2025 Oscars Recap: Sean Baker Sets Awards Record as “Anora” Takes Home 5

by Jacob Jones

The 97th Annual Academy Awards took place Sunday night, once again held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, and hosted by Conan O’Brien. The legendary television host made a real game of the night, taking cracks at everyone from Drake to the President Trump to Best Actress nominee Karla Sofía Gascón herself (who was in attendance). Some bits worked, very few didn’t, and even when the night ran a little long, he always seemed to be having a good time. 

​The big news of the night was that Sean Baker – writer, director, editor, and producer of the film Anora – took home four Oscars, including one for Best Picture of the Year; this makes Baker only the second person to take home four Oscars in the same night after Walt Disney, and the first to win them all for the same movie. Mikey Madison also triumphed over expected winner Demi Moore in Best Actress, bringing Anora’s grand total to five wins, losing only one for which it was nominated (Best Supporting Actor for Yura Borisov) to A Real Pain’s Kieran Culkin. 

​Among other winners were the documentary feature film No Other Land (which as of this writing still lacks U.S. distribution) for which both the Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers gave impassioned speeches advocating against the ethnic cleansing of Palestine itself, Janus Film’ Latvian animation Flow, which took home Best Animated Feature, and Walter Salles’ Brazilian submission to the Oscars, I’m Still Here, which took home the award for Best International Feature, leaving Emilia Pérez – the most nominated film of the night – with only two wins for Best Original Song (“El Mal”) and Best Supporting Actress, which went to Zoe Saldaña to cap off a clean awards season sweep.

​The Brutalist also took home three wins for Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, and Best Actor, which went to Adrien Brody, marking his second win in the category and denying Timothée Chalamet the opportunity to break Brody’s record of being the youngest person to ever win the Best Actor Oscar. Wicked and Dune: Part Two also won two Oscars each in the expected categories, with each Dune team giving special shout-outs to Director Denis Villeneuve, whom the Academy failed to recognize for his titanic achievement in adapted Frank Herbert’s iconic sci-fi novel. Of course, The Substance took home the award for Best Makeup & Hairstyling in a landslide victory, and Conclave concluded its winning run in Best Adapted Screenplay.

​Overall, it was a solid list of winners over the course of a rather average Oscars night, all things considered. Personally, I only missed five predictions (three of which were in the Shorts categories, a widely agreed-upon mess of winners), with my largest unpaid risk being predicting Conclave for Best Film Editing over Anora. Still, some of the larger risks I took – like Flow in Animated Feature – did pay off, so I can hardly complain. In any case, here’s hoping for a slightly less exhausting awards press cycle next year, and a long year of great movies ahead. (Speaking of a long year, I’ve got some catching up to do…)

​A full list of the winners is below.

What did you think of the Oscars last night? Did you do well on your ballot? Let us know in the comments section below, and thanks for reading!
 
- The Friendly Film Fan

Full Winners List

Best Picture: Anora
Best Director: Sean Baker, Anora
Best Actress in a Leading Role: Mikey Madison, Anora
Best Actor in a Leading Role: Adrien Brody, The Brutalist
Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Pérez
Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain
Best Animated Feature: Flow (Latvia)
Best International Feature: I’m Still Here (Brazil)
Best Documentary Feature: No Other Land
Best Cinematography: Lol Crawley, The Brutalist
Best Film Editing: Sean Baker, Anora
Best Production Design: Nathan Crowley, Wicked
Best Costume Design: Paul Tazewell, Wicked
Best Makeup & Hairstyling: The Substance
Best Original Score: Daniel Blumberg, The Brutalist
Best Original Song: “El Mal,” Emilia Pérez
Best Adapted Screenplay: Peter Straughn, Conclave
Best Original Screenplay: Sean Baker, Anora
Best Visual Effects: Dune: Part Two
Best Sound: Dune: Part Two
Best Live-Action Short: I’m Not a Robot
Best Animated Short: In the Shadow of the Cypress
Best Documentary Short: The Only Girl in the Orchestra