Da'Vine Joy Randolph among early Oscar winners

Da'Vine Joy Randolph is among the early winners at the 2024 Oscars, which are taking place in Los Angeles.

The star won best supporting actress for her portrayal of a school chef who is trying to cope with the death of her son in The Holdovers.

Accepting her award, Randolph said: "I am so grateful to you beautiful people out there."

Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer is expected to dominate the night, and is the firm favourite to win best picture.

Other films vying for prizes include Poor Things, Barbie, Anatomy of a Fall and Killers of the Flower Moon.

In her acceptance speech, Randolph told the audience: "For so long I have always wanted to be different. And I now I realise I just needed to be myself, and I thank you for seeing me.

"I didn't think I was supposed to be doing this as a career, I started off as a singer, and my mother said to me, go across that street to that theatre department, there's something for you there.

"And I thank my mother for doing that, I thank all those people who have been there for me, ushered and guided me, I am so grateful to you beautiful people out there."

For the fourth time, the ceremony is being hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. The US chat show host opened with a monologue which reflected on the past 12 months in the film industry.

Recalling the strikes that brought Hollywood to a standstill, Kimmel paid tribute to the efforts made to get a fair deal for actors and writers.

He joked that actors could now stop worrying about "being replaced by AI, and could go back to worrying about being replaced by younger, more attractive people".

Turning his attention to Barbie stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, he said: "If neither of you wins an Oscar tonight, I would like to say you won something much better, the genetic lottery."

Kimmel also suggested the nominated movies "were too long this year", adding: "When I went to see Killers of the Flower Moon, I had my mail forwarded to the theatre.

"Killers of the Flower Moon is so long," he continued, "in the time it took you to watch it, you could drive to Oklahoma and solve the murders yourself."

Picking out more nominees sitting in the audience, the comic poked fun at Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster, who he observed "were both nominated for Taxi Driver in 1976 and they are both nominated again tonight".

"In 1976 Jodie Foster is young enough to be Robert De Niro's daughter, now she is 20 years too old to be Robert De Niro's girlfriend."

Read more about the films in this year's awards race: