By Maria Luiza Montejano Pedrosa
The 2025 Oscars Awards left the internet in a frenzy this Sunday, with Sean Baker’s Anora going home with four statues amidst Best Actress and Best Picture polemic, Emilia Perez’s major loss despite its 13 nominations, a historical win for Brazil’s I’m Still Here, and Latvia’s Flow.
Going on its 97th edition, the Oscars remain the most renowned awards in the film industry. This year, it made history with more than one billion people watching worldwide, despite a 7% audience decline in the USA. Zach Colby, a 20-year-old student shared that he “did not watch the Oscars, but the news always goes around at some point so I always see and then look up who won what”.
Best Performances 🎥
Best Actress: the 25 year-old Mikey Madison surprised many by sweeping up the Best Actress award for her role as Anora, despite winning the Baftas in February but not being nominated for the Golden Globes.
The odds were on her side, but many were left wondering why the award did not go to Demi Moore, who was critically acclaimed for her role in Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance, or Brazil’s striking star Fernanda Torres, who had already won the Golden Globes for her performance as Eunice Paiva in I’m Still Here.
Alicia Williams, a 21-year-old student from California, was rooting for Demi Moore and was left surprised to see the veteran actress lose to Madison. “I loved Substance, I really wanted Demi Moore to win but it’s okay. She really deserved that award, that was a really good movie,” she said.
On social media, users commented on Adrien Brody’s long speech for his Best Actor win that exceeded the time limit of 45 seconds to a world breaking 5 minutes and 40 seconds. The speech became a viral moment, with thousands commenting live about his return to the leading categories after his first win in 2003 for The Pianist.
The win was to be expected, as he won awards for his performance all throughout the season and The Brutalist was one of the most nominated films of the night with 10 nominations and winning three statuettes
Best Supporting Actor went to Kieran Culkin, who did an outstanding performance on his role for A Real Pain, who gave an incredibly comic speech who lightened the air of the ceremony that was hosted by fellow comedian Conan O’Brien.
The predicted Best Supporting Actress winner was Zoe Saldaña, who gave an emotional speech about her heritage but got involved in yet another controversy during a press interview where she had to apologise later for a film that was “really hurtful for Mexicans”, as a journalist told her on the Oscars’ press conference.
Highlights
The night was full of historical moments, especially for Latvia who scored its first ever Oscar win with the animated film Flow, which garnered two nominations but won Best Animated Feature and shared an emotional speech about how much that meant for the country. The film was made entirely on free software, an impressive achievement that took years to make.
The streets of Brazil were filled to celebrate Carnaval, a traditional yearly street party, to welcome its first ever Oscar win with Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here, which was nominated for Best Picture and Best Actress with Fernanda Torres but won Best International Feature Film. The last time the country was nominated was in 1999, when Fernanda Montenegro competed for Best Actress for her role in Walter Salles’ Central Station.
What took many by surprise was Sean Baker’s Anora taking the statue for Best Picture, overcoming Brady Cobert’s The Brutalist which appeared to be the predicted winner. The film told the story of Anora (Mikey Madison) who takes on a tragic adventure after marrying a Russian millionaire.
The film received mixed reviews online but was overall well received critically. “It gave an inauthentic vision of what someone thinks sex work would be but has never step foot in that space or talked to a singular actual individual who works in sex work, that is what Anora is in my opinion,” Williams shared. The film won four statues, including Best Screenplay.
Performances 🎙️
The Best Picture nominee Wicked stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, who was nominated for Best Actress, stunned on their performance of a medley of songs featured in the film like the classic Somewhere Over the Rainbow and the popular Defying Gravity. With beautiful vocals, the perfomance enchanted the audience and kicked off the ceremony magically.
The James Bond tribute medley performed by artists Raye, Lisa and Doja Cat was well received by the audience that enjoyed the spy-series songs Live and Let Die, Diamonds Are Forever and Skyfall.
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