On Sunday night (or very early Monday morning for us UK viewers), the Oscars returned, hosted for the first time by Conan O’Brien (and with commentary from Jonathan Ross during the advert breaks for those in the UK).
While I may not have stayed up till 4 in the morning to watch it (every year I say I will), I did watch all 4 hours of the ceremony, including O’Brien performing a cringey musical theatre performance and arguing with Adam Sandler, Adrien Brody refusing to let the orchestra play him off, Sean Baker seeming to win every award going while Diane Warren lost out on a win for the 16th time, and Ben Stiller experiencing a few technical difficulties.
O’Brien was not the only one singing, however. The show opened with stellar performances from Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo before Blackpink’s Lisa, Doja Cat, and Raye performed a medley of James Bond songs (which Ross and his guests were certainly not fans of) and then, finally, Queen Latifah’s joyful tribute to Quincy Jones.
Despite the comedic bits and performances, there was certainly a more sombre tone to the evening than there often is. This was in part due to the current political landscape in the US, which surprisingly few of the attendees made reference to (although the winners of the documentary feature film were certainly forthright in their criticism of current US foreign policy being detrimental for Palestinians and peace in the Middle East generally), but also to the recent Californian wildfires; with the ceremony taking time to give thanks to the Californian fire departments, and to think of those who lost their homes and even their loved ones earlier this year as the fires raged.
Sadly, such (un)natural disasters will only increase as the climate crisis continues and politicians (not naming names – after all, it’s too many to name) prefer to profit from and politicise suffering instead of taking action.
But getting back to the ceremony itself, which followed a similar format to the BAFTAs (although was twice as long as the BAFTAs record half their awards before the broadcast) and also featured an In Memoriam, recognising the recent death of Gene Hackman which was not known at the time of the BAFTAs, but omitting stars such as Tony Todd, Michelle Trachtenberg and Shannen Doherty.
Going in, the films with the most nominations were Emilia Pérez (13), The Brutalist (10), Wicked (10), A Complete Unknown (8) and Conclave (8).
On the night itself, the films with the most wins were Anora (5) and The Brutalist (3). Despite having the most nominations, Emilia Pérez, along with Dune: Part Two and Wicked, only won 2. Conclave, despite winning 3 BAFTAs, only won 1 Oscar; and A Complete Unknown won nothing at either – no wonder Bob Dylan didn’t attend.
Speaking of snubs, many were shocked not just when Demi Moore lost out on the Oscar to Mikey Madison, but when Pamela Anderson, Angelina Jolie and Nicole Kidman failed to be nominated for their work in The Last Showgirl, Maria and Babygirl respectively. Both Moore and Anderson are considered to have made career comebacks this year, having both been pigeonholed early in their careers as not particularly serious actors.
Additionally, there had been speculation that Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Jamie Lee Curtis, Denzel Washington and Daniel Craig could be nominated for Hard Truths, The Last Showgirl, Gladiator II and Queer.
There was also a degree of outrage online that Kneecap, the BAFTA-winning film praised for its promotion of the Irish language, had been snubbed at the Oscars – not even earning a nomination for international feature film which had been considered an easy win for Emilia Pérez before the controversy began (for more detail, see my article on the BAFTAs).
