Oscars 2025 Recap: Biggest Winners, Shocking Upsets & Best Moments

Hollywood’s hottest night of the year has come to a close, marking the end of one of the most unpredictable Oscar seasons in recent memory. The 97th Academy Awards showed lots of love to all of the films nominated, with almost every movie winning at least one award. However, Anora was easily the biggest winner as its filmmaker Sean Baker made Oscar history, winning 4 awards in a single night for the same movie. From Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande’s beautiful Wicked opening performance to the shocking winner of Best Actress, the ceremony was the most entertaining it’s been in years. Here’s a breakdown of the top moments, surprises, and speeches from the night.

Sean Baker Makes Oscars History and Advocates to Keep Movie Theatre Experience Alive

Sean Baker made Oscar history, becoming the first filmmaker to win four awards for the same film in a single night. Anora, which he wrote, directed, edited, and produced, dominated the evening, taking home Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Director, and Best Picture. This feat had only been done by Walt Disney in 1954—but Disney won across multiple films, making Baker’s achievement even more extraordinary.

Anora won five of its six nominations overall. While there wasn’t a strong Best Picture frontrunner for most of this year’s Oscar race, Anora catapulted to the front of the pack after it swept all three major precursors for the Oscars in February, winning at the Directors, Writers, and Producers Guild Awards. Baker, whose past films include The Florida Project and Red Rocket, has always been a champion of independent filmmaking, and often advocates for preserving movies made for the big screen.

“We are all here tonight because we love movies. Where did we fall in love with movies? At the movie theater,” he said while accepting his Best Director award. 

“Filmmakers keep making films for the big screen, I know I will.” 

Baker and his team admirably took multiple opportunities to shout out movie theatres and independent films throughout the night, including when he won Best Director. He explained that his Mom introduced him to cinema at the age of five, and movie theatres are how people fall in love with movies, so we must do everything to protect them and the experience. We couldn’t agree more!

Mikey Madison’s Best Actress Win Over Demi Moore

Not only did Anora deliver the results people had been predicting, it overperformed, causing the night’s biggest upset. Demi Moore was poised to win Best Actress for her performance in Coralie Fargeat’s body-horror film about a 50-year-old woman cast out of Hollywood competing with a younger, better version of herself, The Substance. Moore won the Golden Globe, where she gave an acceptance speech, describing how difficult it was for her to be taken seriously as an actress. Many thought that speech alone had secured her the Oscar win, but she also won Best Actress at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Critics Choice Awards, so the Oscar was hers to lose.

Unfortunately, life imitates art because 25-year-old ingénue Mikey Madison ironically beat Moore and took home the coveted award for her equally powerful work in Anora. Everyone was shocked, including Madison, who was visibly shaking while giving her acceptance speech. Madison has had standout supporting parts in films like Scream 5 and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, but Anora marked a breakthrough for the actress as her first leading role. Sean Baker even thanked Quentin Tarantino, who presented him Best Director, for casting Madison in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which led to Baker casting her in Anora.

For Moore, this was a career-defining role and opportunity she may never get again, while Madison may have countless more Oscar-worthy roles. Knowing this, it’s fascinating that The Academy ultimately snubbed her. However, performances in horror movies rarely get the kind of awards attention that Moore’s did, and horror fans can take the nomination as a win, but Demi Moore fans can continue to mourn what could have been.

Showstopping Musical Performances From Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, LISA and More

Taking a momentary break from the awards themselves, the second best part of every Oscars ceremony is always the musical performances. Typically, the Best Original Song category nominees are performed throughout the night. Who could forget Ryan Gosling’s performance of “I’m Just Ken” from last year? 

Surprisingly, The Academy decided to get rid of the original song performances this year and instead opted for commemorative performances that were exceptionally well done. Cynthia and Ariana opened the show, each performing separately before joining forces to crush a live performance of Defying Gravity that brought the house down before a single award had been handed out. The Academy had confirmed the two Wicked stars would be performing after rumours started swirling, but the James Bond tribute was a complete and welcome surprise even if it didn’t make much sense given the Bond franchise’s unclear future.

The Bond tribute started with Margaret Qualley dancing to the spy’s iconic theme music, played brilliantly by the orchestra, and the campaign to get Qualley cast as the next Bond Girl starts now. The dance then transitioned into three powerhouse performances from LISA, Doja Cat, and Raye who sang “Live and Let Die,” “Diamonds Are Forever,” and “Skyfall” respectively. The night’s final performance was a tribute to the late, great Quincy Jones. Queen Latifah joyfully performed “Ease On Down The Road” from The Wiz, for which Jones famously produced the music. 

Adrien Brody Wins Best Actor—And Shares Another Kiss with Halle Berry  

Adrien Brody won Best Actor for his celebrated performance in Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, 22 years after winning the same award for his role in Roman Polanski’s The Pianist. This was another category that many believed could have been a toss up after Timothée Chalamet won Best Actor for playing Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown at the SAG awards. If Chalamet had won here, he would have become the youngest actor ever to win the award, which is what Adrien Brody became when he first won in 2003 at 29. 

Brody’s 2003 win became very well known (and controversial) after he infamously planted a massive unplanned kiss on Halle Berry when she presented him the award. Two decades later, she finally got her revenge by giving him an impromptu kiss on the red carpet. She also looked great while doing it in a dazzling dress made from a shattered mirror and 7,000 beads. 

