The Academy Awards, cinema’s biggest night of celebration, had its 97th annual ceremony last night, and it was Sean Baker’s Anora, an urban-fairytale romcom about a Brighton Beach stripper who runs off with and marries the son of a Russian oligarch, took away many of the top prizes.
Baker’s superb film, which won five out of the six awards it was nominated for on the night, capped off a very successful awards run which began all the way back in May 2024 when it won the Palme d’Or Award for Best Film at the Cannes Film Festival where it premiered. In addition to fending off stiff competition from The Brutalist, Conclave and Emilia Perez to win Best Picture (along with his producing partners Samantha Quan and Alex Coco), Baker also took home the awards for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing, making him the first person to win four awards for a single film in the history of the Academy Awards. Anora‘s fifth and final win proved to be one of the night’s biggest surprises: the film’s star, Mikey Madison, walked away with the award for Best Actress ahead of Demi Moore, who was heavily-favoured to win after her successes in the majority of precursor awards ceremonies (with the exception of the BAFTA, which was also won by Madison).
In the other categories, The Brutalist was the night’s second biggest winner, taking home three awards: Best Actor for Adrien Brody, Best Cinematography for Lol Crawley and Best Score for Daniel Blumberg. Although it was hotly-tipped for Best Picture after some precursor wins for both the film itself and its director, Brady Corbet, it’s arguable that the film’s wins in these categories are representative of its greatest strengths. There has been much speculation that Brody would miss out on Best Actor to wearer-of-yellow-suits Timothée Chalamet, whose barnstorming performance as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown earned him the same award at the Screen Actors’ Guild last weekend. However, it’s hard to deny the majesty of Brody’s turn as Laszlo Tóth, which caps off a very successful return to form for him in recent years.
Several films walked away with two awards on the night. The two big blockbusters nominated, Wicked and Dune: Part Two, each took home the expected below-the-line awards that they were nominated for, with the former winning Best Production Design and Best Costume Design, and the latter winning Best Sound and Best Visual Effects.
Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez, the most nominated film of the night, won in only two categories, for Best Supporting Actress for Zoe Saldaña and Best Original Song for the Saldaña-showcase ‘El Mal’, the latter of which featured the night’s most bizarre moment when the songwriters led an uncomfortable and hubristic attempt of a singalong, even as the orchestra played them off. Disappointingly, neither speech made mention of the trans community, despite their centrality to the film’s plot. Both of these wins were strongly-telegraphed in prior ceremonies, with Saldaña in particular winning the Supporting Actress prize at every eligible precursor. It is highly likely that the controversy around old Tweets sent by the film’s star, Karla Sofía Gascón, negatively affected the film’s chances in other categories on the night. The other award that the film was the favourite to win, Best International Feature, went to Brazil’s I’m Still Here, which continues to be a sensation after the Saturday night of its Irish opening weekend (February 15th) recently made headlines as it gave Light House Cinema its largest ever audience in a single day. Another film that played in the Light House that night, David Lynch’s Blue Velvet, playing as part of a retrospective after the legendary director’s death, was honoured at the Academy Awards by one of its stars, Isabella Rossellini. The actress, who was nominated for her role in Film in Dublin favourite, Conclave, wore a dress of blue velvet in tribute to Lynch, her close friend and frequent collaborator.
Speaking of Conclave, 2024 Cinema’s greatest collection of gossip-mongers and backstabbers walked away with just one award last night, Best Adapted Screenplay for Peter Straughan, a deserved win in the context of turning a fairly disposable airport novel into one of the year’s best-liked films. The Academy Awards don’t currently have a category celebrating Best Tug of a Vape in a Film, but if they did, Sergio Castellito would have handily seen off the competition for his sublime work in the film.
Despite Demi Moore missing out on the Best Actress statuette, Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance didn’t leave empty-handed, taking home the Oscar for Best Make-Up & Hairstyling. Though I wasn’t a fan of the film personally, I wrote an extensive piece about the winners of the Best Make-Up & Hairstyling and the Best Costume Design Oscars in Pretty Deadly Films Issue #14, in which I argued that Style Oscars should reflect the best work in their field for that year and also portend to some lasting cultural legacy. In that respect, the work of Pierre-Olivier Persin, Stéphanie Guillon and Marilyne Scarselli in The Substance is undoubtedly the best choice for the award this year, particularly given that I felt that the film’s style is used to make up for its lack of, well, substance.
