Anora, a drama about a sex worker who marries the son of a Russian oligarch, took home the Best Picture prize at the 97th Academy Awards on March 2. The film, from independent distributor Neon, had six nominations going into the event, which was held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. It won five. Filmmaker Sean Baker also won for Directing, Film Editing, and Best Original Screenplay. Mikey Madison, a first-time Oscar nominee, won Best Actress for her starring role in the picture.
Baker’s work often focusses on the lives of marginalised people. His past movies include The Florida Project, about a single mother and daughter scraping to get by under the shadow of Walt Disney World.
Anora has generated $40.9 million in box office receipts since its October 2024 release. Last year’s Best Picture winner, Universal’s Oppenheimer, took in close to $1 billion and won seven Oscars overall.
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Baker used his acceptance speeches to urge filmmakers, studios, and audiences to support seeing pictures in theaters. “Long live independent film,” he said in accepting his final award.
Acting honours
Adrien Brody took home the Best Actor award for his portrayal of a Jewish immigrant struggling to make it as an architect after World War II in The Brutalist, from independent studio A24. It also won Best Score.
Earlier, Zoe Saldaña took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the Netflix Inc. film Emilia Pérez. Saldaña, who is best known for her work in science fiction films like Avatar and Guardians of the Galaxy, won for her portrayal of an attorney who helps the lead character change their identity. In an emotional acceptance speech in which she broke into tears several times, Saldaña said she was the “proud child of immigrant parents” and the first actor of Dominican Republic origin to win.
Emilia Pérez lead Karla Sofía Gascón, the first openly transgender person ever nominated for an acting Oscar, was in attendance. Gascón had come under fire recently for comments she made on social media years ago about Muslims and George Floyd.
Kieran Culkin took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Culkin, a former child actor whose career saw a resurgence with the HBO drama Succession, won for his portrayal of a troublesome cousin on a Holocaust-themed tour of Poland in the film A Real Pain. The film was written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg, who also co-starred.
(L-R) Adrien Brody (Best Actor for The Brutalist), Mikey Madison (Best Actress for Anora), Zoe Saldana (Best Supporting Actress for Emilia Perez), and Kieran Culkin (Best Supporting Actor for A Real Pain), pose at the Oscars on March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
| Photo Credit:
Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
The ceremony began with Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, two of the stars of Wicked, singing a medley of songs, including “Over the Rainbow” from the original The Wizard of Oz.
Paul Tazewell took home the trophy for costume design for Wicked. He is the first Black man to win that prize. Flow won the Best Animated Feature Film, besting nominees that included Universal’s The Wild Robot and Walt Disney Co.’s Inside Out 2. Flow is the first Latvian film to win an Oscar.
Peter Straughan won the Best Adapted Screenplay prize for the papal thriller Conclave.
The feature-length documentary award went to No Other Land, which is about the recent conflict in West Asia. The filmmakers, a Palestinian-Israeli collective, used their acceptance speech to criticise US policy in the region. Brazil’s I’m Still Here won best international film.
Indie studios dominate
The Academy Awards marked a celebration of independent film, with Neon’s Anora and A24’s The Brutalist claiming eight Oscars in all including best film, lead performances, and director. These films triumphed over more broadly popular films, such as Universal Pictures’ Wicked and Warner Bros’ Dune: Part Two, which were acknowledged for technical achievement, such as costume and production design and visual effects.
Top takeaways from the Academy Awards ceremony
CONAN’S FIRST OSCARS
Comedian Conan O’Brien hosted the Academy Awards ceremony for the first time, mixing his trademark self-deprecating humour with jabs at the Hollywood elite in the audience.
In his opening monologue, O’Brien poked fun at the typically hours-long Oscars telecast by performing a gratuitous musical number in which he sang about not wasting time but that included appearances by a dancing “Deadpool” and a piano-playing sandworm from Dune: Part Two.
O’Brien also got political with a veiled reference to President Donald Trump as Anora, a film about a sex worker who marries the son of a Russian oligarch, started picking up awards.
“You know Anora is having a good night. That’s great news. Two wins already. I guess Americans are excited to see someone finally stand up to a powerful Russian.”
ORIGINAL SONGS DITCHED
The Oscars telecast scrapped the decades-old tradition of live performances of nominated songs. Instead, the ceremony featured several musical performances inspired by films.
The telecast opened with Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo performing songs from The Wizard of Oz and two films inspired by the iconic 1939 movie—The Wiz and the two actresses’ Oscar-winning 2024 hit Wicked.
The show also celebrated James Bond films with a medley of songs from the famous franchise that included performances by the actress Margaret Qualley and the pop singers Doja Cat, Lisa, and Raye. Later, Queen Latifah performed “Ease On Down the Road” from The Wiz as a musical tribute to producer Quincy Jones, who died in 2024.
NOTABLE FIRSTS
This year’s Oscar winners included some notable firsts.
The nations of Latvia and Brazil each picked up their first ever Oscars.
The Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis won the best animated feature film Oscar for Flow, which follows a cat that finds refuge on a boat along with other animals.
And Brazilian director Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here, about a matriarch whose husband is taken away by the military regime that ruled the country in the 1970s, won the Academy Award for best international feature film.
Also, Paul Tazewell became the first black man to win the costume design Oscar for Wicked, an achievement he acknowledged when accepting his award onstage.
GENE HACKMAN TRIBUTE
Actor Morgan Freeman delivered a heartfelt tribute to his friend Gene Hackman, a two-time Oscar winner who was found dead at home last week.
“This week our community lost a giant and I lost a dear friend, Gene Hackman,” Freeman said, noting that the two starred in two films together—the western Unforgiven in 1992 and Under Suspicion, a thriller, in 2000.
“Like everyone who ever shared a scene with him, I learned he was a generous performer and a man whose gift elevated everyone’s work,” Freeman said. “He received two Oscars, and more importantly, he won the hearts of filmgoers around the world.”
“We always jump into these projects knowing we will have to compete with films that have budgets almost 100 times what we shot our film for,” Baker told reporters after the Oscar ceremony. “When we’re actually able to do that, get into the same room as films such as Wicked, it means we’re doing something right.”
The Latvian independent film Flow, a wordless animated film that follows a cat and other animals that band together after losing their homes in a flood, received the Oscar for best animated picture.
Under the shadow of LA wildfires
Host Conan O’Brien delivered a monologue with jokes about Netflix leading among studios with the most price increases and Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos being delivered to the theatre in a package, which was later stolen from the red carpet.
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This year’s awards were held under the shadow of the wildfires that tore through Los Angeles earlier in the year. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences used the event as a fundraiser for fire victims.
The Oscars, which were broadcast on Disney’s ABC network and for the first time on the company’s Hulu streaming service, saw tens of thousands of subscribers reporting problems accessing Hulu during the ceremony. Disney apologised for the inconvenience.
(With inputs from agencies)
Source:https://frontline.thehindu.com/news/oscars-2025-anora-sean-baker-winners-complete-list/article69284944.ece