MANILA, PHILIPPINES – In a year when there was no clear favorite for the best motion picture among the award-giving bodies, a little comedy-drama about a sex worker duped into a marriage by the son of a Russian oligarch won big at the Oscars. “Anora” won Best Director for Sean Baker, Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing, and Best Picture. Mikey Madison also took home Best Actress in the title role, beating out sentimental favorite Demi Moore in “The Substance.”
Brody’s second, Madison surprises
The 97th Academy Awards were held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, mere months after the most devastating wildfires in American history. Yet, as it always does, the U.S. entertainment industry came together to celebrate their best from the past calendar year. First-time host Conan O’Brien showed why he should have been considered for the gig years earlier with the jokes and wit that were a staple on his previous late night talk shows.
Twenty-three years after winning his first Best Actor Oscar for The Pianist, Adrien Brody snagged top acting honors once more for “The Brutalist.” Clocking in at over three hours in length, Brody plays László Tóth, a Holocaust survivor from Hungary who immigrates to America to escape persecution. Brody’s performance as the tortured architect trying to achieve the American dream separated him from other noteworthy nominees.
Those included Timothee Chalamet who played Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown,” and Ralph Fiennes as a cardinal investigating a mystery within the walls of the Vatican in “Conclave.” Also nominated were Colman Domingo as an inmate trying to set up a prison theater group in “Sing Sing’ and Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump in “The Apprentice.”
Chalamet had won for Best Actor at the 31st Screen Actors Guild Awards, and was thus seen as a strong Oscar contender. In the same vein, Moore won Best Actress at the SAG Awards as well as the 82nd Golden Globes for her portrayal of fading celebrity Elisabeth Sparkle in the body horror drama “The Substance.”
Other Best Actress nominees were Cynthia Erivo as the witch Elphaba in “Wicked,” controversial Karla Sofia Gascon in the title role for “Emilia Perez,” and Fernanda Torres as a mother and activist dealing with the forced disappearance of her husband in “I’m Still Here.”
Culkin and Saldaña dominate
A mere two years after picking up a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in the final season of “Succession,” Kieran Culkin leveled up. The former Roman Roy won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for “A Real Pain.” Culkin played Benji Kaplan, whose cousin David (Jesse Eisenberg) plans a Jewish heritage tour of Poland to connect to their family history.
Prior to the Academy Award, Culkin also took home the Best Supporting Actor award from the Golden Globe Awards, the Screen Actors Guild Awards, and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) honors to sweep this category.
Other nominees in the Best Supporting Actor category were Edward Norton as folk singer Pete Seeger in “A Complete Unknown,” Guy Pearce as wealthy industrialist Harrison Van Buren in “The Brutalist,” Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn in “The Apprentice,’ and Yuri Borisov as sympathetic henchman Igor in “Anora.”
Culkin’s equivalent for Best Supporting Actress throughout the 2025 awards season was clearly Zoe Saldaña. Proving she has acting chops beyond big franchise roles in Marvel and the “Avatar” franchise, Saldaña won for her performance as struggling lawyer Rita Mora Castro in “Emilia Perez,” also earning the BAFTA and Golden Globe.
Isabella Rosellini as Sister Agnes in “Conclave,” Monica Barbaro as folksinger Joan Baez in “A Complete Unknown,” Ariana Grande as the good witch Glinda/Galinda in Wicked,” and Felicity Jones as wheelchair-bound Erzsébet Tóth in “The Brutalist” were the other nominees.
Other Oscar winners
Aside from Brody’s acting Oscar, “The Brutalist” also took home Academy Awards for Best Original Score for Daniel Blumberg and Best Cinematography for Lol Crawley. For bringing to life and updating the look of the wonderful land of Oz for big screens, “Wicked” won Oscars for Best Costume Design for Paul Tazewell and Best Production Design for Nathan Crowley and Lee Sandales.
Perhaps the biggest upset of the evening was in the Best Animated Feature category. “Flow,” a Latvian-produced film with no dialogue, took home the Oscar, beating out “Inside Out 2” from Disney/Pixar, British animation giant Aardman Productions’ “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl,” DreamWorks Animation’s “The Wild Robot,” and Australian stop motion-animated “Memoir of a Snail.”
Brazil’s “I’m Still Here” won Best International Feature Film while “El Mal” from “Emilia Perez” won Best Original Song. “Dune: Part Two” took home a pair of honors for Best Visual Effect and Best Sound. Though Moore went home empty-handed, the team of Pierre-Olivier Persin, Stéphanie Guillon, and Marilyne Scarselli won Best Makeup and Hairstyling for both the beautiful and disgusting parts of “The Substance.”
Best Documentary Feature Film went to “No Other Land” while Best Documentary Short Film was awarded to “The Only Girl in the Orchestra.” “I’m Not a Robot” took home “Best Live Action Short Film” while “In the Shadow of the Cypress” was named Best Animated Short Film.
Baker’s four wins tied the great Walt Disney for most Oscars won by a person in the same year. Disney accomplished the feat for four different films in 1953.
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