Getty: Kevin Winter)
Gosling started by suggesting to Blunt it was time to end the rivalry.
Blunt agreed and said there wasn't much of a rivalry with the way the awards season had gone. But Gosling's Ken-splanation of why it's Barbenheimer and not Oppenbarbie didn't go down well:
"I think you guys are at the tail end of that because you were riding Barbie's coat-tails all summer."
Robert Downey Jr thanks 'terrible childhood' for first Oscar win
The Iron Man star won his first Oscar, taking the gong for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Oppenheimer.
"I would like to thank my terrible childhood and the academy in that order," Downey Jr said to open his acceptance speech.
"I would like to thank my veterinarian … I meant wife Susan Downey over there.
"She found me a snarling rescue pet and you loved me back to life, and that is why I am here."
He admitted in the speech he needed the film more than it needed him.
Also taking home his first Oscar tonight was Wes Anderson. He won Best Live Short Film for The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, but was not at the show to accept the award.
Mini Godzillas help accept award
Godzilla's not so scary when in mini form. (Getty: Kevin Winter)
Masaki Takahashi, Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya and Tatsuji Nojima accepted the Best Visual Effects award for Godzilla Minus One by bringing mini Godzillas on stage with them.
In his acceptance speech, director Yamazaki said: "Even then the possibility of standing on this stage seemed out of reach, and the moment we were nominated we felt like Rocky Balboa.
"This is proof everyone has a chance"
"this reaction from the Godzilla Minus One team after they won the Oscar! and they’re all holding mini Godzillas!" (Posted on X by Spencer Althouse)
Why were actors wearing red pins?
The Academy Awards began with a political statement from some entertainers on the red carpet.
Ramy Youssef, Billie Eililsh and Finneas O'Connell on the Oscars red carpet. (Getty: Alberto Rodriguez)
Billie Eilish, Ramy Youssef, Mark Ruffalo, Ava DuVernay and Mahershala Ali were among the performers who wore pins as part of a movement launched by Artists4Ceasefire, which is a group of people in the entertainment industry demanding a ceasefire in the Gaza-Israel conflict.
During the ceremony, when the Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest was the first British movie to win the Oscar for Best International Film, director Jonathan Glazer, who is Jewish, used his speech to speak out against Israel's "occupation" of the Palestinian Territory and its attacks on Gaza, as well as the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
"All our choices were made to reflect and confront us in the present, not to say, 'Look what they did then,' rather, 'Look what they do now,'" Glazer said.
"Our film shows where dehumanisation leads, at its worst. Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people.
"Whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel, or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims, this dehumanisation, how do we resist?"
The Zone of Interest explores questions of complicity, while depicting the mundane lives of a Nazi family who live adjacent to the Auschwitz death camp.
Solemn moment for Mariupol
When director Mstyslav Chernov accepted the Documentary Feature Film award for 20 Days in Mariupol, his acknowledgement of the award came with a caveat.
"I'm honoured," Chernov said. "But probably I will be the first director on this stage who will say, 'I wish I never made this film.'
"I wish to be able to exchange this to Russia never attacking Ukraine, never occupying our cities.
"I wish to give all the recognition to Russia not killing tens of thousands of my fellow Ukrainians. I wish for them to release all the hostages, all the soldiers who are protecting their land, all the civilians who are now in their jails. But I cannot change the history. I cannot change the past."
The In Memoriam part of the ceremony was introduced in Russian with a clip from late opposition leader and activist Alexei Navalny.
His words, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing," were flashed on screen.
Jimmy Kimmel hosted the Oscars, held in Los Angeles. (Photo by Rich Polk/Variety via Getty Images)
Kimmel's parting shot at Donald Trump
Host Jimmy Kimmel took a jab at Alabama senator Katie Britt, who gave the Republican response to US President Joe Biden's State of the Union address last week.
In reference to Emma Stone's role in Poor Things, in which she's child-like, Kimmel joked: "Emma Stone played an adult lady with the brain of a child, kind of like the lady that gave the State of the Union rebuttal."
He later finished the ceremony by reading out one of the first reviews of his performance, panning Kimmel as "a less than average person trying too hard to be something he is not".
Kimmel then revealed the anonymous review to be from a Donald Trump social media post, before quipping "Isn't it past your jail time?".
Al Pacino jumps the gun
(Posted on X by Spencer Althouse)
Hollywood great Al Pacino appeared to have slipped up a little as he announced the winner of Best Picture by forgetting to read out the nominees.
He told the audience to announce the winner he had to "go to the envelope."
He called out the winner by saying "my eyes see Oppenheimer" without mention of any of the other nominations.
A slip up, or straight to the point? Who knows.
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