After a tumultuous awards season, Hollywood’s biggest night finally arrived to wrap up the 2024 movie year on March 2. The 97th Academy Awards — AKA the Oscars — were defined by broken records, host Conan O’Brien’s audacious jokes and the ceremony’s usual snubs and surprises.
The biggest news to come out of the evening was the total domination of Sean Baker’s “Anora.” The sex-worker dramedy won five of its six nominations, most notably the awards for best picture and best actress in a leading role for Mikey Madison’s performance as the titular Anora Mikheeva. Madison’s win was one of the biggest upsets of the night, nabbing the award from front-runner Demi Moore. As director, writer, editor and producer of the film, Baker made history by becoming the first person to win four Academy Awards in the same night for one film.
The dominance of “Anora” came at the expense of front-runners “Emilia Pérez” and “The Brutalist.” “Emilia Pérez” took home only two of the 13 awards it was nominated for, while “The Brutalist” won just three of its 10 nominations.
To those who’ve kept up with the news, the underperformance of “Emilia Peréz” shouldn’t come as a surprise. While expectations for the musical crime-drama were strong when Oscar nominations were announced, fervor for the film took a nose-dive after the lead actress Karla Sofía Gascón’s highly publicized social media scandal. O’Brien even took a jab at the best lead actress nominee, joking that “Anora” only uses “three more [‘f-words’] than the record set by [Gascón’s] publicist.” Despite the controversy, “Emilia Peréz” was awarded best original song and best actress in a supporting role.
The biggest victory for “The Brutalist” came from lead actor Adrien Brody’s best actor win for his performance as the Hungarian-Jewish emigrant Laszlo Tóth. This is the second time Brody has won best actor in a leading role — the first being for his performance in the 2002 film “The Pianist.” Brody gave a record-breaking 5-minute and 36-second Oscar acceptance speech, six seconds longer than the record set by Greer Garson at the 1943 Oscars. “The Brutalist” also won best cinematography and best original score.
One of the highlights of the telecast was O’Brien’s hosting.
This is the first Oscars gig for the long-time late-night host, and thankfully ABC gave him free reign over the ceremony’s comedic moments. O’Brien is well-known for his outrageous sense of humor, and from a farcical song-and-dance routine featuring the sand-worm from “Dune” to probably the most insane Oscar cold-open of all time, he certainly pulled no punches.
The ceremony deviated from its tradition of performing the best original song nominees, opting for a handful of themed performances that reflected the 2024 movie year.
Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande opened the show with nostalgic renditions of “Over the Rainbow” from “The Wizard of Oz” and “Home” from “The Wiz,” culminating in a stunning performance of “Defying Gravity” from “Wicked.” Later in the show was a James Bond tribute featuring performances of some well-known James Bond title themes and a dance sequence starring Margaret Qualley as a Bond Girl. The tribute was intended to honor the long-time producers of the James Bond franchise, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. However, given the recent sale of the rights to Amazon, the performance felt more like a funeral than a celebration.
The final musical number honored the late Quincy Jones, a legendary music composer and producer known for his work with Michael Jackson and on films such as “The Wiz.” Queen Latifah sang “Ease on Down the Road” from the film as a tribute.
The animated underdog of the night — “Flow” — came out on top in best animated feature, defeating the big studio films “The Wild Robot” and “Inside Out 2.” The dialogue-free film follows the journey of a cat displaced from its home by a great flood. “Flow” is not only the first Latvian film to win an Oscar, but the first Latvian film to ever be nominated at the ceremony. “Flow” was also nominated for best international feature film, losing to Brazil’s “I’m Still Here.”
The documentary film “No Other Land” — which has yet to receive distribution in the United States — won best documentary feature film. Despite its critical acclaim, there was some doubt whether “No Other Land” would be awarded an Oscar given its controversial subject matter. The film explores the Israeli occupation of the West Bank prior to the Oct. 7 attacks in 2023. In their acceptance speech, the Palestinian and Israeli directors stood in unison, advocating for peace and “another way” to resolve the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
One of the biggest disappointments of the night was the lack of recognition for “Dune: Part Two.” The blockbuster sci-fi epic won only two of the five awards it was nominated for — best sound and best visual effects. To add insult to injury, “Wicked” — another blockbuster — had an overwhelming presence at the ceremony, receiving 10 nominations and defeating “Dune” in a key technical category, best production design. The greatest offense, however, was the omission of director Denis Villeneuve from the best directing category in favor of “Emilia Peréz’s” Jacques Audiard and “A Complete Unknown’s” James Mangold. “Dune: Part Two” was an undeniable achievement in filmmaking and its underappreciation at the Oscars further confirms the academy’s biases.
But, for as many reasons as there are to malign arbitrary and pretentious award shows like the Oscars, the reality is that there’s no such thing as objectivity in film — the least they can do is make these shows entertaining. And by all accounts, the Oscars got it right this year.
The academy struck a good balance of recognizing the most widely acclaimed films of 2024 while nominating the year’s biggest stars and box-office sensations. Viewership of the 2025 Oscars seems to reflect this fact, with the ceremony garnering 19.7 million viewers — a five year high for the telecast. People are going back to the movies, and slowly but surely they’re coming back to the Oscars.
Drew Askeland is an Arts & Entertainment Staff Writer. He can be reached at daskelan@uci.edu.
Edited by Lillian Dunn.