Unlike the Oscars, I won’t take 4 hours to reveal the information people actually care about, and so, without further ado, the winners were:
Actor in a Leading Role
- Winner: Adrien Brody (The Brutalist)
- Timothée Chalamet (A Complete Unknown)
- Colman Domingo (Sing Sing)
- Ralph Fiennes (Conclave)
- Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice)
Actor in a Supporting Role
- Winner: Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain)
- Yura Borisov (Anora)
- Edward Norton (A Complete Unknown)
- Guy Pearce (The Brutalist)
- Jeremy Strong (The Apprentice)
Actress in a Leading Role
- Winner: Mikey Madison (Anora)
- Cynthia Erivo (Wicked)
- Karla Sofía Gascón (Emilia Pérez)
- Demi Moore (The Substance)
- Fernanda Torres (I’m Still Here)
Actress in a Supporting Role
- Winner: Zoe Saldaña (Emilia Pérez)
- Monica Barbaro (A Complete Unknown)
- Ariana Grande (Wicked)
- Felicity Jones (The Brutalist)
- Isabella Rossellini (Conclave)
Animated Feature Film
- Winner: Flow (Gints Zilbalodis, Matīss Kaža, Ron Dyens and Gregory Zalcman)
- Inside Out 2 (Kelsey Mann and Mark Nielsen)
- Memoir of a Snail (Adam Elliot and Liz Kearney)
- Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (Nick Park, Merlin Crossingham and Richard Beek)
- The Wild Robot (Chris Sanders and Jeff Hermann)
Animated Short Film
- Winner: In the Shadow of the Cypress (Shirin Sohani and Hossein Molayemi)
- Beautiful Men (Nicolas Keppens and Brecht Van Elslande)
- Magic Candies (Daisuke Nishio and Takashi Washio)
- Wander to Wonder (Nina Gantz and Stienette Bosklopper)
- Yuck! (Loïc Espuche and Juliette Marquet)
Cinematography
- Winner: The Brutalist (Lol Crawley)
- Dune: Part Two (Greig Fraser)
- Emilia Pérez (Paul Guilhaume)
- Maria (Ed Lachman)
- Nosferatu (Jarin Blaschke)
Costume Design
- Winner: Wicked (Paul Tazewell)
- A Complete Unknown (Arianne Phillips)
- Conclave (Lisy Christl)
- Gladiator II (Janty Yates and Dave Crossman)
- Nosferatu (Linda Muir)
Directing
- Winner: Anora (Sean Baker)
- The Brutalist (Brady Corbet)
- A Complete Unknown (James Mangold)
- Emilia Pérez (Jacques Audiard)
- The Substance (Coralie Fargeat)
Documentary Feature Film
- Winner: No Other Land (Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal and Yuval Abraham)
- Black Box Diaries (Shiori Ito, Eric Nyari and Hanna Aqvilin)
- Porcelain War (Brendan Bellomo, Slava Leontyev, Aniela Sidorska and Paula DuPre’ Pesmen)
- Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat (Johan Grimonprez, Daan Milius and Rémi Grellety)
- Sugarcane (Julian Brave NoiseCat, Emily Kassie and Kellen Quinn)
Documentary Short Film
- Winner: The Only Girl in the Orchestra (Molly O’Brien and Lisa Remington)
- Death by Numbers (Kim A. Snyder and Janique L. Robillard)
- I Am Ready, Warden (Smriti Mundhra and Maya Gnyp)
- Incident (Bill Morrison and Jamie Kalven)
- Instruments of a Beating Heart (Ema Ryan Yamazaki and Eric Nyari)
Film Editing
- Winner: Anora (Sean Baker)
- The Brutalist (David Jancso)
- Conclave (Nick Emerson)
- Emilia Pérez (Juliette Welfling)
- Wicked (Myron Kerstein)
International Feature Film
- Winner: Brazil (I’m Still Here)
- Denmark (The Girl with the Needle)
- France (Emilia Pérez)
- Germany (The Seed of the Sacred Fig)
- Latvia (Flow)
Makeup and Hairstyling
- Winner: The Substance (Pierre-Olivier Persin, Stéphanie Guillon and Marilyne Scarselli)
- A Different Man (Mike Marino, David Presto and Crystal Jurado)
- Emilia Pérez (Julia Floch Carbonel, Emmanuel Janvier and Jean-Christophe Spadaccini)
- Nosferatu (David White, Traci Loader and Suzanne Stokes-Munton)
- Wicked (Frances Hannon, Laura Blount and Sarah Nuth)
Music (Original Score)
- Winner: The Brutalist (Daniel Blumberg)
- Conclave (Volker Bertelmann)
- Emilia Pérez (Clément Ducol and Camille)
- Wicked (John Powell and Stephen Schwartz)
- The Wild Robot (Kris Bowers)
Music (Original Song)
- Winner: El Mal (from Emilia Pérez; Music by Clément Ducol and Camille; Lyric by Clément Ducol, Camille and Jacques Audiard)
