The 97th Academy Awards are over, and there were winners, losers, and frustrated speech givers. Let’s recap the biggest highlights of the 2025 Oscars!
The 97th Academy Awards took place on March 2, 2025 at the famous Dolby Theater in Hollywood, Los Angeles. And after a season of so much uncertainty, wildly shifting narratives, and controversies galore, we ended up with a night that was… just plain decent. There were definitely things to complain about – and complain I shall, so don’t worry – but in the grand scheme of things, this year’s Oscar ceremony delivered plenty of the fun victories, standout speeches, and Conan O’Brien-isms that it should aim to achieve. But if you’re not a weirdo and didn’t feel like sitting through a nearly four-hour show about people getting awards, we’ve got a recap of the biggest wins, takeaways, and overall highlights from cinema’s biggest night! And apparently, if you watched the show on Hulu, some of this will be mandatory since its broadcast cut off before the final two awards. Truly the age of streaming is a golden one.
A Sweep From Best Picture Winner Anora
Anora was considered the narrow front-runner for the top prize, Best Picture, and it sure enough took home the gold. On top of that, it won a total of 5 out of its 6 nominations, including Best Director, Best Actress, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Editing, making it the film with the most wins of the night (it lost only in Best Supporting Actor to A Real Pain’s Kieran Culkin). A majority of those awards went specifically to writer, director, and editor Sean Baker, who’s now tied with Walt Disney himself for the most Oscar wins in a single night (four). His elation was very clear through solid speeches. I mean, when you’re presented as the Best Director by freaking Quentin Tarantino, you’re sure to be overwhelmed.
“Quentin, if you didn’t cast Mikey Madison in Once Upon a Time, there would be no Anora. Thank you,” Baker told Tarantino when accepting said award, after which he gave my favorite speech of the whole night. “Where did we fall in love with the movies? At the movie theater. Watching a film in the theater with an audience is an experience … And in a time in which the world can feel very divided, this is more important than ever,” he asserted to much fanfare. “During the pandemic, we lost nearly 1000 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.”
Anora’s big win seemed certain once Mikey Madison won Best Actress in what seemed like a toss-up between her and The Substance star Demi Moore. She, as well as Baker earlier, acknowledged the sex workers represented in the film. “I want to again recognize and honor the sex worker community,” she said. “I will continue to support and be an ally.” On that note, there’s something to be said about the big winner being a movie as forward-thinking, sexually charged, and focused on the youth experience as Anora. If there’s one thing I’ve taken from the Academy’s voting choices in the past three years, it’s that they’ve seemingly developed broader, more modern tastes that reward out-of-the-box, bold filmmaking… relatively speaking, but still. Anora is a fantastic movie and very worthy of every award it got.
Other Oscar Nominees with Multiple Wins
The Brutalist snagged 3 wins from its 10 nominations: Best Actor, Best Cinematography, and Best Original Score. Wicked, which also boasted 10 nominations, came away with 2 in the form of Best Costume Design and Best Production Design. Dune: Part Two took home 2 awards for Best Sound and Best Visual Effects, a very sad downgrade from its predecessor’s 6 wins. Though it may look rough to have double-digit nominations and only scrape out a few wins, I consider it a good thing that we had no colossal sweep from any of these heavyweights. I’d rather the love be spread around as much as possible. A total of 13 films outside of Anora were given wins, ensuring that most of the high-profile movies got at least a little something.
And then we have dear, sweet Emilia Pérez, which was at one point positioned as the highly contentious front-runner in multiple categories, including Best Picture. It received 2 wins from its whopping 13 nominations, those being the expected Best Supporting Actress for Zoe Saldaña, and Best Original Song for “El Mal.” Though such a low win ratio isn’t unprecedented – look at Killers of the Flower Moon or The Power of the Dog – it would be foolish to think the film’s slew of post-nomination controversies didn’t sink its chances of doing any better. Once it lost Best International Feature Film to I’m Still Here, it became very obvious that it wasn’t getting Best Picture… though if it somehow had, the public’s reactions would’ve been objectively hilarious. But hey, at least the movie got Mick Jagger of all people to present them with the Best Original Song award. Talk about an Oscar appearance I didn’t know I kind of wanted.
Conan O’Brien Delivers as Host
The curse of hosting the Oscars has seemingly affected most people not named Jimmy Kimmel, but iconic former talk show host and podcaster Conan O’Brien came to deliver the ceremony’s best hosting performance in ages. He made his first impression with a pre-recorded skit of Demi Moore’s character in The Substance birthing her younger self, only for Conan to emerge from her grotesquely opened body… only for him then to dive back in to get his shoe. And the unhinged nature of his comedy continued through his opening monologue, which was filled with jokes and riffs that felt right at home in one of his own shows.
