Emma Stone’s Best Actress Oscar Win Brings Mixed Feelings About Lily Gladstone’s Loss

Even Emma Stone didn’t seem to believe it when her name was called on Sunday as the winner of the 2024 Academy Award for Best Actress. “I think I blacked out. I was very shocked,” Stone, who was recognized for her captivatingly melodramatic performance in Poor Things, told reporters after the ceremony.

Many Oscars-watchers had believed fellow nominee Lily Gladstone would win the award for her more understated but just as critically acclaimed performance in Martin Scorcese’s Killers of the Flower Moon.

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Stone, who was visibly overwhelmed when she was called on stage to receive the recognition, directed attention to each of her fellow nominees—Sandra Hüller, Annette Benning, Carey Mulligan, and Gladstone—saying, “I share this with you; I’m in awe of you; and it’s been such an honor to do all this together. I hope we get to keep doing more together.”

Emma Stone wins Best Actress at the 2024 #Oscars for her role in #PoorThings pic.twitter.com/r3ypYnmNEZ

But viewers and film critics at home were quick to react on the internet, expressing disappointment over what they perceived as a snub for Gladstone, who they felt was more deserving.

Emma Stone's performance is excellent, but Lily Gladstone's is like no other. Performances of conspicuous effort always win over quieter ones.

Emma Stone is absolutely incredible in Poor Things but Lily Gladstone's performance in Killers of the Flower Moon is *forever* and it always will be. #Oscars

Emma Stone’s speech was darling, and she really is wonderful in Poor Things, and I’m also totally gutted for Lily Gladstone and the 0 wins for Killers of the Flower Moon. Sigh.

As great as Stone was, this really feels like the night’s big misfire.

That’s a shame.

Lily Gladstone’s work was phenomenal, a performance that will stay with me for years and years. pic.twitter.com/H4JTHOdCPw

The 37-year-old Gladstone had already been feted as the best lead actress at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and at the Golden Globes, but Gladstone and the rest of the Killers of the Flower Moon cast and crew were shut out at the Oscars, as Christopher Nolan’s biopic on the father of the atomic bomb Oppenheimer took home most of the night’s top awards.

Still, as fans of the actress have been keen to point out, Gladstone nevertheless already made history as the first U.S. Native American to be nominated in the Best Actress category at the Oscars. Some have debated whether she would have fared better in the Supporting Actress category, given her limited screen time in Scorcese’s three-hour epic, but others have noted that her quietly moving portrayal of Osage woman Mollie Burkhart, whose relatives and community members were exploited and murdered by white interlopers, was the heart of the film.

Lily Gladstone not winning does not take away from the fact that she gave one of the best performances of the year. Her performance and the film will live on long after tonight is over. Her wins have been historic and trailblazing. She already made history.

It’s incredible the emotional range Lily Gladstone was able to communicate with just her eyes. She didn’t win an Oscar but her work in Killers of the Flower Moon is one for the history books pic.twitter.com/L0hYhKEsyF

There appears at least to be no bad blood over the upset between Stone and Gladstone, who were spotted embracing each other during the Oscars ceremony. Social media users also praised Gladstone’s “class” reaction to Stone receiving the award.

Lily Gladstone is a class act. #Oscars2024 pic.twitter.com/ArPEHqiC4n

And it’s not the end, rather just the beginning, for Gladstone’s career, supporters insist.

What a season for Lily Gladstone with KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON. She’ll be nominated again, but what an achievement to embody Mollie Burkhart so fully, to convey the complications of her soul and identity in such an epic, coursing story as this. A performance I’ll never forget. pic.twitter.com/KKEHAKJHJ9

Guess we’ll just have to keep casting Lily Gladstone in great movies with great scripts until she gets her moment too. I’m in if you are.

multiple truths:

- emma stone is great in #PoorThings
- lily gladstone is a great actor, and i hope this means
that audiences will also show this energy for her other performances, some directed by native filmmakers
- killers of the flower moon won exactly zero awards #Oscars