For the winners who walked out of the Dolby Theater with an Oscar in hand, the evening wasn't as easy as it might seem.
After the award acceptance speech and before the caviar, champagne and the Governor's Ball banquet, all the award winners had a small way of the cross to follow: answering questions from a press room with hundreds of journalists from all over the world.
The difficulty lay not only in answering a barrage of questions asked in English with the most disparate accents, but also in having to deal with the confusion of the large adjoining theater room, where the professionals worked from the early hours of the morning, constantly jostling each other and risking spilling coffee or matcha latte on other people's computers.
While the unfortunate people tried to make sense of the recognition they had just obtained with less emotional speeches than those delivered at Dolby, the journalists also had to follow the ceremony.
With one ear they listened to the press conference;
with the earpiece inserted in the other, they followed the speeches of Jimmy Kimmel and those who accepted the statuette.
Rather embarrassing short circuits were created, as when Johnnie Burn and Tarn Willers, awarded for the sound of The Zone of Interest, were answering a complicated technical question and an amazed ovation exploded in the room because Emma Stone had beaten the favorite Lily Gladstone as best actress.
The loudest snort came from the Osage news reporter.
Things went worse for the documentary team 20 Days in Mariupol, whose members remembered "the anniversary of the bombing of the hospital in our city in Ukraine..." and journalists giggled at Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas O'Connell honored for What was I made for?.
Cory Jefferson was saying: "Films with black protagonists don't have to be set on plantations, in public housing, they don't have to have a protagonist who is a drug dealer or a drug addict..." and everyone laughed at the jokes of Robert Downey Jr. who was on the stage at that time.
The 96th Academy Awards didn't offer any surprises behind the scenes either, apart from these diplomatic hiccups.
At the end of the evening, the noisy press room was a cemetery of Coca Zero and prawns in cocktail sauce abandoned on plates.
The winners of the minor categories proved to be more generous than the big stars: Downey Jr. was so histrionic on stage, he didn't even introduce himself, causing a chorus of "Boo".
Emma Stone arrived last, still in disbelief and a little listless, and in the few minutes allowed the only thing she added to her acceptance speech was that she had managed to have her dress sewn back on stage.
Nolan and producer-wife Emma Thomas briefly abandoned their British aplomb and seemed warmer to each other, as she said: "We need to support the women who work in this industry. For Oppenheimer, we have chose fantastic women in the crew."
In fact, Jennifer Lame, best editor for the best film of the year according to the Academy, is the first woman to win in this category since 2015: "this statuette is worth double to me", she smiled.
A group of stenographers transcribed the answers, while three archivists responded to the reporters' Trivial pursuits.
For example: How many African American actresses have won the Oscar for Best Supporting Performance?
"Ten - they responded to ANSA in less than 2 and a half minutes - the first was Hattie McDaniel in 1939 and the last Da'Vine Joy Randolph, tonight".
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