2025 Oscars Recap!

Last night, we officially closed the books on the 2024 Awards Season for movies with the pinnacle: the 2025 Oscars! After opening the ceremony with a gravity-defying (wink) Oz-inspired medley from Wicked stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, host Conan O'Brien emerged from the unconscious body of Demi MooreThe Substance-style to kick off the festivities. Let's get into it...

The runaway winner of the night was Anora, winning 5 total awards, with 4 of those being just for Sean Baker, including Best Director, Original Screenplay, Editing, and Best Picture -- in case you're wondering, yes, that's a record. The star of the film, Mikey Madison, pulled off the upset over Demi Moore to take home Best Actress, denying Demi her first, best, and likely last chance to get her long overdue flowers...

The next most wins went to The Brutalist with 3, nabbing Best Cinematography and Original Score, as well as earning Adrien Brody his second Best Actor trophy. And no, he did not kiss Cillian Murphy when he accepted his award (booo).

Elsewhere, Wicked, Emilia Pérez, and Dune: Part Two came away with 2 wins each -- Wicked earned well-deserved victories for Best Costumes (making designer Paul Tazewell the first Black man to win in this category) and Production Design, while Dune: Part Two reigned supreme in technical categories, Best Sound and Visual Effects. As for Emilia Pérez -- the film with the most nominations this year -- its song "El Mal" won Best Original Song, and star Zoe Saldaña cemented her incredible Awards Season run with a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Likewise, her counterpart in the Supporting Actor category, Kieran Culkin, also capped off his undefeated streak for his performance in A Real Pain and also delivered probably the best acceptance speech of the night.

As for two other Awards Season darlings, Conclave and The Substance, they didn't exactly get shut out but they definitely didn't perform as well as many of us were anticipating. Conclave took the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, while The Substance received the consolation prize of Best Hair & Makeup. [insert meme of John Lithgow's disappointed face here]

The Best International Film was perhaps the most interesting category of the night, considering 2 of the nominees (Emilia Pérez and I'm Still Here) were also nominated for Best Picture, and another nominee, Flow, had already won Best Animated Feature earlier in the evening. In the end, it was I'm Still Here that reigned supreme, a first for the country of Brazil. And speaking of Flow, its victory not only gave Latvia its first Oscar, but the win itself was quite a feat considering it was made on a shoestring budget, at least in comparison to the 2 big studio films (Inside Out 2, The Wild Robot) that it beat out!

And that closes the book on another Awards Season. Check out the full list of winners here, and see yas next year!