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![Best Oscar Moments a collage of the best moments of the oscars](https://aarp.widen.net/content/gfyx0w8eek/png/1140-oscars2024-moments.png?crop=true&anchor=0,0&color=ffffffff&u=k2e9ec&w=1140&h=655)
Only two of the five winners in the major categories at the 96th Academy Awards March 10 were over 50, but it was still an inspiring night for grownup filmgoers.
And arguably the most grownup movie of the year, Oppenheimer, seized the lion’s share of awards — seven Oscars, including the big one, best picture.
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Eight of the 20 acting nominees were over 50. The average age for best actor contenders was 52.8. Actress contenders averaged about age 43, but in traditionally youth-centric, deeply sexist Hollywood, that’s progress.
Four of the five best director nominees were 50 or over (Killers of the Flower Moon director Martin Scorsese, 81, Oppenheimer’s Christopher Nolan, 53, Poor Things’ Yorgos Lanthimos, 50, and The Zone of Interest’s Jonathan Glazer, 58), and Nolan won.
All 10 best picture nominees owed a significant part of their success to viewers over 50, which makes sense. Oscars tend to favor smart, art-house hits over superhero blockbusters, and so do grownup moviegoers.
Here are some of the grownup highlights of the show:
![Best Oscar Moments](https://aarp.widen.net/content/zyyhtlakdq/jpeg/1140-oscars2024-deniro-foster.jpg?crop=true&anchor=0,0&q=80&color=ffffffff&u=k2e9ec&w=1140&h=655)
Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster reunite 48 years after nomination
“Here’s some fun Oscar trivia!” said host Jimmy Kimmel, 56. “Forty-eight years ago, Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster were nominated for Taxi Driver, and they are both nominated again tonight.” Killers of the Flower Moon’s De Niro, 80, and Foster, 61, beamed from their seats. Then Kimmel cracked a joke about Hollywood’s long road to go to overcoming ageism: “In 1976, Jodie Foster was young enough to be Robert De Niro’s daughter. Now she’s 20 years too old to be his girlfriend.” Foster nodded that Kimmel was, sadly, correct.
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