The 97th Academy Awards, or the Oscars, took place on March 2, and I feel bad that I didn’t get to see as many nominated films this year. The only film I saw from the Best Picture category was Wicked (2024). And, of course, I couldn’t miss the two Sebastian Stan films nominated: The Apprentice for Best Supporting Actor and Best Lead Actor, and A Different Man for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. Besides those films, that was it!
However, I was familiar with a lot of the other films due to my obsession with tracking award show predictions, so I was curious to see what would take home the top prizes this year.
To start, Conan O’Brien made a fabulous host in comparison to Jimmy Kimmel, the host from the past two years. O’Brien has the charisma and charm to carry a four-hour award ceremony, having cracked plenty of jokes without being foul and reaching for low-hanging fruit.
The online film community was most worried that Emilia Perez, the now despised French-Spanish musical crime drama, would garner a lot of wins since it had received a few Golden Globe victories and was tied with last year’s Oppenheimer with 13 nominations. However, it only walked away with two awards as well as an awkward speech after receiving Best Original Song for “El Mal.”
Among my favorite wins for the night was I’m Still Here for Best International Feature Film, earning Brazil its first win, according to Reuters. I was also thrilled that Wicked won for Best Costume Design. According to AP News, Designer Paul Tazewell is the first Black man to win in the category!
Kieran Culkin gave the best speech after winning Best Supporting Actor in A Real Pain, continuing his trend of talking about his love for his wife, Jazz. Culkin mentioned that she had also added to their bet that if he won an Oscar, they would have four kids. Funny enough, this a running joke between the couple that started on stage at the Emmys when he said he wanted another kid after winning for his role in Succession.
The three-and-a-half-hour-long film, The Brutalist, won three awards: Best Original Score, Best Cinematography, and Best Actor for Adrien Brody. Brody also achieved a record for the longest Oscars speech, threatening to be played off twice. I found that pretty funny.
In the end, though, it was Sean Baker’s independent rom-com Anora that swept, taking home five awards for Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Director, Best Actress for Mikey Madison, and Best Picture. Baker, in his speech, emphasized the importance of going to see movies in the theaters and making independent films, which really resonated with me as someone who aspires to a career in the film industry.
All in all, it was a great ceremony and I’m looking forward to checking out more of these movies!
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