Give it to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for generating the most buzz in this seemingly endless awards season. The 97th edition of the Oscars ceremony, which has just taken place in the emblematic Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, has had us gagged with many twists and turns — Demi Moore not winning the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role? No Other Land winning Best Documentary in a room full of zionists? Here are some of the highlights of the night.
Conan O’Brien has hosted the glamorous gala with wit, humour, and good rhythm, so props to him for that. He had puns for Karla Sofía Gascón’s tweets, for the recent diplomatic catastrophe at the Oval Office between Donald Trump and Volodimir Zelensky, and some more. The music performances by superstars including Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Lisa, Raye, and Doja Cat also kept the show entertaining, proving once again that female vocalists are dominating the industry lately.
But let’s get down to business and discuss the winners. The leading film was clearly Anora, which won the most statuettes (five in total) and three of the most important: Best Picture, Best Directing, and Best Actress in a Leading Role (Mikey Madison, at just twenty-five years old, has won over industry veterans and fan favourites Demi Moore and Fernanda Torres). In a heartfelt speech (one of the several he did), director Sean Baker urged people to go to movie theatres and support the industry, as well as encouraging teams to get involved in independent filmmaking to tell the stories they want to tell.
The Brutalist places second with three wins including Best Cinematography and Best Music (Original Score). Also, Adrien Brody got his second golden statuette for Best Actor in a Leading Role (something everybody expected even if Timothée Chalament was a strong candidate, especially after winning at the SAG Awards recently) — also, Adrien thanked the honour with the loooongest speech ever…
The third place is a draw, ironically between three films. And that’s where it gets interesting. The most nominated movie (thirteen categories) of this edition, Emilia Perez, has won only two: Zoe Saldaña for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (which everyone was certain about since she’s snatched all the awards this season) and also Best Music (Original Song) for El mal.
The other two movies with two wins are Wicked (another movie that was highly nominated, in ten categories) for Best Costume Design and Best Production Design; and Dennis Villeneuve’s colossal Dune: Part Two, for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound — sorry, but the writer is having a hard time accepting only two wins (and previous to that, the five nominations and not including Denis for Best Directing…).
As horror fans have noted, this year’s nominations included two movies that might have been overlooked in previous editions: Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu (which has sadly won zero Academy Awards) and Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance (with only one Oscar, for Best Makeup and Hair). This one also is polemic too, since many people thought Demi Moore had this one in the bag and that her peers would recognise her decades-long career and her best role to date.
Another gag of the night was No Other Land, the powerful documentary made with joint efforts between a Palestinian-Israeli team led by Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal, and Yuval Abraham, winning Best Documentary Feature Film. We know how the United States has been arming Israel happily for their government to conduct an ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians, and for over a year, mass media have clearly sided with the Zionists. So it gives some hope for the future that the Academy has awarded this bold, raw, heart-breaking yet necessary film. The winners, also, gave one of the most important (if not THE) speeches of the night, speaking about freedom, hope, cooperation, and humanity.
A couple of surprises more and we’re done, I promise. First, I’m Still Here has won Brazil the Best International Feature Film — very timely with the country’s massive carnival celebrations this weekend; taking a look at social media, the streets were just as celebratory as when the country wins a football match during the World Cup. And Flow won Best Animated Feature Film (over Wild Robot, which was highly speculated to win), giving Latvia its first-ever Oscar.
Once again, reality proves to be more unpredictable and thrilling than the best written screenplay in Hollywood. Because films leading this year’s nominations with thirteen, ten, or eight nominations have deflated, while Sean Baker’s Anora has won five awards (of the six categories it was nominated to). While some predictions happened, others didn’t, giving us something to talk about for the rest of the week. So now it’s the time to ask: did you win your family and friends’ bet? Are you happy with the results?
