'Oppenheimer' sweeps up at Oscars

"Oppenheimer" swept the board on Sunday at the Oscars, Hollywood's biggest night of the year, with seven awards including best picture and best director, crowning a triumphant year for filmmaker Christopher Nolan.

Nolan's masterful drama about the father of the atomic bomb, half of last summer's massive "Barbenheimer" phenomenon, also bagged acting prizes for lead Cillian Murphy and supporting actor Robert Downey Jr.

Nolan — a British-American filmmaker hailed as a generational talent — said that film as an art form still has room to grow.

"Movies are just a little bit over 100 years old. I mean, imagine being there 100 years into painting or theater," he told the audience at the Dolby Theatre.

"We don't know where this incredible journey is going from here. But to know that you think that I'm a meaningful part of it means the world to me."

The haul was not quite complete — "Oppenheimer" was nominated for 13 prizes, but with seven statuettes on the night it is still one of the most awarded films in Oscar history.

Robert Downey Jr was recognized for his stellar performance as J. Robert Oppenheimer's political nemesis Lewis Strauss.

"I would like to thank my terrible childhood and the Academy, in that order," Downey said after accepting the statuette.

Downey, who had been the butt of a joke by host Jimmy Kimmel about his well-documented drug problems, lavished thanks on his wife Susan for her support.

"She found me a snarling rescue pet and loved me back to life," he said.

Nolan's cerebral take on the man he has called "the most important person who ever lived" also snapped up prizes for editing, cinematography and best original score.

It seemed fitting that the story of the development of...