For Robert Downey Jr., the third nomination was the charm, as Downey took the Oscar for best supporting actor for his work in “Oppenheimer” as Lewis Strauss, the government official who destroyed the reputation of the film’s title character.
“I’d like to thank my terrible childhood and the Academy in that order,” Downey said as he reached the stage of the 96th annual Academy Awards on Sunday. “I’d like to thank my veterinarian, I mean, wife, Susan Downey over there.
“She found me a snarling rescue pet, and you loved me back to life,” he said, referencing his well-documented struggles with addiction. “That’s why I’m here.”
Downey said he “needed this job more than it needed me,” and thanked director Christopher Nolan and Nolan’s producer wife Emma Thomas for choosing him.
“The Last Repair Shop,” a film about the Los Angeles Unified School District’s program that provides instruments to public school students, won best documentary short.
Then, in one of the most moving speeches of the night, “20 Days in Mariupol” won best documentary feature for director Mstyslav Chernov’s work in that Ukrainian city in the early days of that nation’s war with Russia.
“This is the first Oscar in Ukrainian history,” Chernov said. “And I’m honored. I’m honored. But probably I will be the first director on this stage to say I wish I would never have 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 10s of thousands of my fellow Ukrainians.
“But I cannot change the history,” he continued. “I cannot change the past. But we, some of the most talented people in the world, we can make sure that the history record is set straight. And that the truth will prevail. And the people of Mariupol and those who’ve given their lives will never be forgotten.
“Because cinema forms memories, and memories form history.”