UK enjoys solid night at Oscars helped by Poor Things hat-trick

A hat-trick of wins for technical achievement on the film Poor Things helped the UK to a solid night of success at the 2024 Academy Awards, which was capped by director Christopher Nolan’s first Oscar.

The three wins for Poor Things came early in the night and were all for efforts behind the camera.

Veteran make-up specialist Mark Coulier was part of the team which won best make-up and hair for their work on the dark fantasy comedy, along with UK colleagues Nadia Stacey and Josh Weston.

Shona Heath and James Price won the Oscar for best production design while Holly Waddington took best costume design.

The hat-trick of Oscars comes just weeks after similar success for the same set of people at the Bafta film awards.

The Zone Of Interest, which is set in and around the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Second World War, was responsible for two more UK wins.

British audio designers Johnnie Burn and Tarn Willers picked up the Oscar for best sound for their work on the historical drama.

It was also named best international feature, becoming the first UK-produced movie to win this category.

The film, by British director Jonathan Glazer, has largely German and Polish dialogue which made it eligible for the award.

The UK enjoyed two further successes at the end of the night.

British filmmaker Christopher Nolan won the Oscar for best director for his epic biographical drama Oppenheimer.

It was Nolan’s first Academy Award and came 22 years after his first nomination.

Oppenheimer – a joint US-UK co-production – was also named best picture.

The UK’s tally of seven Oscars at this year’s awards is up three on last year’s total of four and is the best performance since 2021 when the country came away with eight.

The highest tally so far this century was 2009, when the UK picked up nine Oscars, including six for Slumdog Millionaire.