The 97th Oscars have officially come to a close with Anora taking home Hollywood’s top prize, alongside winning Best Director, Best Actress, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Editing. Neon’s Palme d’Or winning film seemed to become the front-runner going into the night as it collected the PGA, DGA, and WGA awards, signaling to a dominating performance come Oscar night. Baker became the first person to win four Oscars in one ceremony for a single film. Walt Disney was the other person to win four Oscars in one night, but he won for multiple categories.
Madison, who was in a competitive race between Demi Moore and Fernanda Torres, was able to pull out the film, proving that if the race is tight in the acting categories, it’s best to stick with the performance for the film that has the best chance to win Best Picture, much like recent acting winners Frances McDormand (Nomadland), Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once), and Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer). The Best Picture win for Anora also signals a noticeable change in the types of films the Academy is selecting for Best Picture, as four out of the last five winners have be female led stories, with three of those taking home the Best Actress prize.
The other big winner on the night was The Brutalist, taking home three Oscars including Best Actor, Best Cinematography, and Best Original Score. Adrien Brody beat out Timothée Chalamet in the Best Actor race, giving him his second Oscar of his career; his first being The Pianist back in 2002. In the supporting categories, the sweeps continued for Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain) and Zoe Saldana (Emilia Perez), as well as in Best Adapted Screenplay for Peter Straughan for his work on Conclave. Other notable wins was Flow in Best Animated Feature, No Other Land winning Best Documentary (with the speech of the night coming from the film’s co-directors Basel Adra,Yuval Abraham), and Paul Tazewell winning Best Costume Design for Wicked, becoming the first Black male winner within the category.
The Oscar ceremony was held live on ABC tonight from the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood and it started off in Wicked fashion, as actress Ariana Grande came out and sang a beautiful of “Over the Rainbow ” from The Wizard of Oz, in a ruby red slipper dress, while her co-star Cynthia Ervio sang “Home” from The Wiz before the two came together for an incredible duet on “Defying Gravity” from Wicked. Fan of the film or not, it was a perfect way to kick off the show.
The event was hosted by Conan O’Brien for the first time and also for the first time, it will also stream live on Hulu. Started the night with a pre-recorded bit about coming out of Demi Moore via The Substance, before announcer Nick Offerman introduced the legendary late night host as “4-time Oscar viewer Conan O’Brien.” O’Brien delivered an old school, Billy Crystal-esque monologue that showcased his signature brand of comedy that has made him a household name for over three decades. His best joke of the night centered around the controversy with Emilia Pérez actress Karla Sofía Gascón’s tweets, with O’Brien stating that “Anora uses the f-word 479 times. That’s 3 more than the record set by Karla Sofía Gascón’s publicist.” He also jokingly said that “Karla, if you’re going to tweet about the Oscars, remember, my name is Jimmy Kimmel.” He then went on to perform a musical number titled ‘I Won’t Waste Time,” featuring a sandworm from Dune 2 playing ”Chopsticks” and dancing Deadpool. This joke seemed to be aimed at the Academy’s recent obsession with the show’s runtime, and O’Brien winking at the people that hired him to run a tight ship. But besides a memorable opening, O’Brien mostly stayed out of the way, letting the show speak for itself.
The Oscars are always a hit or miss when it comes to the presentation. The Fab 5 presentation was used for the first time outside of the acting categories, for the Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design categories. This was mostly successful as stars from the nominated films came out and highlighted the nominees outstanding work that they were being honored for. Between this, clips being used during the acting and screenplay categories, as well as a more in-depth look at the film nominated for Best Picture throughout the night, it did feel like a celebration of the films; something that should continue to be expected moving forward. Besides the opening musical number, the show’s producers also stated that there would be two other “special” musical moments in the show that would replace the performances of the Best Original Song nominees. These “special” moments were far from it, as they were some of the worst moments of the night, with another misguild James Bond tribute feature performance by singer Lisa singing “Live and Let Die,” Doja Cat singing “Diamonds are Forever,” and RAYE sings “Skyfall,” and a tribute to late Quincy Jones with a rendition of “Ease on Down the Road” from The Wiz (too much Wiz for one night, if you ask me). While these tributes were nice to highlight some of the winners of the Governors Awards from earlier in the season, they just felt unnecessary.
Presenters on the night included Dave Bautista, Gal Gadot, Andrew Garfield, Samuel L. Jackson, Alba Rohrwacher, Zoe Saldaña, Rachel Zegler, Joe Alwyn, Halle Berry, Sterling K. Brown, Penélope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Ana de Armas, Lily-Rose Depp, Robert Downey Jr., Elle Fanning, Whoopi Goldberg, Selena Gomez, Goldie Hawn, Scarlett Johansson, John Lithgow, Cillian Murphy, Connie Nielsen, Amy Poehler, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, June Squibb, Ben Stiller, Emma Stone, Oprah Winfrey and Bowen Yang, as well as surprise presenters Mick Jagger, Daryl Hannah, and a When Harry Met Sally reunion when stars Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan presented the Best Picture prize.
It’s been the wildest Oscar season in some time; full of traditional shocking snubs and surprises during the nominations phase. But when the winners were announced, and the dust settled on the 97th Oscars, the season came to celebratory end with one of the most efficient Oscars in some time.
Here are the winners of the 97th Academy Awards, celebrating the films of 2024.
