Sunday
Mar022025
And the winner is... ANORA
Sunday, March 2, 2025 at 11:20PM 
We'll talk about this year's Oscar ceremony over the next couple of days but tonight, sleep! You can see the complete list of winners on the Oscar Chart Index. Sean Baker's sex worker comedy Anora was the atypical Oscar favourite, winning five Oscars (four of them for Sean Baker himself who wrote, directed, edited, and produced) and losing only only one of its categories: Best Supporting Actor.
The only shock amongst the acting awards was Anora herself, Mikey Madison, who took Best Actress over the long-time frontrunner Demi Moore (The Substance) and the rising Fernanda Torres (I'm Still Here).
More soon...
Reader Comments (24)
It became apparent the Academy loved Anora when it took screenplay and especially editing. I was leaning towards Mikey winning even before the ceremony, but that sealed it for me. When Brody won, it was a lock (when both actor and actress split between BAFTA and SAG, Oscars choose both from one or the other).
I’m so beyond disappointed for Demi. It’s truly baffling to me for Anora to win this many awards, but even with something as egregious as Best Editing, the only one that truly upsets me is Best Actress. That makes absolutely no sense to my mind.
I literally watched the entire ceremony just to see Demi win and give an eloquent, gracious speech, a beautiful celebration of her career and a moment she never thought she’d get, honoring a film that speaks to the struggle of actresses aging in Hollywood… I was also excited for her to win for such an out-there movie and something that typically does not get recognized. I really had faith because not only was the film recognized in top categories, in my eyes, that’s the moment people wanted to see. You could visualize Demi up there on stage.
Instead, they gave it to a prostitute role for the second year in a row, an alright performance from a newcomer who will inevitably give way more interesting performances in the future, and I had to listen to her boring ass anti-climactic speech while being so bummed. She’s sweet and I don’t want to hate on her for being chosen but I really cannot understand why or how. A nomination makes sense—welcome to the club. But winning?? For THAT? Like, no one even knows who this actress is. They went bonkers for Anora and it’s insane.
Zola is a way better movie and no one made a peep for that.
I hate that I’m really upset but I am. They’ve got Demi so fucked up. This is way worse than Glenn Close losing to Olivia Colman imo. Olivia deserved it, for starters. And she’d paid her dues already. And Glenn was the sole nominee in a stuffy drama. Demi was in one of the boldest films of the year that was nominated for Best Picture and Director and Screenplay and won Makeup.
I hate that now all the people who said the movie was too weird or they wouldn’t give her a win for horror can say they were right. The Academy sucks.
I would've loved for Demi to win but I have no problem with Mikey winning. I am fucking ELATED for Anora. Honestly, Sean Baker. His cast and crew. They earned this.
I felt bad for Demi but if I’m being honest, I thought she gave the worst performance of the best actress nominees. The makeup/hair and costuming did a lot of the work for her. But I’m hoping this does revive her career and she gets some good roles going forward. I think it would have been weird five or ten years from now to look back on this ceremony if Mikey didn’t win. It was just an instantly iconic performance that was the centerpiece of the year’s awards darling. And every director will be lining up to work with her after it. One of those “star is born” performances, which is interesting because Mikey herself seems quite reserved and not in love with the spotlight.
As usual, despite the race being super fun and exciting, the actual Oscars were underwhelming.
Is Anora a bad winner? No. Is it a great winner? No.
It's certainly not a 5 Oscars worthy kind of winner.
Feel really sad for Demi.
Happy Brutalist got 3 good ones at least.
8 out of the 10 best picture nominees went home with at least one award. Only A Complete Unknown (yay!) and Nickel Boys (Boo!) went home empty-handed.
I would have voted for any of the other three nominees over both Demi and Mikey, but I bought into Demi's narrative and was looking forward to her acceptance speech. At least this way no one will be hating on Karla, Fernanda or Cynthia for stealing Demi's Oscar.
I really liked Anora but I think they made a mistake.
Today is the day when people will (finally) watch it and say: This won best picture?!!
Well that wasn't worth staying up till 4 am here in the UK.
The host who i'm unfamiliar with was fine,sporadically amusing but not movie centric enough if that makes sense,he was no Billy or Whoopi both still the benchmark.
A severe lack of stars,one of two older ones Goldie,Daryl and Sam Jackson.
The b/f inbetween periodically nodding off said Culkin was annoying and self indulgent,he sort of did play a version of his persona,any of the other 4 would have been better
If you were chanel surfing and saw Amy Poeler you'd be forgiven for thinking it was a Globes repeat,funny as she can be.
June Squibb provided the biggest laugh of the evening,let her co host.
Great gowns beautiful gowns,no real faux pas.
The Bond karaoke musical number was pointless and weak vocalists trying to out Bassey Dame Shirley was not the way to go,why not fly Adele over to do a turn.
