Anora – and indie cinema – was the big winner at the 97th Academy Awards, picking up Best Picture among a total of five wins.
In the most evenly-spread Oscars night of recent times, Sean Baker’s screwball sex worker drama claimed the big prize, Best Picture, as well as Best Director for Baker, Best Actress for Mikey Madison, Best Editing and Best Original Screenplay.
The Brutalist had a great night, too. Brady Corbet’s period epic won for Cinematography, Score and Best Actor for Adrien Brody – his second in the category after 2003’s The Pianist.
As expected, Emilia Pérez didn’t turn many of its record-breaking 13 nominated into wins. Jacques Audiard’s transgender cartel musical picked up Best Song for ‘El Mal’, and Zoe Saldaña won Best Supporting Actress.
Wicked won for Production Design and Costume Design, while Dune: Part Two had a lock in the technical categories, winning for Sound and Visual Effects.
Kieran Culkin won Best Supporting Actor for A Real Pain.
Palestinian-Israeli co-production No Other Land was a very popular Best Documentary winner, and led to the most political moment of the night, with co-director Yuval Abraham calling for a change in US foreign policy towards Gaza.
After all the controversy, shitposting and lobbed hand-grenades of a volatile and unpredictable awards season, Oscars night went off with barely a hitch.
Hosted by Conan O’Brien with a deft touch and some excellent zingers, it was all fairly safe and apolitical. Adam Sandler turned up in shorts and a hoodie and got told off by O’Brien in a comedy bit, but even that didn’t seem to be a riff on Friday’s Oval Office ‘do you own a suit?’ weirdness.
It was a night that yielded a few firsts. There was a first Academy Award for Latvia via Flow’s win for Best Animation – ‘Balls in your court Estonia,’ noted O’Brien – while Paul Tazewell became the first Black man to win an Oscar for Costume Design work on Wicked, and Brazil won its first ever Best International Film for Walter Salles’s I’m Still Here.
But there was no doubt who was the big winner. Take a bow, Sean Baker and Anora.
The winners in full:
Best Picture
Conclave
Emilia Pérez
Anora
The Brutalist
Dune: Part Two
The Substance
A Complete Unknown
Wicked
Nickel Boys
I’m Still Here
Best Director
Brady Corbet – The Brutalist
Jacques Audiard – Emilia Pérez
Sean Baker – Anora
Coralie Fargeat – The Substance
James Mangold – A Complete Unknown
Best Actor
Colman Domingo – Sing Sing
Ralph Fiennes – Conclave
Timothée Chalamet – A Complete Unknown
Adrien Brody – The Brutalist
Sebastian Stan – The Apprentice
Best Actress
Mikey Madison – Anora
Cynthia Erivo – Wicked
Fernanda Torres – I’m Still Here
Demi Moore – The Substance
Karla Sofía Gascón – Emilia Pérez
Best Supporting Actor
Kieran Culkin – A Real Pain
Edward Norton – A Complete Unknown
Yura Borisov – Anora
Guy Pearce – The Brutalist
Jeremy Strong – The Apprentice
Best Supporting Actress
Zoe Saldaña – Emilia Pérez
Isabella Rossellini – Conclave
Ariana Grande – Wicked
Felicity Jones – The Brutalist
Monica Barbaro – A Complete Unknown
International Feature
Emilia Pérez (France)
I’m Still Here (Brazil)
The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Germany)
Flow (Latvia)
The Girl with the Needle (Denmark)
Best Animation
The Wild Robot
Flow
Inside Out 2
Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
Memoir of a Snail
Original Screenplay
Anora
A Real Pain
The Brutalist
The Substance
September 5
Adapted Screenplay
Conclave
Emilia Pérez
A Complete Unknown
Nickel Boys
Sing Sing
Best Documentary
No Other Land
Sugarcane
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Porcelain War
Black Box Diaries
Best Production Design
Wicked
Dune: Part Two
The Brutalist
Nosferatu
Conclave
Editing
Conclave
Anora
Emilia Pérez
The Brutalist
Wicked
Make-up and Hairstyling
Emilia Pérez
The Substance
Wicked
Nosferatu
A Different Man
Costume Design
Wicked
Nosferatu
Conclave
Gladiator II
A Complete Unknown
Cinematography
The Brutalist
Dune: Part Two
Nosferatu
Maria
Emilia Pérez
Best Score
Daniel Blumberg – The Brutalist
Volker Bertelmann – Conclave
Kris Bowers – The Wild Robot
Clément Ducol and Camille – Emilia Pérez
John Powell and Stephen Schwartz – Wicked
Best Original Song
‘El Mal’ – Emilia Pérez
‘The Journey’ – The Six Triple Eight
‘Mi Camino’ – Emilia Pérez
‘Never Too Late’ – Elton John: Never Too Late
‘Like a Bird’ – Sing Sing
Best Sound
Dune: Part Two
Wicked
A Complete Unknown
Emilia Pérez
The Wild Robot
Best Visual Effects
Dune: Part Two
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Better Man
Alien Romulus
Wicked
Animated Short Film
Yuck!
Wander to Wonder
Beautiful Men
In the Shadow of the Cypress
Magic Candies
Documentary Short
Incident
Death By Numbers
The Only Girl in the Orchestra
I Am Ready, Warden
Instruments of a Beating Heart
Live Action Short
The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent
Anuja
A Lien
I’m Not a Robot
The Last Ranger
The 50 best movies of 2025 (so far).
The 50 most beautiful cinemas in the world.
