Pallade Veneta - Nerves and euphoria backstage at Oscars

"I'm feeling… I don't know. What will be, will be," Cillian Murphy told AFP on Sunday, as he lingered in the lobby midway through the Academy Awards gala.

At that point, the "Oppenheimer" star still had just over an hour to wait to find out if, after months of intense campaigning, he or "The Holdovers" lead Paul Giamatti would win the highly coveted Oscar for best actor.

Giamatti, making his way downstairs from the bar to return to his seat earlier in the show, assured an AFP journalist he felt "all good, all good."

"Nice that Da'Vine won!" he said of his co-star Da'Vine Joy Randolph, who was already celebrating after winning best supporting actress in the night’s first prize.

At the bar on the next level up were the team behind Hayao Miyazaki's "The Boy and the Heron," which had just won a tight race in best animated feature against narrow favorite "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse."

"I shouted so loud" when the prize was announced, said Eric Beckman, founder and chief executive of GKIDS, the North American distributor for Japan's Studio Ghibli.

"After, I had to ask, 'Did that really happen?'"

Confirming that the Oscar statuettes really are a hefty 8.5 pounds (nearly four kilos) -- heavier than the average newborn baby -- Beckman added: "Do you want to touch it? It's like doing weights!"

- 'Crazy marathon' -

Though victory at the Academy Awards is the highlight of most actors' careers, it can be a bittersweet moment for casts who have spent years making and then promoting their films together.

John Magaro, star of best picture nominee "Past Lives," said he planned to "eat a lot of good food" at various after-parties, but was sad to hang out with his co-stars one last time.

"I'm sure we'll all see each other again, but it won't be obviously as frequent, so it's almost like graduating from school," he said.

That feeling is heightened for novice and breakout stars, who do not know if it will all happen again.

Dominic Sessa, whose key role in best picture nominee "The Holdovers" was his first movie, said awards season had been a "crazy marathon."

"Not many people make their first movie and it happens like this. It's all downhill from here, I guess!" joked the 22-year-old.

"I am really working hard to just make sure I'm taking it all in."

Ultimately though, the attention at the Oscars remains squarely on the winners -- at least until the many after-parties finally wrap up in the early hours.

And the best actor prize? Like many others, it went to "Oppenheimer," and Murphy.

Jimmy Kimmel quipped that the many winners from "Oppenheimer" were not in their seats because they were "getting Oppen-hammered backstage at the bar."

Was Murphy planning to party into the night?

"We'll see what happens," he said with a smile.

F.M.Ferrentino--PV