On his way to the stage to accept this year’s award, Brody spit his gum out and tossed it to his girlfriend, Georgina Chapman. He gave a touching and passionate speech expressing gratitude for his career and “the tremendous outpouring of love from this world and every individual that has treated [him] with respect and appreciation.”

Flow Beats The Wild Robot and Inside Out 2 For Best Animated Feature 

Independent films had a great year at the Oscars, and nothing could be more true for Flow, a Latvian animated feature about a cat looking for safety after losing its home in a flood. The accomplished film first premiered at Cannes, and has had an awe-inspiring journey since then. Not every day can a dialogue-free independent film garner this much attention and stand victorious against Disney and DreamWorks Animation. Despite its huge box office and critical success, Inside Out 2 was never the front runner, but The Wild Robot was a strong competitor for Flow. 

Not only is Flow’s win a significant accomplishment for its filmmaker, Gints Zilbalodis, and hardworking animators, the film marks a huge win for Latvia as Flow marks the first time a movie from the country has been recognized at the Oscars. It’s also become the most-viewed Latvian film of all time. Flow is only Zilbalodis’s second feature film; he has undoubtedly levelled up his career and we’ll all be waiting to see what he comes up with next.

Zoe Saldaña’s Emotional Acceptance Speech  

As expected, Zoe Saldaña finally got her flowers and had one of the night’s best speeches after she won Best Supporting Actress for her role in Emilia Peréz. Saldaña started her speech by shouting, "Mami, Mami," overwhelmed with emotion and tears in her eyes.

“My mom is here. My whole family’s here. I am floored by this honour.” She continued, recognizing that she’s “the first American of Dominican origin to accept an Academy Award,” and declared she “will not be the last.” She then beautifully dedicated the award to her grandmother and made sure to call out her husband’s perfect hair. 

While the film has been the topic of many controversies surrounding its subject matter and for problematic tweets discovered on its other actress Karla Sofia Gascón’s Twitter account, one thing critics and audiences agreed on when it came to Emilia Peréz it was that Zoe Saldaña is an absolute knockout in the film. It’s not surprising Saldaña was able to weather the storm and come out on top! 

Saldaña did address the controversy surrounding the movie’s depiction of the Mexican community after the ceremony when a reporter asked her to comment on it in the Oscars press room. She responded saying, “First of all, I’m very very sorry that you and so many Mexicans felt offended. That was never [their] intention.” She finished her response by saying, “I don’t share your opinion,” but she’s always open to sitting down with love and respect to discuss how the film could have done better.

Conan O’Brien is the Host the Oscars Need

 

This year’s Oscars saw Conan O’Brien take the helm as host, and his sharp wit and effortless humor made him an instant fan favourite.

Despite the controversy surrounding Sofia Gascón’s tweets, the actress was in attendance at the Oscars, as pointed out in a hilarious joke by the host of this year’s ceremony, Conan O’Brien. O’Brien pointed out that “Anora uses the F-word 479 times. That’s three more than the record set by Karla Sofia Gascón’s publicist… Karla, if you are going to tweet about the Oscars tonight, my name is Jimmy Kimmel.”

This is just one of the many killer jokes Conan told throughout the night as he did a superb job hosting the 97th Academy Awards and was a much needed breath of fresh air for the storied ceremony. Things were off to a great start as soon as Nick Offerman announced Conan O’Brien as 4-time watcher of the Oscars, and the jokes never faltered from there. Viewers at home have been praising his performance, with many calling for the former late-night host to return to the Oscars every year. Unlike previous hosts, Conan isn’t afraid to laugh at himself, Hollywood, or others in the room. He’s genuinely there to have a good time because that means everyone watching will have a good time and that we did.

Here's the Full List of Winners:

Best Supporting Actor

Kieran Culkin, The Real Pain

Best Supporting Actress

Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Peréz

Best Costume Design

Paul Tazewell, Wicked

Best Original Screenplay

Sean Baker, Anora

Best Adapted Screenplay

Peter Straughn, Conclave

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Pierre-Olivier Persin, Stéphanie Guillon & Marilyne Scarselli, The Substance

Best Film Editing

Sean Baker, Anora

Best Production Design

Nathan Crowley & Lee Sandales, Wicked

Best Sound

Gareth John, Richard King, Ron Bartlett & Doug Hemphill, Dune: Part 2

Best Original Song

“El Mal,” Emilia Perez

Best Visual Effects

Paul Lambert, Stephen James Rhys Salcombe & Gerd Nefzer, Dune: Part 2

Best Animated Short Film

In the Shadow of the Cypress

Best Animated Feature

Flow

Best Documentary Short Film

The Only Girl in the Orchestra

Best Live Action Short Film

I’m Not a Robot

Best Documentary Feature

No Other Land

Best International Feature Film

I’m Still Here

Best Cinematography

Lol Crawley, The Brutalist

Best Original Score

Daniel Blumberg, The Brutalist

Best Actor 

Adrien Brody, The Brutalist

Best Director

Sean Baker, Anora

Best Actress

Mikey Madison, Anora

Best Picture

Anora