Anora triumphs with 5 Oscars, including best picture, at safe but steady Academy Awards
The Brutalist snags 3 wins out of 10 nominations in ceremony that deftly wove through season's scandals
The 97th Academy Awards, hosted by Conan O'Brien and led by Anora with five wins, didn't just avoid the traditional Oscars pitfalls — they were actually surprisingly successful.
The ceremony kicked things off with a Wizard of Oz-inspired tribute to an L.A. ravaged by fires featuring an impressive vocal medley by Wicked stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo.
O'Brien followed that up by showing off his skills as host, dancing through the dizzying number of scandals that plagued this awards season. He built in jokes about the Catholic thriller Conclave potentially mirroring the Pope's current medical crisis, and made an extended reference to Emilia Pérez actress Karla Sofía Gascón's racist tweet debacle.
After O'Brien noted that Anora used the F-word 479 times — just three times more than Gascón's publicist — the camera focused directly on her. Addressing the actress personally, he advised her that if she chose to tweet about him, "Remember, my name is Jimmy Kimmel."
He also managed to squeak in a reference to the rap feud that will never die.
"Well, we're halfway through the show, which means it's time for Kendrick Lamar to come out and call Drake a pedophile," O'Brien said. "Don't worry, I'm lawyered up."
It was all par for the course for an awards season seemingly defined by shifting narratives, negative headlines and bad blood. Going into the Oscars with a gigantic 13 nominations, Emilia Pérez ended the night with a new kind of record. After only taking home two awards, it is now tied as the losingest movie in the ceremony's history.
But it wasn't a night defined by losses. Emilia Pérez's Zoe Saldaña took home the best supporting actress award, tearfully proclaiming she was the first American of Dominican origin to win an Academy Award, "and I know I will not be the last."
Anora pulled in five trophies, including the night's biggest award, best picture. Though it trailed Emilia Pérez's 13 nominations and Wicked and The Brutalist's 10, it had a somewhat historic night. A film hasn't won so many awards from so few nominations since The Bad and the Beautiful in 1952.
Those wins included one that was somewhat of a surprise. Demi Moore was expected to earn her first Oscar win for best actress off the strength of her performance in The Substance, but Anora star Mikey Madison ended up pulling out the win.
Anora director Sean Baker ties record
To some, it was a sting that replicated the plot of Moore's film — an older performer rudely pushed out of the limelight for a younger one. Despite Madison's triumph, Anora's big winner was director Sean Baker. Due to his personal hand in the film, Baker took home four awards himself.
Before him, only Walt Disney had accomplished the same feat, though he won for four different titles in 1954. Anora's dominant performance on Sunday cemented the indie film's place in the Hollywood system, despite being one of the lowest-grossing best picture winners of all time.
Baker also had the opportunity to share the stage with his wife, Vancouver-born producer Samantha Quan, making them the second husband-wife team to take home best picture in a row, following last year's win by Oppenheimer's Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas.
In Baker's triumphant speech after winning best director, he made a plea for the future of films released in theatres — possibly a subtle jab at Netflix and the general rise of streaming platforms.
"This is my battle cry: filmmakers, keep making films for the big screen," he said. "When we can, please watch movies in the theatre. And let's keep the great tradition of the moviegoing experience alive and well."
Few moments addressing political issues
That rapid-fire speech paled in comparison to Adrien Brody's. The actor, who added a second Oscars to his cabinet for his portrayal of a Holocaust survivor and architect in The Brutalist, beat out Timothée Chalamet for A Complete Unknown.
Midway through a five-minute, forty-second speech — ten seconds longer than what the Guinness Book of World Records states is the longest Academy speech ever — Brody waved away the music, promising "I will be brief" before continuing. In an impassioned if unspecific acceptance, he spoke of racism, antisemitism, "othering," and ended with a plea.
"If our past can teach us of anything, it's a reminder to not let hate go unchecked," he said. "Let's fight for what's right … let's rebuild together."
On the whole, there were few moments that sought to address ongoing political issues. There were no protests, but as with last year's intense acceptance speech from director Jonathan Glazer, who spoke about Gaza, the team behind Israeli-Palestinian war film No Other Land called for national rights for Palestinians in their acceptance speech for best documentary feature.
"There is a different path. A political solution. Without ethnic supremacy, with national rights for both of our people," said co-director Yuval Abraham, before criticizing the United States. "And I have to say, as I am here, the foreign policy in this country is helping to block this path."
As the favourites, it wasn't exactly a surprise they beat out the Canadian Sugarcane, which focuses on the lasting impact of residential schools.
While the Canadian-directed Navalny won two years ago — and documentaries from the country are often nominated — the last time a Canadian feature triumphed was in 1986. Then, Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got won in a tie, becoming the third Canadian doc ever to win.
Outside of No Other Land's moment, the political messaging occurred largely on the fringes — including The Brutalist supporting actor nominee Guy Pearce sporting a "Free Palestine" pin, and Jeremy Strong, nominated for his role as Donald Trump mentor Roy Cohn in The Apprentice, making a small allusion ahead of the awards.
"It's dark," he said when asked about preparing for the part, "dark to be talking about it in the context of what's happening in our world right now."
Rebuilding and sharing the wealth
Instead, there were comments about rebuilding after the L.A. fires, and what seemed to be a sharing-of-the-wealth between productions that were previously at each others' necks.
Trailing Anora with total wins was The Brutalist, which saw its best actor win padded by awards for cinematography and score.
Then there was the heavy three-way tie between Wicked, Dune: Part Two and Emilia Pérez, with the former two earning their honours largely in technical fields — best costume and production design for Wicked, and sound and visual effects for Dune: Part Two.
Besides its best supporting actress win, Emilia Pérez also added a trophy for best song — beating out Diane Warren's The Journey, which she wrote for The Six Triple Eight. It was Warren's eighth straight nomination, her sixteenth career nomination — and sixteenth loss.
There were high points elsewhere. I'm Still Here triumphed as international film of the year. Their win led to loud chants of "Brazil! Brazil!" from fans and even reporters in the press room backstage, in celebration of the country's first-ever win in the category.
Then the plucky little animated film Flow, made on open-source software for roughly $4 million US, beat out the titanic, $80 million US The Wild Robot. It also earned the country of Latvia their first ever nomination and win.
And long a favourite to win, Kieran Culkin took home his first Oscar for his supporting role in A Real Pain. Pointing to his wife, Jazz Charton, he revisited his acceptance speech at the 2024 Emmys where he won for Succession and noted then that she had promised him a third child if he won, but he told her later he wanted four children.
"She said, 'I will give you four when you win an Oscar,' " he said, clutching the trophy in his hand. "I just have this to say to you Jazz, love of my life, ye of little faith … Let's get cracking on those kids, what do you say?"
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