\n\tLOS ANGELES: \u201cAnora,\u201d a strip club Cinderella story without the fairy tale ending, was crowned best picture at the 97th Academy Awards on Sunday, handing Sean Baker\u2019s gritty, Brooklyn-set screwball farce Hollywood\u2019s top prize. Sean Baker made Oscar history Sunday at the 97th Academy Awards, becoming the night\u2019s big winner with five statuettes overall, two more than \u201cThe Brutalist.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBaker said his film\u2019s huge Oscar haul was a win for independent films.\u00a0Mikey Madison won the best actress Oscar on Sunday for \u201cAnora,\u201d a role that catapulted the 25-year-old into a burgeoning film career after achieving initial success on television, while Baker won the best director Oscar.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe night\u2019s first award, presented by Robert Downey Jr., went to Kieran Culkin for best supporting actor. Culkin has cruised through the season, picking up award after award, for his performance alongside Jesse Eisenberg in \u201cA Real Pain.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\tKieran Culkin poses with the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for “A Real Pain” in the Oscars photo room at the 97th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, on March 2, 2025. (REUTERS)<\/figcaption>
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\n\t\u201cI have no idea how I got here,\u201d said Culkin, \u201cI\u2019ve just been acting my whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tCulkin spent most of his speech recalling an earlier, hypothetical promise from his wife Jazz Charton, that they could have a fourth child if he won an Oscar. Culkin used the opportunity to take Charton \u2014 \u201clove of my life, ye of little faith\u201d \u2014 up on the offer.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe biggest upset early on came in the best animated feature category. \u201cFlow,\u201d the wordless Latvian film upset DreamWorks Animations\u2019 \u201cThe Wild Robot.\u201d The win for \u201cFlow,\u201d an ecological parable about a cat in a flooded world, was the first Oscar ever for a Latvian film.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cFlow\u201d was made with Blender, a free, open-source graphics software tool using computer generated animation. The result is a dreamy aesthetic paired with a peaceful, yet post-apocalyptic, fable about a black cat, dog, capybara, ring-tailed lemur and secretary bird trying to survive a catastrophic flood. The film has no dialogue and forces viewers to be mesmerized by the unlikely relationship and understanding between the species trying to escape the rising waters.
\n\tIt\u2019s only Zilbalodis\u2019 second animated film as a director.
\n\tZilbalodis\u2019 unexpected Oscar contender \u2014 and now winner \u2014 has been welcomed with open arms this award season. The win Sunday adds to an already impressive resume for the new director, which includes a best animated feature win at the Golden Globe Awards and nominations from Critics Choice Awards, Annie Awards and British Academy Film Awards.
\n\tThe success of the film is shared with producers Mat\u012bss Ka\u017ea, Ron Dyens and Gregory Zalcman. The Latvian, French and Belgian co-production was also nominated for best international feature film, and is the first Latvian film to be nominated at the Academy Awards.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t(L-R) Gints Zilbalodis, Mat?ss Ka\u017ea, Ron Dyens, and Gregory Zalcman, winners of the Best Animated Feature Film for \u201cFlow\u201d, pose in the press room during the 97th Annual Oscars at Ovation Hollywood on March 02, 2025 in Hollywood, California. (Getty Images\/AFP)<\/figcaption>
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\n\t\u201cThank you to my cats and dogs,\u201d director Gints Zilbalodis accepting the award.<\/p>\n
\n\tZoe Salda\u00f1a earned her first Academy Award for best supporting actress in \u201cEmilia P\u00e9rez,\u201d capping an already accomplished awards season Sunday.
\n\t\u201cMami! Mami!\u201d a tearful Salda\u00f1a said. \u201cMy mom is here. My whole family is here. I am floored by this honor. Thank you to the academy for recognizing the quiet heroism and the power in a woman like Rita and talking about powerful women. My fellow nominees, the love and community that you have offered to me is a true gift, and I will pay it forward.\u201d
\n\tSalda\u00f1a accepted the award from the reigning winner in the category, Da\u2019Vine Joy Randolph.
\n\tThe win adds to a collection of successes for the star on the awards circuit: Salda\u00f1a won her first Golden Globe in January, and notched wins at the British Academy Film Awards, the Critics Choice Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\tZoe Saldana wins the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for “Emilia Perez” during the Oscars show at the 97th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on March 2, 2025.(REUTERS)<\/figcaption>
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\n\t\u201cWicked\u201d stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo kicked off the ceremony with a tribute to Los Angeles following the wildfires that devastated the Southern California metropolis earlier this year. Grande sang \u201cSomewhere Over the Rainbow,\u201d Erivo performed Diana Ross\u2019 \u201cHome\u201d and the \u201cWicked\u201d stars joined together for \u201cDefying Gravity\u201d from their blockbuster big-screen musical.
