While many thought it would be a battle of Barbenheimer in the Best Adapted Screenplay category, it turns out neither Barbie nor Oppenheimer wound up with the trophy. Instead, Cord Jefferson took home the honor for American Fiction.

In his acceptance speech, Jefferson mentioned how he has talked about how so many people passed on the movie and said he worried that made him sound vindictive, noting, “I’m not vindictive anymore. I’ve worked very hard to not be vindictive anymore.”

Instead he said he mentioned it as “a plea to acknowledge and recognize that there are so many people out there who want the opportunity that I was given,” urging studios to take more risks and think about making more films with smaller budgets rather than just $200 million blockbusters.

“I just feel so much joy being here I felt so much joy making this movie and I want other people to experience that joy,” he said. “And they are out there I promise you.”

In the Best Original Screenplay category, Justine Triet and Arthur Harari took home the honor for Anatomy of a Fall, with Justine joking the win would “help me through my midlife crisis, I think.”

She also talked about how the film was written during lockdown, noting, “we were stuck in the house with two kids, it was lockdown and we hooked them up with cartoons to have peace and there was no line between work and diapers.”

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