The 97th Academy Awards, held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, saw some unexpected winners and first-time Oscar recipients. Zoe Saldaña and Kieran Culkin took home the awards for Best Supporting Actress and Actor for their roles in Emilia Pérez and A Real Pain, respectively. This marks the first Oscar wins for both actors, capping off a successful awards season.

        Sean Baker made history by winning the Original Screenplay Oscar for Anora and later adding a second statuette for Best Editing. This is a significant achievement for Baker, as it is his first time winning an Oscar. He is also nominated for Best Picture and Director.

        Peter Straughan won the Adapted Screenplay Oscar for Conclave, his first Oscar win on his second nomination. However, the script was not eligible for the WGA prize due to eligibility rules.

        Best Animated Feature went to Flow, a film from Latvia, in a surprising upset over The Wild Robot, which had dominated the Annie Awards. This is the first Oscar win for a Latvian film.

        No Other Land, a documentary set in the occupied West Bank and directed by a collective of Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers, won Best Documentary. This marks another group of first-time Oscar winners.

        The song "El Mal" from Emilia Pérez won Best Song, marking the first Academy Award for songwriters Clément Ducol, Camille, and Jacques Audiard. Diane Warren, who has 16 career nominations, continues to wait for her first win.

        Paul Tazewell won Best Costume Design for Wicked, making history as the first Black man to win in this category. Nathan Crowley and Lee Sandales took home the Production Design prize for Wicked, marking their first wins. Crowley had previously won Best Cinematography for The Brutalist.

        Dune: Part Two won back-to-back Oscars for Best Sound and Visual Effects, joining Wicked as the only double winners in the crafts categories so far.

        Pierre-Olivier Persin, Stéphanie Guillon, and Marilyne Scarselli took Best Makeup and Hairstyling for The Substance, following its two wins at the Make-Up Artists and Hair Styling Guild Awards. This is the first Oscar for all three winners.

        In the Shadow of the Cypress took the Animated Short Film prize, and The Only Girl in the Orchestra won for Documentary Short.

        Anora, Dune: Part Two, Wicked, and Emilia Pérez are the only multiple winners so far. Netflix, Warner Bros, Neon, and Universal have three each to lead distributors.

        The annual In Memoriam segment honored many industry figures lost since the 2024 Oscars, including Gene Hackman, David Lynch, Donald Sutherland, James Earl Jones, Maggie Smith, and more.

        The Best Picture race is wide open, with several nominated films scoring marquee wins at various awards shows. Conclave took the Ensemble prize at the SAG Awards and Best Film at the BAFTAs, while Anora won Best Film at Indie Spirits, PGA, and Critics Choice Awards and Best Director at the DGAs. Emilia Pérez and The Brutalist also scooped the respective Golden Globes for drama and comedy.

        Emilia Pérez comes into the ceremony with a leading 13 Oscar nominations, followed by The Brutalist and Wicked with 10 each, A Complete Unknown and Conclave with eight apiece, and Anora with six. Netflix has 16 noms to lead all distributors, with A24 next at 14, followed by Universal (13), Focus Features (12), and Searchlight (10).

        Conan O’Brien hosted the ceremony, which ABC aired live coast-to-coast starting at 4 p. m. PT/7 p. m. ET. Hulu streamed it live.

        The winners announced so far include:

        Cinematography: The Brutalist (A24) - Lol Crawley

        Live Action Short Film: I’m Not a Robot (The New Yorker) - Victoria Warmerdam and Trent

        Visual Effects: Dune: Part Two (Warner Bros. ) - Paul Lambert, Stephen James, Rhys Salcombe, and Gerd Nefzer

        Sound: Dune: Part Two (Warner Bros. ) - Gareth John, Richard King, Ron Bartlett, and Doug Hemphill

        Documentary Feature Film: No Other Land - Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal, and Yuval Abraham

        Documentary Short Film: The Only Girl in the Orchestra (Netflix) - Molly O’Brien and Lisa Remington

        Music (Original Song): El Mal from Emilia Pérez (Netflix) - Music by Clément Ducol and Camille, Lyric by Clément Ducol, Camille, and Jacques Audiard