\n\tLater, \u201cWicked,\u201d the biggest box-office hit among the best picture nominees, won the award for best costume design, by Paul Tazewell.
\n\t\u201cI\u2019m the first Black man to receive the costume design award,\u201d said Tazewell, who couldn\u2019t finish that sentence before the crowd began to rise in a standing ovation. \u201cI\u2019m so proud of this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tIt is his first win and second nomination. He was previously nominated in the category for his work on Steven Spielberg’s \u201cWest Side Story.\u201d
\n\tBefore the Oscars, Tazewell won awards at BAFTA, Critics Choice and Costume Designers Guild awards. He’s the second Black person to in the category after Ruth E. Carter made history for her work in 2018 for \u201cBlack Panther,\u201d which made her the first African American to win in the category.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\tPaul Tazewell, winner of the Best Costume Design for \u201cWicked\u201d, poses in the press room during the 97th Annual Oscars at Ovation Hollywood on March 02, 2025 in Hollywood, California. (Getty Images via AFP)<\/figcaption>
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\n\tBest makeup and hairstyling went to \u201cThe Substance\u201d for its gory creations of beauty and body horror.
\n\tHost Conan O\u2019Brien, introduced as \u201cfour-time Oscar viewer,\u201d opened the ceremony with genial ribbing of the nominees and the former talk-show host\u2019s trademark self-deprecation.
\n\t\u201c\u2018A Complete Unknown.\u2019 \u2018A Real Pain.\u2019 \u2018Nosferatu.\u2019 These are just some of the names I was called on the red carpet,\u201d said O\u2019Brien.
\n\tO\u2019Brien, hosting for the first time, avoided any political commentary in his opening remarks, but the monologue was a smash hit. O\u2019Brien lent on the disappointed face of John Lithgow, a full-throated \u201cChalamet!\u201d from Adam Sandler and a gag of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos being delivered to the red carpet in a cardboard box.
\n\tO\u2019Brien\u2019s most sincere comments were reserved for Los Angeles, itself, in speaking about the enduring \u201cmagic and grandeur\u201d of film in wake of the wildfires. O\u2019Brien, whose house in the Pacific Palisades was spared by the fires, then segued into a musical routine, singing: \u201cI won\u2019t waste time.\u201d
\n\tAn unpredictable Oscar year<\/strong>
\n\tAfter a topsy-turvy Oscar season in which frontrunners were constantly shuffled, old tweets hobbled a top contender and space was held for \u201cWicked,\u201d Sunday\u2019s Academy Awards brought to a close one of the most unpredictable Oscar races in recent memory.
\n\tSplashes of color decorated the red carpet \u2014 Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet in yellow, Ariana Grande in pink, Colman Domingo in red \u2014 as stars streamed into the Dolby Theatre. Some attendees sported pins for Ukraine. Guy Pearce, nominated for his performance in \u201cThe Brutalist,\u201d wore a \u201cFree Palestine\u201d pin on his lapel.
\n\tFor the first time, an actor is nominated for playing the sitting US president. Sebastian Stan is nominated for best actor for his performance as a young Donald Trump in \u201cThe Apprentice,\u201d as is his co-star, Jeremy Strong, for playing Roy Cohn. Trump has called those involved with the film \u201chuman scum.\u201d
\n\tThe political tenor of this year\u2019s ceremony could be volatile, with the Oscars coming weeks into the second Trump administration and falling two days after the president\u2019s dramatic rupture with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House.
\n\tThis year\u2019s Oscars are unspooling after a turbulent year for the film industry. Ticket sales were down 3 percent from the previous year and more significantly from pre-pandemic times. The strikes of 2023 played havoc with release schedules in 2024. Many studios pulled back on production, leaving many out of work. The fires, in January, only added to the pain.
\n\tLast year\u2019s telecast, propelled by the twin blockbusters of \u201cOppenheimer\u201d and \u201cBarbie,\u201d led the Oscars to a four-year viewership high, with 19.5 million viewers. This year, with smaller independent films favored in the most prominent awards, the academy will be tested to draw as large of an audience.
\n\tThe ceremony will be taking place days following the death of Gene Hackman. The 95-year-old two-time Oscar winner and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead Wednesday at their New Mexico home. Morgan Freeman is to honor him during the ceremony.
\n\tWinners of the gold Oscar statuettes are chosen by the roughly 11,000 actors, producers, directors and film craftspeople who make up the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
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