Though he was still stuck within Oscar confines, Conan had an uncommonly firm grip on the ceremony’s humor. He touched on uncomfortable subjects with jokes like, “Anora uses the F word 479 times. That’s 3 more than the record set by Karla Sofía Gascón’s publicist.” He birthed a meme by threatening anyone whose speech lasts too long with a John Lithgow stare, described as “not angry, but slightly disappointed.” He had another sketch about CinemaStream, a fictional streaming service that lets you view movies on one giant smartphone… aka, a movie theater. He even traded jabs with announcer Nick Offerman, who at one point continuously interrupted him with comments like, “This is Conan O’Brien’s first time hosting the Oscars. A lot of pressure … A challenge this big coming this late in one’s career must weigh on one’s soul.”
Conan’s sincerity and love of film were still clear, however. He closed out his monologue by stating, “The Oscars also shines a light on an incredible community of people you will never see. Crafts people, artisans, technicians, costumers. Hard working men and women behind the camera who have devoted their lives to making film … The magic, the madness, the grandeur, and the joy of film worldwide is gonna be with us forever.” Of course, that was within minutes of a time-wasting song-and-dance number about how he won’t waste your time, complete with a dancing Deadpool and piano-playing sandworm. So… make of that what you will.
The Best Speeches of the Night
Acceptance speeches are the core heart of every Oscar ceremony, and this year gave us some beauties. We started with a lighthearted, partially censored one from Kieran Culkin, who told a story about his wife needing to fulfill her promise of giving him a fourth kids should he win an Oscar. It was quick, though, because, “I don’t want Lithgow to be disappointed in me.” If only other winners had taken that same heed. A mix of humorous and emotional came from Best Animated Short Film winners Shirin Sohani and Hossein Molayemi (for In the Shadow of the Cypress), who revealed they’d landed in Los Angeles three hours prior and that they hadn’t obtained their visas until the day before.
Paul Tazewell, winner of Best Costume Design for Wicked, made history by being the first Black man to ever win that award. His announcement of this fact got a standing ovation from the whole audience, and you could see and hear the potent emotion as he stated, “This… is everything.” Similarly, an extremely tearful Zoe Saldaña became the first American of Dominican origin to win an Oscar. She poetically professed to her husband Marco Perego, “The biggest honor in my life is being your partner. You hung the moon and our beautiful perfect suns. Cy, Bowie, and Zen; they fill our skies every night with stars.”
One of the most shocking wins to me was No Other Land claiming Best Documentary Feature Film, simply due to its focus on the Israel-Palestine conflict that American film distributors have been too cowardly to confront. Winners Basel Adra (of Palestine) and Yuval Abraham (of Israel) made their desires for a path to peace very clear, with the latter even calling out the U.S. by declaring “The foreign policy in this country is helping to block this path. Why? Can’t you see that we are intertwined?” This is the kind of unfiltered, genuine, in-the-moment emotion that makes me want to watch the Oscars live every year, especially when it’s coupled with explicitly stated intentions to all those who may have been too scared or disinterested in seeing the film beforehand.
I’m Still Here director Walter Salles got a very audibly enthused reaction from the crowd when the film won Best International Feature film – Brazil’s first ever win in the category – and that enthusiasm remained as he dedicated the win to Eunice Paiva, “a woman who, after a loss suffered during an authoritarian regime, decided not to bend and resist. This prize goes to her. And it goes to the two extraordinary women who gave life to her: Fernanda Torres and Fernanda Montenegro.” After this, however, the speeches seemed to blend in with each other for a while. Which was very likely due to one very prominent trend during the second half of the show…
Acceptance Speeches Get Cut Off or Run Too Long
When Dune: Part Two won the award for Best Sound, one of the winners had his audio completely cut off by the music cue to leave the stage, before he could even say a word. Talk about irony. Considering how long many of the prior speeches had gone, this was very strange. And from that point on, almost every winner who got on the stage was either cut off by music or made note of said impending cutoff. “Okay, 45 seconds,” said Best Live Action Short winner Victoria Warmerdam (for I’m Not a Robot). “It appears my time has started already. Let me get through this,” said The Brutalist cinematographer Lol Crawley at the start of his acceptance speech. During his speech after winning for Best Original Score, The Brutalist composer Daniel Blumberg made light of himself getting played off with an abrupt sing-songy wrap-up as he left the stage.