Nice to see Whoopi,Queen and Oprah but what was that the way to honour Quincy Jones
In Memoriam was better this year because the legend Freeman gave a touching speech about another legend who really deserved it but again so do greats like Rowlands and Dame Maggie.
Demi Demi Demi will she ever return,I watched Anora again before the show and warmed to Mikey more but that constant screaming scene and the endless swearing still grated on me.
Mikey's win was equivalent to 98's Paltrow win,Best Picture backed,I turned the TV off as soon as Demi lost cos I knew what was winning Best Pic.
Demi looked disappointed but I always thought she'd struggle to win and too a younger actress is a stinger,what The Substance was all about right there in that Mikey win.
Firefighters bit les tacky than I imagined.
Anora won 5 when it deserved about 2.
Poor Fiennes is he ever going to get his due.
Baftas not SAG showed us the way in acting but not in the other Top 2 categories.
Why no clips for the supporting winners,that gushing over each nominee is cringey.
Timothee is I feel a threat next year with Gwynnie back as his Mum in Marty Supreme.
Wonderful to see Meg Ryan,someone give her a Demi style comeback
The costume design presentation was flawless,keep this as the way to do it from now on.
Pleased we weren't given too many political speeches.
@PhilipH
I feel your pain too but in regards to Demi,
The Academy can be a bit snobby and Demi as great as she was in the 90's and made money in box office terms overseas and at home not a feat any of todays crop of actresses could do on their name alone
She was never seen as a serious actress hence the popcorn quote,I do think if her film hadn't been a horror gorefest she could have won but they did just love Anora more,I cant see why they gave it the top prizes,it's an ok hooker with a gold heart fantasy with bad language and sex scenes.
It's really dirty Pretty Woman which id watch in a heartbeat over this overpraised movie.
I have to say Mikey seems like a sweetheart and must have shook lots of hands and been so far removed from the Anora character that voters were swayed.
We will see now if she is a flash in the pan and it'll be Mikey who or if she's a Jennifer Lawrence or Emma Stone able to choose great projects and be a repeat nominee.
Where does this loss leave Demi,well rumour has it she's going to be the villain in a new Disney film but if she does get a great role again tough I know she would win easily.
In case I forget or I don't even care in two days:
Kieran and the 'lets make another kid' bit.
Adrien literally throwing his gum to the wife.
YIKES
I'm devastated for Demi as well.
I'm a little baffled by those who claim that Mikey Madison gave an Oscar-worthy performance. There wasn't much to it at all, and it's easy to imagine an actress who could've made more out of that role (10 years ago, Jennifer Lawrence or Emma Stone would have killed it - and even when I was watching it, I kept wondering what a Keke Palmer or Sydney Sweeney would do with it).
But then again, perhaps as an '80s kid who grew up with the likes of Meryl and Glenn, I just can't take anyone named Mikey seriously.
Is Demi's loss really a shock though?
I posted in one of the article here that the signs are there though it is a tight race. Madison's win at BAFTA is too big to ignore when Anora was basically blanked there. The fact that BAFTA resisted Demi when her movie is the most European flavored and Madison is basically unknown are the red flags for me. Combined with the PGA/DGA/WGA win, Anora is basically the frontrunner; how strong or weak of a frontrunner is debatable.
I really think the perceived of a front runner for Demi is a misguided one. Globe run with it; CC followed and media hyped it. Still, they are not industry award so the only industry award she won is SAG which almost always goes with narrative. Ever since Glenn Close loss, I realize that unless the actor is in strong or stronger movie in the 2nd phase (winner voting period), narrative hardly works. Yes, the Substance is BP nominee but so is Anora and a much stronger one at that. Also, at the end of the day, the Substance is still a body horror movie and Demi basically was only in half of the movie; I don't know if that is a factor but it probably doesn't help.
Also, why do people keep saying Anora is story of hooker with a heart of gold? Did we see the same movie? She doesn't have a heart of gold; she basically is trapped in the capitalism and sees a way out and will do it no matter what. The movie is so much more than love story; it's not Pretty Woman fantasy.
I was rooting for Madison; that being said, I feel for Demi. Although fairly limited, she is not a bad actress and all those Razzies win/noms are not all deserved. Hopefully she will use this nomination as springboard to reenergize her career. A year or two ago, nobody even thought of her but this proves that people still love her.
The most surprising win for me are No Other Land and Flow. I will never in a million year believe that AMPAS has the gut to vote No Other Land but the fact it won is just a pleasant surprise.
Flow reminded me of Ex Machina win, a smaller movie that could. I am so happy with this win.
We've gotten carried away with the “nobody ever took me seriously” narratives.
No, nobody took you seriously when you were pumping out Star Trek, Guardians and (less so) Avatar movies like the rent was past due. Nobody took you seriously when Ghost (1990) was the best performance on your resume for 35 years. Nobody thought of you as a serious actress when Baywatch, Home Improvement and Barbed Wire were your claims to fame.
