Whether you’re a casual moviegoer or avid cinephile, the Academy Awards marks the annual bookend event of awards season, honoring the biggest achievements in cinema of the previous year. The evening featured a series of expected winners, some surprise wins and historic firsts as favorites like Anora, The Brutalist, Dune: Part Two, Wicked and more took home multiple Oscars.
Favorite Moments
The opening tribute to Los Angeles showing clips from iconic films set in Hollywood was very touching, paying tribute to those who lost their homes and were displaced by the devastating wildfires earlier this year that destroyed tens of thousands of acres.
The tribute led to a medley of songs from The Wizard of Oz-inspired projects, including Ariana Grande performing “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”, Cynthia Erivo singing “Home” from The Wiz, and the two reprising their roles from Wicked for a soaring performance of the film’s finale number “Defying Gravity”. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo absolutely knocked it out of the park!
Later in the ceremony, leaders from first responder teams of Los Angeles took the stage and received a standing ovation, with a few of them delivering jokes from the teleprompter that host Conan O’ Brien said, “There are jokes even I’m not brave enough to tell,” adding, “everyone in this audience has to laugh, THESE ARE HEROES!”. Jokes were aimed at one of last year’s biggest flops Joker 2, Timothée Chalemet’s fantastic singing being “so good he almost lost the part” of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, and a jab at Conan being rescued by firefighters after being stuck in a tree like a cat.
With the use of classic songs and film themes throughout the ceremony, you’d think this was the 100th Academy Awards giving a massive tribute to Hollywood. Selections included Sinatra classic “Fly Me To The Moon”, “I’ve Never Been In Love Before” from Guys and Dolls, “Some Enchanted Evening” from South Pacific, and themes from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Goldfinger, Star Wars and Austin Powers, to name a few.
Historic Firsts & Records Set
FLOW took home the Academy Award for Animated Feature Film and became the first film from Latvia to win an Oscar. The independent animated film had a modest budget of €3.5 million (compared to Universal’s The Wild Robot $78 million budget) and the filmmakers behind the movie thanked audiences for the “warm reception the film has had,” adding, “I hope this will open the door to independent animation filmmakers around the world.”
Another historic win was that of Wicked’s costume designer Paul Tazewell who made history as the first Black man to receive an Oscar for Costume Design. “I’m so proud of this,” he said to a standing ovation after acknowledging his historic win, with visible support from Wicked stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, Sing Sing star and nominee Colman Domingo, and West Side Story star Rachel Zegler. Especially touching was the bit from Bowen Yang coming on stage in his Wicked costume to highlight Tazewell during the presentation of nominees for Costume Design.
Anora filmmaker Sean Baker swept across his nominated categories at the Academy Awards, winning a historic four Oscars for a single film, taking home trophies for Original Screenplay, Editing, Directing and Best Picture at the end of the night. The latter of which was largely expected to go to The Brutalist, which previously won the Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award for Best Picture, while Baker took the Best Picture BAFTA last month.
Brazil celebrated loud and proud last night as I’m Still Here became the first Brazilian entry to win the Oscar for International Feature Film, having lost its five prior nominations. The film’s star Fernanda Torres was also nominated for Actress in a Leading Role.
Adrien Brody became the first actor to win both of his Actor in a Leading Role nominations, previously winning in 2003 for The Pianist. He also set a record for longest speech, clocking in at nearly six minutes and even asking the orchestra to stop the play-off music, “this isn’t my first rodeo,” he laughed. Despite saying “I’ll be brief” multiple times, he was not.
While she also belongs in the Sweeps category below, we’re putting Emilia Pérez star Zoe Saldaña under Historic Wins as she became the first person of Dominican descent to win an Oscar for her role in the critically divisive film. Her heartfelt speech thanked her husband, children, sisters and parents, and honored her late grandmother. “My grandmother came to this country in 1961 and I am a proud child of immigrant parents with dreams and dignity and hard-working hands. I am the first American of Dominican origin to accept an Academy Award and I know I will not be the last.”
Sweeps Across Awards Season
Kieran Culkin took home the first Oscar of the night, winning Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in A Real Pain, which follows cousins Benji (Culkin) and David (Jesse Eisenberg) on a Jewish heritage tour in Poland after the death of their grandmother who was a Holocaust survivor. For this role, Culkin previously won a Golden Globe, Critics Choice Award, BAFTA and SAG Award, so his win was not much of a surprise, albeit a deserved one. Culkin had one of my favorite speeches of the night, calling out his wife Jazz Charton on a ‘bet’ made about giving him a fourth child “when you win an Oscar”, which has happened. The couple currently have two children, and he made a similar joke at the 2024 Emmys after winning for the final season of Succession, thanking her and his two children and saying “I want more”. At the end of his Oscars speech, he thanked her and hilariously referred to her as “Ye of little faith”.
Surprise Wins
It’s no secret that many were expecting The Substance star Demi Moore to win the Oscar for Actress in a Leading Role, as she’d previously won the Golden Globe, Critics Choice Award and SAG Award for the role. So it came as a surprise when first-time nominee Mikey Madison ended up winning for her role in Anora. Probably the biggest surprise of the night, but a welcome one as Madison delivered a truly electric performance as the titular stripper-turned-wife of the son of a Russian oligarch whose life is turned upside down overnight. Her win was made all the more heartfelt as she took the time to embrace each of her co-stars and writer-director Sean Baker before approaching the stage to give her speech. With her first nomination, Mikey Madison is among the 10 youngest Best Actress winners in Academy Award history, at just 25 years old.
Sadly, due to a major oversight from Hulu, the Academy Awards live stream on the streaming platform was cut short with no option to resume as the stream ended at its scheduled end time. Audiences, including myself, did not get to watch the announcement and acceptances of Best Actress and Best Picture. Thankfully, videos of the speeches were uploaded to social media quickly after each award.
Despite the setbacks, it was a very enjoyable night full of worthy winners, some minor disappointments and surprise but welcome wins.
As was said many times throughout the night: GO SEE FILMS AT YOUR LOCAL MOVIE THEATRE. Whether you pay a monthly subscription like Regal Unlimited or AMC Stubs or go see one film a month, it is more important than ever to continue supporting films, especially independent film, while they are in the theatre.
Thank you, and good night!
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