LOS ANGELES (AP) — The 97th Academy Awards spread the love around, dishing out awards to “Anora,” “Conclave,” “Wicked” and “The Substance,” in an Oscar ceremony that steered toward a nailbiter ending.
Eight of the 10 movies nominated for best picture came away with at least one award at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday. That included the beleaguered Netflix contender “Emilia Pérez,” which, despite a backlash to old offensive tweets by star Karla Sofía Gascón, won best supporting actress for Zoe Saldaña.
It was “Anora,” the strip club Cinderella story without the fairy tale ending that was crowned best picture, however, handing Sean Baker’s gritty, Brooklyn-set screwball farce Hollywood’s top prize.
Here’s a look at some of the other winners from Sunday’s award show.
Mikey Madison wins best actress for her performance in “Anora”
Mikey Madison won the best actress Oscar on Sunday for “Anora,” a role that catapulted the 25-year-old into a burgeoning film career after achieving initial success on television.
The Brooklyn-set comedy-drama had received six nominations.
Madison had been best known for playing a sullen teenager in the FX comedy series “Better Things,” which ended in 2022. She also appeared in the hit movies “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” and the fifth installment of the horror franchise “Scream.”
Sean Baker wins best director for “Anora,” his third Oscar of the night
Sean Baker won best director at the Oscars on Sunday for “Anora,” bookending a dominant awards season for the American filmmaker whose stories seek to humanize sex workers and immigrants.
Earlier, Baker won the original screenplay Oscar for “Anora,” a comedy-drama about a sex worker who marries the son of a Russian oligarch. Baker also directed, produced and edited the film starring Mikey Madison.
The film is the biggest success of Baker’s career. It had a $6 million budget and has earned over $40 million at the box officer.
Adrien Brody wins best actor for his performance in “The Brutalist”
Adrien Brody clinched his second Oscar for best actor, winning Sunday for his role as a visionary Hungarian architect in “The Brutalist” and solidifying his legacy as one of Hollywood’s most compelling talents.
Brody took home best actor at the 97th Academy Awards for his powerful portrayal of Lázló Tóth, who escapes the Holocaust and sails to the United States to find his American Dream. The film spans 30 years in the life of Tóth, a fictional character whose unorthodox designs challenged societal norms, and his relentless pursuit of artistic integrity.
“The Brutalist” wins Oscar for best original score
First-time Academy Award nominee Daniel Blumberg is now an Oscar winner. He took home the trophy for original score for “The Brutalist” on Sunday.
Blumberg beat Clément Ducol and Camille (“Emilia Pérez”), Kris Bowers (“The Wild Robot”), Volker Bertelmann (“Conclave”) and John Powell and Stephen Schwartz (“Wicked”).
“I’ve been an artist for 20 years now,” Blumberg said in his acceptance speech. “And when I met (director) Brady (Corbet) I met my artistic soulmate.”
Corbet’s “The Brutalist” follows Lázló Tóth, a fictional visionary Hungarian architect who escaped the Holocaust, sailed to the United States to find his American Dream and created the style of architecture the film takes its name from.
“I’m Still Here” from Brazil wins Oscar for best international film
“I’m Still Here,” a Brazilian film about a family torn apart by the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil for more than two decades, won the Oscar on Sunday for best international film.
The Walter Salles film stars Fernanda Torres as Eunice Paiva, the wife of Rubens Paiva, a former leftist Brazilian congressman who, at the height of the country’s military dictatorship in 1971, was taken from his family’s Rio de Janeiro home and never returned.
“No Other Land” wins Oscar for best documentary
“No Other Land,” the story of Palestinian activists fighting to protect their communities from demolition by the Israeli military, won the Oscar for best documentary on Sunday.
The collaboration between Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers follows activist Basel Adra as he risks arrest to document the destruction of his hometown, which Israeli soldiers are tearing down to use as a military training zone, at the southern edge of the West Bank. Adra’s pleas fall on deaf ears until he befriends a Jewish Israeli journalist who helps him amplify his story.
“No Other Land” came into the night a top contender after a successful run on the film festival circuit. It did not, however, find a U.S. distributor after being picked up for distribution in 24 countries. For the Oscar, it beat out “Porcelain War,” “Sugarcane,” “Black Box Diaries” and “Soundtrack to a Coup d’État.”
The documentary was filmed over four years between 2019 and 2023, wrapping production days before Hamas launched its deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel that started the war in Gaza.
“El Mal” wins Oscar for best original song
French composer duo Clément Ducol and Camille took home the original song award at the Oscars on Sunday for their track, “El Mal.” In January, “El Mal” also earned the pair a Golden Globe in the same category.
The musical “Emilia Pérez” is a lot of things — a musical, a transgender parable, endlessly controversial and frequently criticized for its depiction of Mexican culture.
“We are so grateful,” Camille said in her acceptance speech. “We wrote ‘El Mal’ as a song to denounce corruption.”
Zoe Saldaña wins first Oscar, sweeping awards season as best supporting actress in “Emilia Pérez”
Zoe Saldaña earned her first Academy Award for best supporting actress in “Emilia Pérez,” capping an already accomplished awards season Sunday.
Saldaña accepted the award from the reigning winner in the category, Da’Vine Joy Randolph.
The win adds to a collection of successes for the star on the awards circuit: Saldaña 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.
“Conclave” wins Oscar for best adapted screenplay
The papal intrigue film was written by British author-playwright Peter Straughan, based on the 2016 novel of the same name by British novelist Robert Harris.
Both Straughan and Harris are veterans of the thriller genre. Straughan’s other screenplay credits include “The Snowman” and an adaptation of John le Carré‘s “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.”
Paul Tazewell becomes first Black man to receive costume design award
“Wicked,” the biggest box-office hit among the best picture nominees, won the award for best costume design, by Paul Tazewell.
“I’m the first Black man to receive the costume design award,” said Tazewell, who couldn’t finish that sentence before the crowd began to rise in a standing ovation. “I’m so proud of this.”
“Wicked” also picked up the award for production design while best makeup and hairstyling went to “The Substance” for its gory creations of beauty and body horror.
“In the Shadow of the Cypress” wins Oscar for best animated short film
Iranian filmmakers Shirin Sohani and Hossein Molayemi won their first Academy Award for “In the Shadow of the Cypress.” It was the second Iranian animated or live-action short film nominated at the Oscars and the first to win. Animation is often thought of as childlike, fun and creative in nature, but it can also elicit deep emotion: “In the Shadow of the Cypress” takes a creative and artistic approach to the relationship between a father, an old former captain who is dealing with PTSD, and his daughter.
The short also won best animated short at the Los Angeles Shorts International Film Festival.
“Flow” becomes first Latvian film to win Academy Award for animated feature
“Flow,″ a wordless cat parable, won the Oscar for animated feature at Sunday’s 97th Academy Awards. The win gives Latvian filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis his first Academy Award and marked a surprise victory over DreamWorks Animations’ “The Wild Robot.”
“Flow” 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.
Kieran Culkin wins best supporting actor, completing his sweep
Kieran Culkin won the Oscar for best supporting actor Sunday at the 97th Academy Awards, completing a sweep of the category that followed his dominance in television awards last season.
Culkin triumphed over nominees Guy Pearce for “The Brutalist,” Edward Norton for “A Complete Unknown,” Yura Borisov for “Anora” and his fellow “Succession” alum Jeremy Strong for “The Apprentice.” The category was one of few with a clear favorite ahead of this year’s ceremony, after Culkin picked up the Golden Globe, BAFTA, Independent Spirit Award, SAG Award and a slew of critics awards earlier this month.
