In some ways, the 96th Academy Awards had the hardest part of the job done for them. 2023 saw an abundance of films that were both creatively and commercially successful — the Holy Grail of a ceremony that aims to celebrate an embattled art form to the largest possible audience. Before anyone stepped foot in the Dolby Theater for Sunday’s celebration, producers had already been handed the gift of phenomena like “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” plus surprising crossover hits (“Godzilla Minus One”) and stone-cold masterpieces (“The Zone of Interest,” in this critic’s opinion). All the telecast producers had to do, one could argue, was uplift the honorees’ accomplishments without getting
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