Two other notable winners on the night included Flow becoming the second consecutive non-English language film to win Best Animated Feature, which will hopefully encourage Irish audiences to get out and see it ahead of its release on March 21st, and also Kieran Culkin taking home the award for Best Supporting Actor for his memorably caustic performance in Jesse Eisenberg’s sophomore feature, A Real Pain. Culkin’s win was something of a forgone conclusion given that he has won every precursor award for which he was nominated. Some have argued that Culkin’s Benji Kaplan is not different enough from his performance as Roman Roy on TV’s Succession to merit such celebration. While I don’t particularly agree with this critique, I do feel that the certainty of Culkin’s win from the outset has been a little strange given the widespread acclaim for the performances of Yura Borisov in Anora, Edward Norton in A Complete Unknown and particularly Guy Pearce, who is doing career-best work in The Brutalist.
A Complete Unknown had an unfortunate showing overall, taking home no awards from eight nominations. The title of the night’s Biggest Loser goes not to Mangold’s film however, but to rapper Drake, who continues to suffer the greatest loss in the history of feuds. Despite not being nominated or even in attendance at the show, the ‘One Dance’ singer caught a stray from host Conan O’Brien who quipped, “Well, we’re halfway through the show, which means it’s time for Kendrick Lamar to come out and call Drake a pedophile.” One more public humiliation like this and we may have to classify him as an endangered species.
To finish on a positive note, the night’s best and most impactful win was undoubtedly the Palestinian-Israeli co-production No Other Land winning Best Documentary Feature. Following the intertwining lives of filmmakers Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham, the film showcases the Israeli Defence Force’s systematic ethnic cleansing of Adra’s home village of Masafer Yatta in the West Bank. Using social media, Adra and Abraham, an Israeli journalist and filmmaker, attempt to draw global attention to the violent actions of the IDF, Israeli government agents and settlers towards the Palestinian people of Masafer Yatta in their attempt to forcibly occupy the land and develop settlements for Israelis, which are recognised as illegal under international law. This is of particular relevance in recent weeks in the wake of the IDF invading and attacking West Bank refugee camps, actions which have lead to the deaths of over 50 Palestinians in the immediate aftermath of the ceasefire in Gaza, where over 70,000 have been estimated to be killed.
Adra used his speech to advocate for a better world for his recently-born baby daughter, while Abraham bravely called out the foreign policy of the United States for impeding paths to a lasting peace in the region. During last year’s ceremony, English filmmaker Jonathan Glazer was booed by members of the audience during his speech for his Best Original Screenplay win for The Zone of Interest in which he denounced the actions of the Israeli government and military in Gaza. However, the reception to Adra and Abrham’s speeches from the audience was overwhelmingly positive, which shows the substantial change in public opinion towards the conflict, including in Hollywood.
For those who haven’t yet had a chance to see No Other Land, the film is currently streaming for free on Channel 4’s All4 app. As cliché as it to say, it really is essential viewing.
All told, it was a big night for independent, artist-led cinema, the importance of which Sean Baker (along with Brutalist director Brady Corbet) has emphasised continuously throughout awards season. Anora, made for a budget of only $6 million, won big, as did No Other Land, which currently has no distribution in the U.S., and likely would never have been made within the studio system of any major filmmaking nation. It’s an important reminder that although awards shows are silly, and often reward films that have momentary hype rather than real significant cultural staying power (we won’t mention the fact that the best film nominated on the night, Nickel Boys, was shut out completely), there is a real desire in recent years at the Oscars to shake off the bloat and drudgery of present-day, IP-dependent studio cinema and spotlight hard-working artists with a story to tell.
Here’s hoping that after the premiere of a number of stellar new Irish films at Dublin International Film Festival 2025, there will be a stronger Irish representation at next year’s ceremony.