Fosse won an Oscar for best director for his masterful handling of socio-sexual and political themes in the form of a musical, a genre previously reserved for lighter subject matter. Liza Minnelli provides an Oscar-winning performance as Sally Bowles, an émigré aspiring to stardom at the Kit Kat Club in late Weimar-era Berlin. The seedy, decadent atmosphere of the club, where escapism and denial are ever-present, provides an ominous backdrop to the encroaching threat of the Nazi party occurring in the world outside. Joel Grey, as the devilish Master of Ceremonies, also earned an Academy Award, for supporting actor, as did Geoffrey Unsworth, for cinematography.