Da'Vine Joy Randolph won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in The Holdovers at Academy Awards gala in Beverly Hills on Sunday.
"God is so good," Randolph said with tears streaming down her cheeks after her co-star Paul Giamatti escorted her to the stage.
She thanked all of the people -- particularly her mother -- who encouraged her to act when she thought singing was the path for her.
"I am so grateful to all of you beautiful people out there," she added. "I've always wanted to be different and now I realize I just need to be myself. I thank you for seeing me."
Moments later The Boy and the Heron won the award for Best Animated Feature, while Anatomy of a Fall earned the honor for Best Original Screenplay and American Fiction scored the prize for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Jimmy Kimmel is hosting the gala, which honors excellence in film.
He opened the show by thanking the crowd of "beautiful human actors" -- a dig at Hollywood's recent battle to limit the use of artificial intelligence in cinema and TV -- for the "partial standing ovation" they gave him.
The show is airing live on ABC.
Oppenheimer went into the competition with 13 nominations, followed by Poor Things with 11 nominations and Killers of the Flower Moon with 10 nominations.