The annual biggest night in Hollywood came on March 2, 2025. There are some years when the winner is painfully obvious. In the years of Lord Of The Rings and Titanic it was a surprise other movies bothered to show up. This was not such a year. It was a winding road from an outrageous thirteen nominations for Emilia Perez to only two wins. The awards were spread out and the most wins garnered by one movie was five. It’s hard to say whether the lack of stand out means this year’s films were too good or not good enough. Let’s unpack a divisive year for the Academy Awards.

Comedian Conan O’Brien hosted the Oscars this year with a mixed bag of humor. His stand-up-esque jokes and roasts of the nominees were enjoyable. Other times his humor was over the top and uncreative. Yes, I am talking about the “I Won’t Waste Time” song. 

The awards show opened with performances by Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo of Wicked. Their set was a clever series of songs from Oz. Ariana Grande began with “Over The Rainbow” from The Wizard Of Oz and Cynthia Erivo followed this with “Home” from The Wiz. As an avid fan of both songs, I was disappointed by the amount of riffing by both singers; it showed off their talent but it took me out of the experience and didn’t feel like proper respect to the originals. The two came through after their solos for a beautiful duet of “Defying Gravity” from this year’s 10 time nominated film, Wicked. 

Two more performances took place over the course of the night; a tribute to the James Bond franchise as well as legendary composer, Quincy Jones. Having never seen a James Bond movie and having liked very few action movies, I can’t give a good judgement on the performance. For someone with no context, the dances were interesting to watch and the singing was of good quality, but according to reactions on the internet the “pointless” act doesn’t seem to have pleased James Bond fans. 

Later on, Queen Latifah performed Quincy Jones’ “Ease On Down The Road” from The Wiz. It was a bright, fun, and iconic performance. Quincy Jones of course deserved the tribute from his work with legends like Frank Sinatra to the iconic anthem “We Are The World”. 

Moving on from the performances to the awards, Wicked garnered a much deserved award for costuming early on in the night. Glinda’s pink gown alone was dazzling enough for the win and better yet, it makes Paul Tazewell the first black man to have won in this category. 

The Substance was awarded for make-up and hairstyling. After the impressively horrifying beast this movie made by Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, our nightmares at least earned a horror movie an award, something not often heard of. 

One of Emilia Perez’s few wins among many nominations was “El Mal” as Best Song. Within minutes of this happening I received multiple texts from people who disliked this. “El Mal” was one of two nominated songs from the same movie. Though it was the better of the two, the composition was jarring and over the top while the lyrics seemed heavy handed and not truly earned by the plot. 

The Brutalist winning for Best Score made up for this. The score to Brutalist was creative and its sound matched uniquely with what was on screen, particularly during moments of construction (The Brutalist centers on an architect for those who have not seen it). 

After beginning the awards season with high hopes and earning eight nominations, Conclave took home its only Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. In my opinion, it deserved this and more. 

For Best Original Screenplay, Anora won its first of five awards. Personally, I found Anora walked the line between comedy and drama in an unpleasant way. The dramatic moments, especially towards the end, were impressive but much of the movie felt wasted. In addition, I question a writing award being given to a movie that uses the same curse word more than four hundred times. 

Though it seemed impossible when Emilia Perez started as an awards darling, Brazilian film I’m Still Here won Best International Film. Though I’m Still Here is near impossible to easily watch in the U.S., it has the highest critic score on Rotten Tomatoes of any of this year’s Best Picture nominees. I can confirm Emilia Perez was an offensive Mexican movie made by a French man. and from what little I have seen, I’m Still Here winning this award seems like a victory for the artform as much as the movie itself. 

Flow winning Best Animated Feature felt like a similar victory against the predictable. For the first time in history, Disney has gone three years without winning Best Animated Feature. Disney has been declining in quality for a long time. It is better for the medium of film that the creativity of Flow beat the big budget sequel Inside Out 2 and even The Wild Robot. 

As always, no one can agree on whether the acting awards were well deserved or symptomatic of the death of art. Unsurprisingly, Zoe Saldana was awarded Best Supporting Actress for Emilia Perez after sweeping the Golden Globe, Critic’s Choice, BAFTA, and SAG awards. Saldana tends to receive less criticism than other stars of her movie and though it’s not thrilling that she won, it’s acceptable. 

Felicity Jones delivered a very powerful performance in The Brutalist but other than that, I agree with Saldana’s win. Knowing where the plot goes, I would prefer Ariana Grande to win for the more serious second installment of Wicked. One bone I need to pick is that Monica Barbaro (A Complete Unknown) was nominated over Margaret Qualley. I would not have wanted either to win but I found Barbaro’s Joan Baez flavorless and archetypal in comparison to Qualley’s riveting role in The Substance. 

The winner of Best Supporting Actor for A Real Pain, Kieran Culkin, swept the same major awards as Saldana but his win seems less contested. He fully captured the manic energy of his character as well as performing several devastating scenes of emotional pain. His character felt real and genuine, checking all the boxes for Best Supporting Actor. 