- The Journey (from The Six Triple Eight; Music and Lyric by Diane Warren)
- Like A Bird (from Sing Sing; Music and Lyric by Abraham Alexander and Adrian Quesada)
- Mi Camino (from Emilia Pérez; Music and Lyric by Camille and Clément Ducol)
- Never Too Late (from Elton John: Never Too Late; Music and Lyric by Elton John, Brandi Carlile, Andrew Watt and Bernie Taupin)
Best Picture
- Winner: Anora (Alex Coco, Samantha Quan and Sean Baker, Producers)
- The Brutalist (Nick Gordon, Brian Young, Andrew Morrison, D.J. Gugenheim and Brady Corbet, Producers)
- A Complete Unknown (Fred Berger, James Mangold and Alex Heineman, Producers)
- Conclave (Tessa Ross, Juliette Howell and Michael A. Jackman, Producers)
- Dune: Part Two (Mary Parent, Cale Boyter, Tanya Lapointe and Denis Villeneuve, Producers)
- Emilia Pérez (Pascal Caucheteux and Jacques Audiard, Producers)
- I’m Still Here (Maria Carlota Bruno and Rodrigo Teixeira, Producers)
- Nickel Boys (Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Joslyn Barnes, Producers)
- The Substance (Coralie Fargeat and Tim Bevan & Eric Fellner, Producers)
- Wicked (Marc Platt, Producer)
Production Design
- Winner: Wicked (Production Design: Nathan Crowley; Set Decoration: Lee Sandales)
- The Brutalist (Production Design: Judy Becker; Set Decoration: Patricia Cuccia)
- Conclave (Production Design: Suzie Davies; Set Decoration: Cynthia Sleiter)
- Dune: Part Two (Production Design: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Shane Vieau)
- Nosferatu (Production Design: Craig Lathrop; Set Decoration: Beatrice Brentnerová)
Live Action Short Film
- Winner: I’m Not a Robot (Victoria Warmerdam and Trent)
- A Lien (Sam Cutler-Kreutz and David Cutler-Kreutz)
- Anuja (Adam J. Graves and Suchitra Mattai)
- The Last Ranger (Cindy Lee and Darwin Shaw)
- The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent (Nebojša Slijepčević and Danijel Pek)
Sound
- Winner: Dune: Part Two (Gareth John, Richard King, Ron Bartlett and Doug Hemphill)
- A Complete Unknown (Tod A. Maitland, Donald Sylvester, Ted Caplan, Paul Massey and David Giammarco)
- Emilia Pérez (Erwan Kerzanet, Aymeric Devoldère, Maxence Dussère, Cyril Holtz and Niels Barletta)
- Wicked (Simon Hayes, Nancy Nugent Title, Jack Dolman, Andy Nelson and John Marquis)
- The Wild Robot (Randy Thom, Brian Chumney, Gary A. Rizzo and Leff Lefferts)
Visual Effects
- Winner: Dune: Part Two (Paul Lambert, Stephen James, Rhys Salcombe and Gerd Nefzer)
- Alien: Romulus (Eric Barba, Nelson Sepulveda-Fauser, Daniel Macarin and Shane Mahan)
- Better Man (Luke Millar, David Clayton, Keith Herft and Peter Stubbs)
- Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (Erik Winquist, Stephen Unterfranz, Paul Story and Rodney Burke)
- Wicked (Pablo Helman, Jonathan Fawkner, David Shirk and Paul Corbould)
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
- Winner: Conclave (Screenplay by Peter Straughan)
- A Complete Unknown (Screenplay by James Mangold and Jay Cocks)
- Emilia Pérez (Screenplay by Jacques Audiard; In collaboration with Thomas Bidegain, Léa Mysius and Nicolas Livecchi)
- Nickel Boys (Screenplay by RaMell Ross & Joslyn Barnes)
- Sing Sing (Screenplay by Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar; Story by Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Clarence Maclin, John “Divine G” Whitfield)
Writing (Original Screenplay)
- Winner: Anora (Written by Sean Baker)
- The Brutalist (Written by Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold)
- A Real Pain (Written by Jesse Eisenberg)
- September 5 (Written by Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum; Co-Written by Alex David)
- The Substance (Written by Coralie Fargeat)
The 2025 Oscars (or the 97th Academy Awards, to give them their proper name) are still available to watch on ITVX.
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