The Oscars wouldn’t be the film industry’s biggest night without a few surprises, and there were plenty of them as the ceremonies unfolded at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood and viewers from around the world took in the nearly four-hour show.
Anora was the little indie film that ran through the proceedings, picking up five little golden men, including the biggies of Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress. It also won Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing, both for Sean Baker, who also directed and produced. That was five out of six of its nominations and a record for Baker. He becomes the only person ever to win four Academy Awards for one film.
The trophies were foretold by the film’s victory of the top honors at the Critics Choice, DGA, PGA, WGA and Independent Spirit Awards, and actually going back to its world premiere the Cannes Film Festival when it won the Palm D’Or. The only major contest Anora didn’t win was at the BAFTAs, although the Brits handed their Best Actress trophy to Mikey Madison, who now has an Academy Award as well.
Yet Demi Moore had also been on a huge awards roll, starting with her moving speech at the Golden Globes about being told she was a “popcorn actress” and continuing through her win last weekend at the SAG Awards, so she was considered a lock to take home a statuette for her role in The Substance.
Surprisingly, AMPAS voters preferred Madison’s role as a stripper who falls in love with a Russian oligarch’s son to Moore’s as an older actress struggling to regain the success she’d had in her youth.
The winners in the other three major acting categories followed the script set early in the awards season. The only drama was for Best Actor, considered a tossup between Adrien Brody and Timothée Chalamet. But the fictional architect, a Holocaust survivor portrayed by Brody in The Brutalist bested Chalamet’s role as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown.
As expected, Kieran Culkin took the statuette as best supporting actor in A Real Pain, although many argued that he should have been in the leading actor category as he had nearly as much screen time as costar Jesse Eisenberg, who directed and wrote the film.
Completing her sweep of every major award, Zoe Saldaña won the Oscar for Emilia Pérez, although it was also argued that her role could be considered leading. Coming into the ceremonies with more nominations than any other film—13– the film was derailed by a scandal over its leading actress contender Karla Sofía Gascón’s old tweets that were considered racist and Islamophobic.
First-time host Conan O’Brien even touched on the scandal surrounding Gascón, who is in attendance, with a joke about how it had reverberated through the Hollywood community: “Little fact for you: ‘Anora’ uses the F-word 479 times. That’s three more than the record set by Karla Sofía Gascón’s publicist,” he said.
Here’s the winners list for the 2025 Oscars:
Best picture
WINNER: “Anora”
“The Brutalist”
“A Complete Unknown”
“Conclave”
“Dune: Part Two”
“Emilia Pérez”
“I’m Still Here”
“Nickel Boys”
“The Substance”
“Wicked”
Best actress
WINNER: Mikey Madison, “Anora”
Cynthia Erivo, “Wicked”
Karla Sofía Gascón, “Emilia Pérez”
Demi Moore, “The Substance”
Fernanda Torres, “I’m Still Here”
Best director
WINNER: Sean Baker, “Anora”
Brady Corbet, “The Brutalist”
James Mangold, “A Complete Unknown”
Jacques Audiard, “Emilia Pérez”
Coralie Fargeat, “The Substance”
Best actor
WINNER: Adrien Brody, “The Brutalist”
Timothée Chalamet, “A Complete Unknown”
Colman Domingo, “Sing Sing”
Ralph Fiennes, “Conclave”
Sebastian Stan, “The Apprentice”
Best supporting actor
WINNER: Kieran Culkin, “A Real Pain”
Yura Borisov, “Anora”
Edward Norton, “A Complete Unknown”
Guy Pearce, “The Brutalist”
Jeremy Strong, “The Apprentice”
Best supporting actress
WINNER: Zoe Saldaña, “Emilia Pérez”
Monica Barbaro, “A Complete Unknown”
Ariana Grande, “Wicked”
Felicity Jones, “The Brutalist”
Isabella Rossellini, “Conclave”
Best 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)
Best international film
WINNER: “I’m Still Here” (Brazil)
“The Girl With the Needle” (Denmark)
“Emilia Pérez” (France)
“The Seed of the Sacred Fig” (Germany)
“Flow” (Latvia)
Best cinematography
WINNER: “The Brutalist”
“Dune: Part Two”
“Emilia Pérez”
“Maria”
“Nosferatu”
Best live-action short
WINNER: “I’m Not a Robot”
“A Lien”
“Anuja”
“The Last Ranger”
“The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent”
Best visual effects
WINNER: “Dune: Part Two”
“Alien: Romulus”
“Better Man”
“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”
“Wicked”
Best sound
WINNER: “Dune: Part Two”
“A Complete Unknown”
“Emilia Pérez”
“Wicked”
“The Wild Robot”
Best documentary film
WINNER: “No Other Land”
“Black Box Diaries”
“Porcelain War”
“Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat”
“Sugarcane”
Best documentary short
WINNER: “The Only Girl in the Orchestra”
“Death by Numbers”
“I Am Ready, Warden”
“Incident”
“Instruments of a Beating Heart”
Best original song
WINNER: “El Mal” from “Emilia Pérez” (Clément Ducol and Camille)
“The Journey” from “The Six Triple Eight” (Diane Warren)
“Like A Bird” from “Sing Sing” (Abraham Alexander and Adrian Quesada)
“Mi Camino” from “Emilia Pérez” (Camille and Clément Ducol)
“Never Too Late” from “Elton John: Never Too Late” (Elton John, Brandi Carlile,Andrew Watt and Bernie Taupin)
Best production design
WINNER: “Wicked”
“The Brutalist”
“Conclave”
“Dune: Part Two”
“Nosferatu”
Best editing
WINNER: “Anora”
“The Brutalist”
“Conclave”
“Emilia Pérez”
“Wicked”
Best makeup and hairstyling
WINNER: “The Substance”
“A Different Man”
“Emilia Pérez”
“Nosferatu”
“Wicked”
Best adapted screenplay
WINNER: “Conclave” (Peter Straughan)
“A Complete Unknown” (James Mangold and Jay Cocks)
“Emilia Pérez” (Jacques Audiard)
“Nickel Boys” (RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes)
“Sing Sing” (Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar)
Best original screenplay
WINNER: “Anora” (Sean Baker)
“The Brutalist” (Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold)
“A Real Pain” (Jesse Eisenberg)
“September 5” (Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum and Alex David)
“The Substance” (Coralie Fargeat)
Best costume design
WINNER: “Wicked”
“A Complete Unknown”
“Conclave”
“Gladiator II”
“Nosferatu”
Best animated short
WINNER: “In the Shadow of the Cypress”
“Beautiful Men”
“Magic Candies”
“Wander to Wonder”
“Yuck!”
Best animated film
WINNER: “Flow”
“Inside Out 2”
“Memoir of a Snail”
“Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl”
“The Wild Robot”
