The Highs, Lows and Whoas From the 2024 Oscars Awards

Ryan Gosling performing at the Oscars

It’s Hollywood prom, baby! The Oscars, inarguably the most important awards show in Tinsel Town, kicked off in grand fashion with an iconic Barbie on the bench moment and then kept going (and going) (and going!) from there.

Hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, the evening was an exhilarating mix of emotional speeches, show-stopping performances and unforgettable moments from the red carpet and main event.

As the curtain closed, records were shattered, new stars were born and Hollywood had survived another wildly entertaining Oscars night. Here’s a rundown of the highs, lows and most bonkers moments of Hollywood’s biggest night.

Related: The Oscars 2024 Red Carpet: See the Dazzling Fashions Worn by Your Favorite Film Stars

The highs, lows and wildest moments from the 2024 Oscar Awards

High: Messi the dog shows up!

Anatomy of a Fall’s canine star was unexpectedly in the audience. He brought some major good-boy energy to the event, looking so handsome and perfect in his seat. An excellent way to start the many, many, many houred event. (He is unfortunately not nominated for any awards as he is a dog. Boo! Change the rules!)

Low: Finding out Messi's appearance was pre-taped

Doesn't totally undermine the joy of the moment, but still, we feel fooled!

Related: Fans Feel ‘Fooled’ After Learning Messi the Dog's Adorable Oscars Appearance Was Pre-Taped

High: Standing O for the people who actually run Hollywood

Kimmel brought some teamsters, members of IATSE, and others to the stage to thank them for their support during the WGA and SAG strikes. They got a much-deserved standing ovation and shared that everyone in the room would support them in their upcoming negotiations. A very cool moment.

(The opening monologue was, all in all, not terrible and, more importantly, short! Although around the internet, some people didn’t quite love it.)

High: Former Best Supporting Actresses presents the current Best Supporting Actress award

And before they did, they each delivered short speeches which elicited tears from the nominees, the audience and frankly, those of us watching at home. This was funny and surprisingly moving. Beautiful!

The show continued this format all evening—with past winners saying kind words about the current nominees—and it was pretty delightful.

High: Da'Vine Joy Randolph's speech

Da'Vine Joy Randolph won for her brilliant turn in The Holdovers! Her speech was everything—including the amazing line, “For so long, I’ve wanted to be different. And now I realize I just need to be myself. Thank you for seeing me.”

It made co-star Paul Giamatti cry! And me too! Lotta tears already and we still have 72 hours to go.

High: Cord Jefferson’s acceptance speech

The former journalist and TV writer wrote the hit American Fiction and rightfully won the award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the wonderful movie. His speech was particularly noteworthy as he implored the talent (and money!) in the room to make more smaller movies.

“I know this is a risk-averse industry, but maybe instead of making one $200 million dollar movie, try making 10 $20 million dollar movies," he said. Hear, hear!

Whoa: A naked John Cena threatens to streak and then presents an award

It’s been 50 years since the Oscars had a streaker, but an almost fully naked John Cena (he’s wearing Birks lol) is ready to pick up the mantle. And you know what? It was WHOA!

Low: Where’s Leo?!

Why isn’t Leonardo DiCaprio there? Sure, he might be filming his new Paul Thomas Anderson movie and he wasn’t actually nominated for Killers of the Flower Moon, but it would be nice if he were there to support Martin Scorsese and of course, the transcendent Lily Gladstone.

Low: Stunt people get a package but no award?!

The stunt people got a thrilling tribute but where’s the award for them!? Let’s add them next year, along with the new Casting award. I mean, the show is already 3 million hours long, why not add another five minutes to salute these bad-ss warriors!?

High: Godzilla Minus One wins for visual effects!

The talented team all held Godzilla action figures as they accepted their award. It ruled. This movie is so so good. Everyone go see it immediately.

John Carpenter also endorsed this win:

High: Jennifer Lame wins for Best Film Editing

Jennifer Lame, who has previously worked on Manchester by the Sea, Hereditary, Tenet and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever—gave a great speech, which she kicked off by telling Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger that she loved their movie Twins! Which, honestly, who doesn’t!?

She also gave a heartfelt thanks to Emma Thomas, who is director Christopher Nolan’s creative partner, producer and wife, putting some shine on the women who run this whole dang town.

High: Dammit, Ryan Gosling is Keneough performing I’m Just Ken

A very funny and charming performance from the very funny and charming Ryan Gosling. With a little help from guitarist Slash and the other Kens, including Simu Liu, Ryan knocked it outta the gosh-danged park. You can’t hate, you must simply celebrate (Ken).

High: Billie Eilish shows what she was made for

Long before Ryan performed, Billie Eilish took the stage to deliver a tearjerker performance of her own Barbie hit, "What Was I Made For?". Billie went on to win Best Song, making her and brother Finneas O'Connell the two youngest two-time winners in Academy Awards history (they'd previously won for their contribution to the Bond movie No Time to Die).

Related: Will There Be a 'Barbie' Movie Sequel? Here's Everything We Know About 'Barbie 2'

Low: The weird In Memoriam segment

With roughly 50 people singing, dancing and playing instruments on the stage, we couldn't really see the people who were being remembered. It was just... strange.

Low: No love for Lily Gladstone

Listen, Emma Stone was great in Poor Things, and one could make a good case for why she deserved to take home the award. But Lily Gladstone was the first Native American woman to be nominated for lead actress and it would have been nice to see her become the first Native American woman to win in that category, too.

Low: No real surprises (except one big one, three hours in)!

Pretty much everyone who was predicted to win won. The one upset was Best Actress Emma Stone, and that happened three freaking hours into the ceremony. And, well, no upsets isn't an altogether bad thing, but maybe it's a little bit of a boring thing? Fine! Whatever! It's over! Congrats to all the winners and nominees and mainly, my friends, to us. We did it!

Next, The Complete List of Winners From the 2024 Oscars