And then we had the biggest speech of the night – whether the show liked it or not – from Best Actor winner Adrien Brody. After winning his second ever Oscar, Brody shakily stated, “No matter where you are in your career … it can all go away. And I think what makes this night most special is the awareness of that, and the gratitude that I have to still do the work that I love.” The music soon started creeping in, but he was having none of it. “I’m wrapping up. I will wrap up. Please turn the music off. I’ve done this before. Thank you.” Somehow, he was allowed to finish his five-minute speech that, while admirably calling out hate and oppression, had clearly lost sight of the fact that there are tons of other nominees with whom he’s supposed to share the ceremony.
This is going into pure speculation mode, but my current impression is that the show realized it was falling well behind schedule – which, given it went 45 minutes over, seems right – and abruptly started getting stricter and more blatant with its time limits on speeches. Whether I’m right or wrong, the frustrating part about all this is the imbalance. Earlier recipients and Brody went mostly unfettered with excessively lengthy speeches, while most of the later ones were forced to pay the price by being awkwardly cut off after much briefer time on the stage. The show really needed to get a handle on its time management, especially since it had only itself to blame for falling behind thanks to one major decision: the unconventional way it handled award presentations.
Unconventional Presentations for Certain Categories
In last year’s Oscars, five sometimes-relevant actors each sang praises about the nominees of the acting categories in lieu of a clip compilation. This year, that approach was shifted to various other categories, with one actor from each nominated film lauding the respective candidates of categories like Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design. We got tiny clips to visually show the work off (or well-illustrated portraits for Costume Design), so at least viewers could get some idea of why these movies were nominated. But while this format was implemented better than last year, I still don’t like it.
Because of how many more speeches were given from people not even nominated, these segments caused the show to draaaaaaaaag. Sure, they put more of a spotlight on those who didn’t win, but why not just show slightly longer clips to do that job? I remember when Oscar clips used to really show off the effects, cinematography, and even editing that was in contention, in a way that would give casual viewers a reason to want to check the films out. But most of this year’s clips were a bit too condensed all around, making it hard for the movies to make an impression. And in the case of the Supporting Actor and Actress categories, there were just no clips at all. That does such a huge disservice to these performers, especially when the Best Actor and Actress nominees do get clips. I really hope they ditch this idea going forward, because it’s only eating up precious time with very little payoff.
Musical Performance Highlights
This year, the Academy controversially opted to not feature performances of the five Best Original Song nominees, supposedly in response to the Los Angeles wildfires. Or maybe they just realized this year’s selection was mid and wanted to do something better. Instead, the ceremony opened with a montage of Hollywood-themed movies, including Mulholland Drive, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and La La Land. Ariana Grande then came on stage to perform “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz, red shoes and all. Her Wicked co-star Cynthia Erivo followed up with a rendition of “Home” from The Wiz, and the two finally came together for “Defying Gravity.” You could feel the resonance of that last song in how it reflected the city’s struggles, strength, and unity, especially during the uproarious standing ovation. It was a great way to kick off the night… even if we couldn’t get Kristin Chenoweth or Adele Dazeem to join in.
Later, we were treated to a James Bond tribute to honor Governor’s Award recipients and franchise producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. Unexpectedly, a sharply dressed Margaret Qualley (of The Substance) appeared on stage, dancing with tuxedoed men. Singer/rapper Lisa then descended from the ceiling with a rendition of the Bond classic, “Live and Let Die,” complete with other women joining the male dancers. It was a dynamic performance with great choreography and coordination all around. Next up was Doja Cat, singing “Diamonds are Forever” in a fittingly diamond-studded dress. And finally, Raye closed it all out with a slick, sultry performance of “Skyfall.” It was the best spectacle of the night by far, and an impressive way to not only honor Broccoli and Wilson for their award, but cap off their tenure as the Bond franchise’s producers before Amazon milks it drier than expired saltines.
The In Memoriam section came as usual, with Morgan Freeman emerging to mourn the recent loss of his Unforgiven and Under Suspicion costar, Gene Hackman. “He was a generous performer and a man whose gifts elevated everyone’s work … Gene, you’ll be remembered for that, and for so much more.” The Los Angeles Master Chorale performed “Lacrimosa” from Mozart’s Requiem as many a great, passed-on talent was shown on screen, ending with David Lynch, James Earl Jones, and Hackman. It really hit me how many major losses plagued 2024, yet its understated and focused execution ensured the In Memoriam did what it’s supposed to do: remind you of the great legacy these people left behind.
