Brits Dominate Oscars in Non-Acting Categories With Wins for Christopher Nolan, ‘The Zone of Interest’ and ‘Poor Things’

Should any Americans be concerned following the Academy Awards ceremony, no, they haven’t missed Mother’s Day.

Mother’s Day in the U.S. is still May 12, a good two months away. In the U.K., however, it was the night of the Oscars, March 10 — and given the number of Brits that took to the stage to give acceptance speeches and thank their mothers, it’s understandable if many viewers stateside got confused (and a little panicked).

Regardless, for a period of time on Sunday night, it looked like the Oscars were going to be a solely U.K. affair.

Back-to-back craft wins for “Poor Things” saw a steady procession of Brits take to the stage at the Dolby Theater, including Holly Waddington (best costume design), Nadia Stacey, Mark Couler and Josh Weston (best makeup and hairstyling) and James Price and Shona Heath (best production design, alongside Hungarian set decorator Zsuzsa Mihalek).

Then there was one of the night’s biggest below-the-line shocks, when Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn won best sound for “The Zone of Interest.” Jonathan Glazer’s Holocaust drama was also named best international feature, the first time a U.K. film has won the category.

And, of course, the evening came to a climax with honors — finally — for perhaps the most successful British filmmaking duo of their generation: Christopher Nolan claimed his first Academy Award with a best director win for “Oppenheimer,” and followed it up moments later with a best picture win alongside producer (and his wife) Emma Thomas.

While it’s not unusual for Brits to fare well at the Oscars, it’s usually in the performance categories. This year, U.K. actors came up short, but that didn’t stop British TV host and comedian Jonathan Ross referring to Cillian Murphy as “British” in his coverage of the awards on ITV, to a barrage of online backlash.

“I am a very proud Irishman standing here tonight,” Murphy said in his best actor acceptance speech, adding “Go raibh maith agat,” which means “thank you” in Irish.

And although British actors may not have claimed any awards, at least two of the leading men on stage alongside Ryan Gosling for his wild performance of “I’m Just Ken” were British, with his “Barbie” co-stars Ncuti Gatwa and Kingsley Ben-Adir helping bring the Kenergy alongside Brit musicians Mark Ronson and Slash.