Conan O’Brien at the 97th Academy Awards (Oscars) at the Dolby Theatre on March 2, 2025 in Los Angeles, CA. Credit: Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times via TNS
The 97th annual Academy Awards unfolded Sunday evening, closing out the year’s biggest night in film and ushering in a new season of movie releases.
In recent years, the favorites for Best Picture have been pretty clear in advance, with “Everything Everywhere All At Once” dominating 2023 and “Oppenheimer” being the clear frontrunner for 2024. This year, however, saw a close race between “Conclave,” “The Brutalist” and “Anora” in the months leading up to the ceremony.
Each of these films took turns as critics’ top choice at other award shows, including the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Emmys, prior to “Anora” finally claiming the grand prize of Best Picture Sunday night.
Adding to the critical prestige of “Anora,” Sean Baker — the film’s director, producer, writer and editor — broke the record for the most Oscars won by a single person in one ceremony for the same film, taking home accolades for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing for his work on the comedy-drama.
But the big night for “Anora” didn’t stop with Baker.
Though “Anora” emerged as the favorite to win Best Picture after finding success in earlier award circuits, Demi Moore was seen as the overwhelmingly likely choice to win Best Actress for her Golden-Globe-winning portrayal of Elisabeth Sparkle in “The Substance.”
Instead, it was “Anora” star Mikey Madison who took home Best Actress at just 25 years old, marking what was perhaps the biggest surprise of the evening.
Apart from the overperformance of “Anora,” the Oscars went more or less as expected.
The event’s first award went to Kieran Culkin, who won Best Supporting Actor for his role in “A Real Pain” and was promptly censored during his speech for cursing.
Adrien Brody claimed the Best Actor title for his role in “The Brutalist,” despite the AI enhancement of his accent potentially tanking the film’s Best Picture odds, and delivered a speech so long that the Hulu broadcast was cut short due to time constraints.
Host Conan O’Brien mostly stuck to tried-and-true pop culture jokes, including references to the high-profile feud between rappers Drake and Kendrick Lamar, throughout the night.
One tense and awkward moment did arise when O’Brien took a shot at “Emilia Pérez” star Karla Sofia Gascón, who has been under intense scrutiny in the past few months for old social media posts regarding Islam and the murder of George Floyd.
On the topic of “Emilia Pérez” — a widely hated Oscar-bait movie, which racked up 13 total nominations — it only managed to take home two awards: Zoe Saldaña for Best Supporting Actress and “El Mal” for Best Original Song.
Of course, there’s no Oscars without snubs, with the most obvious being the aforementioned Moore.
Though Madison was a deserving winner, this was Moore’s moment, and she might not reach the same stage again. “Conclave” also left with disappointingly few awards, only claiming Best Adapted Screenplay, whereas “Nickel Boys” left completely empty-handed.
And that’s just accounting for the snubs of movies that were nominated in the first place.
Fan-favorite “Challengers” wasn’t nominated in a single category, not even for its spectacular original score. “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” was left out of the ceremony as well, failing to secure a spot for Best Visual Effects.
Even “A Real Pain” and “Sing Sing,” two of the most poignant movies of the year that were both nominated for other categories, lost their Best Picture nominations in favor of flicks like “Emilia Pérez.”
All snubs aside, the biggest winner of the night was independent cinema as a whole, thanks in no small part to the independently produced “Anora.”
Baker has used the film’s massive success and press coverage to advocate for independent cinema, such as when he gave an impassioned speech at the Film Independent Spirit Awards about the importance of DVD revenue.
After winning Best Director, Baker continued this fight in his acceptance speech.
“Movie theaters, especially independently owned theaters, are struggling, and it’s up to us to support them,” Baker said during the speech. “During the pandemic, we lost nearly 1,000 screens in the U.S., and we continue to lose them regularly. If we don’t reverse this trend, we’ll be losing a vital part of our culture. This is my battle cry: Filmmakers, keep making films for the big screen. I know I will.”
“Anora” might not have been everyone’s favorite movie of 2025, and that’s OK.
But the film’s Best Picture win symbolizes something greater than itself: Independent cinema can still reach the highest of heights, even in an age dominated by blockbusters and straight-to-streaming movies.