        Production Design: Wicked (Universal) - Production Design: Nathan Crowley, Set Decoration: Lee Sandales

        Actress in a Supporting Role: Zoe Saldaña in Emilia Pérez (Netflix)

        Film Editing: Anora (Neon) - Sean Baker

        Makeup and Hairstyling: The Substance (Mubi) - Pierre-Olivier Persin, Stéphanie Guillon, and Marilyne Scarselli

        Writing (Adapted Screenplay): Conclave (Focus Features) - Screenplay by Peter Straughan

        Writing (Original Screenplay): Anora (Neon) - Written by Sean Baker

        Costume Design: Wicked (Universal) - Paul Tazewell

        Animated Short Film: In the Shadow of the Cypress - Shirin Sohani and Hossein Molayemi

        Animated Feature Film: Flow (Sideshow/Janus Films) - Gints Zilbalodis, Matīss Kaža, Ron Dyens, and Gregory Zalcman

        Actor in a Supporting Role: Kieran Culkin in A Real Pain (Searchlight)

        The nominees for Best Picture include Anora, The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Dune: Part Two, Emilia Pérez, I’m Still Here, Nickel Boys, The Substance, and Wicked.

        The nominees for Actor in a Leading Role are Adrien Brody in The Brutalist, Timothée Chalamet in A Complete Unknown, Colman Domingo in Sing Sing, Ralph Fiennes in Conclave, and Sebastian Stan in The Apprentice.

        The nominees for Actress in a Leading Role are Cynthia Erivo in Wicked, Karla Sofía Gascón in Emilia Pérez, Mikey Madison in Anora, Demi Moore in The Substance, and Fernanda Torres in I’m Still Here.

        The nominees for Directing are Sean Baker for Anora, Brady Corbet for The Brutalist, James Mangold for A Complete Unknown, Jacques Audiard for Emilia Pérez, and Coralie Fargeat for The Substance.

        The nominees for International Feature Film are I’m Still Here (Brazil), The Girl with the Needle (Denmark), Emilia Pérez (France), The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Germany), and Flow (Latvia).

        The nominees for Music (Original Score) are Daniel Blumberg for The Brutalist, Volker Bertelmann for Conclave, Clément Ducol and Camille for Emilia Pérez, John Powell and Stephen Schwartz for Wicked, and Kris Bowers for The Wild Robot.

Oscars 2025: The Big Winners and Surprising Upsets

The Oscar race is heating up, and a surprising contender is making waves. Sean Baker's comedy "Anora" is suddenly the talk of the town.  It didn't win any awards at the Golden Globes, but now it's a front-runner for the Oscars.

        This past Saturday in Los Angeles, "Anora" won big at both the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and the Producers Guild of America (PGA) awards.  This is a big deal because since 2009, when these awards shows expanded from five to ten nominees for best film, the winner of the PGA has gone on to win the best-picture Oscar all but three times.

        Baker had a busy night. He had to dash from the DGAs to the PGAs because they were held at the same time and in different places.  He even admitted to feeling a bit overwhelmed when he accepted his award at the DGAs.

        "I'm really feeling like a fraud right now, " Baker said. "My cortisol levels are through the roof. "

        It was a great weekend for "Anora. "  It also won the top prize at the Critics Choice Awards on Friday night.  Not bad for a film that didn't win at the Golden Globes.

        This isn't the first time a film has had a great night at the guilds and then a big win at the Oscars.  In fact, 18 of the last 20 DGA winners have gone on to win the best-director Oscar.

        Other winners at these shows included "Shogun" and "Hacks. "  "Shogun" took home the drama-series award, while "Hacks" won for comedy-series.  RaMell Ross, the director of "Nickel Boys, " won the DGA award for first-time theatrical filmmaker.  This is an exciting development in the film industry.  We'll see if "Anora" can keep up the momentum.

        Now, let's think about this.  Why do you think "Anora" is suddenly doing so well at these awards shows?  Could it be that the film is actually very good, or is there something else going on?

        It's not too late to see "Anora" before the Oscars.  But maybe go watch it and decide for yourself if the film deserves a best picture.

DGAS

Oscars 2025: The Big Winners and Surprising Upsets

An Unlikely Winner Emerges in the Oscar Race