Near the show’s end, Oprah Winfrey and Whoopie Goldberg introduced a tribute to another fallen star: legendary arranger and conductor Quincy Jones, the first African American to be nominated for Best Original Song (for “The Eyes of Love” from the 1967 film Banning). “Quincy was love in human form. Lived out loud, and he poured that love into others and into his work,” Oprah said. Queen Latifah then led a song-and-dance performance of “Ease on Down the Road,” from The Wiz (the film version of which was produced by Jones). With the whole set bathed in golden yellows and once again solid dancing, this was a non-flashy but infectiously fun way to wrap up this year’s live musical performances.
Award Presenter Highlights
Outside of Conan’s antics, there were a few standout laugh moments from the presenters. I may not like the way Best Costume Design was presented, but it at least gave us Bowen Yang dressed in his Shiz University uniform while his fellow actors (Lily Rose-Depp, John Lithgow, Connie Nielson, and Elle Fanning) dressed normally. “I thought we were all doing this,” Yang said. “We changed our minds,” responded Fanning. As Ben Stiller came out to present Best Production Design, the platform elevating him onto the stage malfunctioned, raising him partially up, then back down, then too low for him to even see us without jumping up and down. Listen, if that platform ends up taking him to the severed floor at Lumon, well… he’s got himself to blame for that one.
The biggest laugh I got out of the whole show was the exchange between Best Makeup and Hairstyling presenters Scarlett Johansson and June Squibb. Squibb, who will forever be a national treasure, claimed that she got some makeup done and was, “Actually being played by Bill Skarsgård right now … I mean, half the time you see me in public, it’s Bill Skarsgård. The real June Squibb is at home with a book right now.” Johansson quipped back, “This is a relief, because I’m actually being played by Andy Serkis.” Another sidenote, but it’s only when looking at the lineup again that I realized just how stacked this category in particular was. Especially when the Oscars typically nominate films for… semi-convincing prosthetic noses or something.
Some of Conan’s most brutal jokes didn’t even come out of his mouth, but rather those of Los Angeles firefighters he brought onstage. After they very deservedly got the longest applause and ovation of the night, they read jokes that Conan was apparently not brave enough to tell himself. Firefighter Erik Scott was forced to deliver the cruel joke, “Our hearts go out to all of those who have lost their homes. And I’m talking about the producers of Joker 2.” LAFD pilot Jonith Johnson then deadpanned, “To play Bob Dylan, Timothée Chalamet learned how to sing. In fact, his singing was so good, he almost lost the part.” No, these jokes didn’t hurt me as a fan of Joker 2 and Bob Dylan. Why would you ever think that?
Remaining Wins and Losses
Finally, let’s go through a quick list of the remaining wins and losses. By far, the biggest loser statistically was A Complete Unknown, which walked away with 0 wins despite its 8 nominations. Nosferatu went 0 for 4, and Sing Sing and The Wild Robot couldn’t clinch any gold from their three nominations apiece. However, Flow pulled off a come-from-behind victory by beating The Wild Robot for Best Animated Feature Film. As much as I love The Wild Robot, this is a definite victory for independent animation and the country of Latvia, the latter of which won its first Oscar ever. The Oscars have frequently called animation generic kids’ stuff, but when a film like Flow comes along and actually tries to break out of that bubble, it’s nice to see it rewarded. And also, cats deserve everything. Even animated cats.
Conclave had the potential to sweep many wins out from competitors with its 8 nominations, but it only went home with the (admirable) award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Peter Straughan (based on the novel by Robert Harris). The award for Best Documentary Short Film went to The Only Girl in the Orchestra, and The Substance thankfully managed to snag one award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. If it hadn’t, I would’ve probably taken the titular substance myself just so I could avoid being conscious every other week.
The 2025 Academy Awards were held on Sunday, March 2, 2025 at 7e|4p. If you missed the live show, you can catch the replay on ABC.com and Hulu (US and Canada), ITVX (UK), and 7plus (Australia).
Header Credits: Sean Baker poses backstage with his Oscars® during the live ABC Telecast of the 97th Oscars® at Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 2, 2025. / Adrien Brody, Mikey Madison, Zoe Saldaña and Kieran Cullen pose backstage with their Oscars® at the live ABC Telecast of the 97th Oscars® at Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 2, 2025. (Etienne Laurent / The Academy, ©A.M.P.A.S.)