I’m not saying these women didn’t give good-to-great performances in 2024: But let the public and the industry catch up, the “pigeonholing” of “popcorn actresses” is a two-way street. I love being surprised and I’ll root for good work when it’s deserving—but come on. Demi Moore has $200 million to show for the career choices she's made; other women have Oscars to show for *their* choices.
The Anora backlash has been swift! It’s so crazy to see people comparing this film to Crash and Green Book.
Listen, I would’ve been elated for Demi to win, but Mikey Madison is fantastic in her film and absolutely earned that win. She gave my favorite performance of those nominated. I think people are being really reductive by blaming Demi’s loss solely on ageism. It’s not that I don’t think it exists and might’ve even been a factor in her getting less votes, but her movie is also very atypical in terms of what the Oscars tend to embrace and the team behind The Substance should be so proud of making it as far as they did. And that Makeup win is so well-deserved!
As soon as I saw Quentin Tarantino present Best Director, all I could think of was...
"PLEASE WRITE SOMETHING FOR DEMI MOORE" lol, give her a JACKIE BROWN!
Instead she'll probably be stuck in some campy Ryan Murphy FX series in a few months.
*sigh*
In the end, it was more about the strength of Anora than Mikey's performance per se, but I can see the arguments that she almost single-handedly carries the film. Sean Baker said that she had some very important input, especially the confrontation scene in the house, which is really the scene that broke the movie wide open. She showed a lot of range as well (as did Demi).
Flow winning was everything, wish it had been nominated for BP.
The Anora wins are going to be unpopular, at least online, because they reinforce the fact that the Academy is most comfortable with narratives presented through a straight male gaze.
They come on top of the Academy blanking Challengers this year, the thirteen nominations for Emilia Perez this year, the dismal performance of May December and Barbie last year, the overperformance of Poor Things last year, and even the poor performance of The Power of the Dog a few years ago.
The only Oscar winners that are permitted to address gender and sexuality are those that reflect a straight man's view of the world. For those of us who don't share that worldview, it's disappointing. Shrug.
@Whunk The house confrontation scene is where the film lost me with Mikey after that screaming fit I just found she hit that note over and over without much variation.
I agree that the strength of Anora helped her win but I think her win won't age well if she fails to live up to it,lots of pressure there,people turned on Jennifer Lawrence and GwynethPaltrow very quickly after their wins only Emma Stone has escaped backlash.
The thing about winning so young great expectations are set up on you and the internet can turn very quickly not that I peruse it ever apart from here and a few other film sites.
Moore's loss will surely help her next time if ever she is nominated,Curtis did come close this year after her win.
Timothee's loss surely gave him a leg up for next year.
@Mr Ripley79, I can see how people say that there is no arc but as it's building toward the end, at least for me, I can see how Mikey navigates these changes through her performance. At the beginning, she sees it as a chance to not only get out of the idolized American life but in the end, she realizes the social strata is not as easy to escape as the person who truly understands her fight is the person who is in the same social strata. That's why the ending hits so hard and I feel Madison really shows the evolution to that point so beautifully. For me, she is far from one note; just in the negotiating scene, there are expressions on her face that shows her to quickly think in order to keep clinging to the dream.
Obviously, the future can't be predicted and we have to see how her choices will look like. However, I disagree that her win won't age well. Unlike the wins that you mentioned (JLaw and Gwyneth), Anora was not a traditional Oscar vehicles like the two that you mentioned. It's independent movie that's not aiming for Oscar ; it just happened to strike chord with Oscar voters. Also, unlike JLaw and Gwyneth, Mikey was never touted and pushed as the next big star so people might tamper their expectations a bit. It's funny to me how the actresses that were touted as future Oscar winner such as Anya Taylor Joy, Zendaya, Elle Fanning etc are not Oscar nominees yet; just proves Oscar is a lot about timing and luck.
Everyone -- loving the discussion. The review of the ceremony is now posted. Hope you enjoy and can continue the conversation there.
I'd sooner compare it to CODA...
I wish every speech had been a) more political b) a minute or less in duration.
I would've actually Wanted a six minute acceptance speech from Demi Moore instead of what I had to suffer with via Adrien Brody.
Remember when Schitt's Creek won all those Emmys and Daniel Levy (while live on TV) said the internet was about to turn on him due to winning? That is all I could think of when Sean Baker kept winning. Luckily he gave a charismatic speech(s) about independent cinema and preserving physical movie theaters.
When Anora wins Editing, u kno she's gonna sweep!! ❤️ This is Academy's way o saying 🖕 to the Golden Globes, SAG n esp all the pundits blindsided by these 2 groups who switched to Conclave, Demi and/or Timmy the moment they won SAG!! 😂