Guy Pearce was strong in The Brutalist but perhaps not sympathetic or understandable enough to win. Edward Norton was incredibly charming in A Complete Unknown but not enough of a stand alone character. Stanley Tucci was a compelling cardinal, but Conclave generally suffered in the awards. Jeremy Strong’s loss may be what disappointed most people. I can’t speak to his performance but The Apprentice was controversial and lacked a Best Picture nomination, making his win less likely. 

There is one glaring problem with the wins of both supporting actors; neither of them were supporting. Kieran Culkin was just as prominent as lead Jesse Eisenberg in his film. Zoe Saldana was actually on screen for 4% more of Emilia Perez than the woman nominated as its lead. While both Culkin and Saldana delivered good performances, it is rather unfair to place leading roles against actual supporting actors like Isabella Rossellini. The Academy needs to create solid rules as to what defines lead and supporting because as of now it’s a matter of opinion and frankly it’s corrupt. 

While the winners of supporting actor and actress were all but guaranteed by previous awards, the winners of leading actor and actress were more tight races. Each one was between a veteran and an up and comer who prevented a sweep for their competitor earlier in awards season.

In the case of Best Leading Actor, veteran Adrien Brody persevered and won for The Brutalist. He brought home a Golden Globe, a Critic’s Choice, and a BAFTA but the biggest threat to his win, Timothee Chalamet, broke his streak at the SAG awards. Having seen both movies, Adrien Brody deserved the award. Though I don’t support the use of AI, it was only used to tweak his accent in certain scenes, and if there had been no accent at all, he still would have delivered a better acting performance. 

Brody had the opportunity to cry and be angry several times while Chalamet spent most of his time brooding in sunglasses. It was not a bad Bob Dylan impression but there wasn’t as much emotion to showcase in the role. A Complete Unknown is a dime a dozen in the ever growing epidemic of music biography pictures. Timothee Chalamet fans should be patient because he is a good actor on his way to being one of the greats like he said. I’d rather he win his first Academy Award for a film that is more creative.  

This is only mentioning the frontrunners. If there had ever been a chance for the other actors, one of them probably should have won. Ralph Fiennes is long overdue for an Oscar after his stand out performances in Schindler’s List and The Grand Budapest Hotel years ago. Colman Domingo (Sing Sing) portrayed deep emotion and Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice) played a very difficult role. None of them seemed to stand a chance though; Brody deserved it over Chalamet. 

While the veteran won out for leading actor, the same can’t be said for leading actress. After years as a “popcorn actress” with no major awards, Demi Moore finally received her recognition for The Substance and was predicted to win the Oscar until the twenty five year old star of Anora, Mikey Madison, won the BAFTA award and broke Demi’s streak. Madison went on to win the Academy Award as well. 

Both performances were beautiful but The Substance was a more creative and refreshing movie. This makes it hard to judge which actress was better. It’s important to point out that The Substance is a body horror metaphor for the pressures the entertainment industry puts on women, especially as they age. It’s tragically ironic that the young up and coming Madison playing a sexualized character would beat the woman who has been working for decades. It seems to me like a matter of opinion who deserved the award, but I would have preferred the victory go to Moore. The Academy has notoriously snubbed horror movies since the beginning and The Substance, regardless of its cutting and unique concept, was no different. 

As with leading actors, the race for leading actress largely came down to two people but Fernanda Torres was a dark horse. Many people would have liked to see her win but it would have been hard for a niche, international actress. Cynthia Erivo (Wicked), like Ariana Grande, will have a chance with the same character in the more serious second installment of the story. As for Karla Sofía Gascon (Emilia Perez), who’s recently resurfaced problematic tweets, as well as a regular performance in a problematic movie didn’t stand a chance. (Thankfully). 

Finally, Best Director and Best Picture were taken by the same man, Sean Baker of Anora. Impressively, Sean Baker wrote, edited, and directed Anora, becoming the first person to win four Oscars in one night.

Conclave was my personal favorite of the Best Picture nominees. It was full of twists and turns to keep the audience engaged. It incorporated interesting topics like religion in politics. However, it fell off of prediction lists long before the awards. 

The only realistic options other than Anora were The Brutalist and A Complete Unknown. There was something wrong with every other nominee. The Substance was too horror for the Academy. Emilia Perez was too controversial. Some were too niche. Some were too popular. Some were released too early. Whether these reasons are justified is a story no one has time to unpack. 

I already pointed out that biography pictures are growing too popular and at this point are Oscar bait. I would have hated to see A Complete Unknown win even though I enjoyed watching it. On the other hand, The Brutalist  was an epic and devastating story about the immigrant experience with good performances all around and clear themes. I do not see how such a smaller scale story such as Anora could beat it, but perhaps the appeal is its simplicity. 

 Before I saw the Awards show, I was a staunch Anora detractor and I am still skeptical but Sean Baker makes me want to give it another chance. His personal speech about the need to see movies in theaters was important. His gratefulness coupled with the fact that his movie was so independent makes me respect a film I initially found unexceptional. 

The Academy Awards this year felt more difficult to decipher than many years in the past. Winners and snubs have been more clear. After the fact, people are still arguing about who deserved the awards. The best course of action is to watch the movies yourself and form an opinion. As much as we enjoy a competition with winners and losers, art is a matter of taste.