Best Picture
Anora (Alex Coco, Samantha Quan, and Sean Baker) – NEON (WINNER)
The Brutalist (Brady Corbet, D.J. Gugenheim, Brian Young, Andrew Morrison and Nick Gordon) – A24
A Complete Unknown (Fred Berger, James Mangold, and Alex Heineman) – Searchlight Pictures
Conclave (Tessa Ross, Juliette Howell, and Michael A. Jackman) – Focus Features
Dune: Part Two (Mary Parent, Cale Boyter, Tanya Lapointe, and Denis Villeneuve) – Warner Bros
Emilia Pérez (Pascal Caucheteux and Jacques Audiard) – Netflix
I’m Still Here (Maria Carlota Bruno and Rodrigo Teixeira) – Sony Pictures Classics
Nickel Boys (Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Joslyn Barnes) – Amazon MGM
The Substance (Coralie Fargeat and Tim Bevan & Eric Fellner) – MUBI
Wicked (Marc Platt) – Universal Pictures
Best Director
Sean Baker for Anora (WINNER)
Brady Corbet for The Brutalist
James Mangold for A Complete Unknown
Jacques Audiard for Emilia Pérez
Coralie Fargeat for The Substance
Actor in a Leading Role
Adrien Brody for The Brutalist (WINNER)
Timothée Chalamet for A Complete Unknown
Colman Domingo for Sing Sing
Ralph Fiennes for Conclave
Sebastian Stan for The Apprentice
Actress in a Leading Role
Cynthia Erivo for Wicked
Karla Sofía Gascón for Emilia Pérez
Mikey Madison for Anora (WINNER)
Demi Moore for The Substance
Fernanda Torres for I’m Still Here
Actor in a Supporting Role
Yura Borisov for Anora
Kieran Culkin for A Real Pain (WINNER)
Edward Norton for A Complete Unknown
Guy Pearce for The Brutalist
Jeremy Strong for The Apprentice
Actress in a Supporting Role
Monica Barbaro for A Complete Unknown
Ariana Grande-Butera for Wicked
Felicity Jones for The Brutalist
Isabella Rossellini for Conclave
Zoe Saldaña for Emilia Pérez (WINNER)
Adapted Screenplay
James Mangold and Jay Cocks for A Complete Unknown
Peter Straughan for Conclave (WINNER)
Jacques Audiard (in collaboration with Thomas Bidegain, Léa Mysius & Nicolas Livecchi) for Emilia Pérez
RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes for Nickel Boys
Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar (screenplay and story) and Clarence Maclin and John “Divine G” Whitfield (story) for Sing Sing
Original Screenplay
Sean Baker for Anora (WINNER)
Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold for The Brutalist
Jesse Eisenberg for A Real Pain
Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum, & Alex David for September 5
Coralie Fargeat for The Substance
Film Editing
Sean Baker for Anora (WINNER)
Dávid Jancsó for The Brutalist
Nick Emerson for Conclave
Juliette Welfling for Emilia Pérez
Myron Kerstein for Wicked
Cinematography
Lol Crawley for The Brutalist (WINNER)
Greig Fraser for Dune: Part Two
Paul Guilhaume for Emilia Pérez
Ed Lachman for Maria
Jarin Blaschke for Nosferatu
Production Design
The Brutalist (production design: Judy Becker; set decoration: Patricia Cuccia)
Conclave (production design: Suzie Davies; set decoration: Cynthia Sleiter)
Dune: Part Two (production design: Patrice Vermette; set decoration: Shane Vieau)
Nosferatu (production design: Craig Lathrop; set decoration: Beatrice Brentnerová)
Wicked (production design: Nathan Crowley; set decoration: Lee Sandales) (WINNER)
Costume Design
Arianne Phillips for A Complete Unknown
Lisy Christl for Conclave
Janty Yates and Dave Crossman for Gladiator II
Linda Muir for Nosferatu
Paul Tazewell for Wicked (WINNER)
Original Score
Daniel Blumberg for The Brutalist (WINNER)
Volker Bertelmann for Conclave
Clément Ducol and Camille for Emilia Pérez
John Powell and Stephen Schwartz for Wicked
Kris Bowers for The Wild Robot
Original Song
“El Mal” from Emilia Pérez (music by Clément Ducol and Camille; lyrics by Clément Ducol, Camille, and Jacques Audiard) (WINNER)
“The Journey” from The Six Triple Eight (music and lyrics by Diane Warren)
“Like a Bird” from Sing Sing (music and lyrics by Abraham Alexander and Adrian Quesada)
“Mi Camino” from Emilia Pérez (music and lyrics by Camille and Clément Ducol)
“Never Too Late” from Elton John: Never Too Late (music and lyrics by Elton John, Brandi Carlile, Andrew Watt, and Bernie Taupin)
Sound
A Complete Unknown (Tod A. Maitland, Donald Sylvester, Ted Caplan, Paul Massey, and David Giammarco)
Dune: Part Two (Gareth John, Richard King, Ron Bartlett, and Doug Hemphill) (WINNER)
Ryan McQuade is the AwardsWatch Executive Editor and a film-obsessed writer in San Antonio, Texas. Raised on musicals, westerns, and James Bond, his taste in cinema is extremely versatile. He’s extremely fond of independent releases and director’s passion projects. Engrossed with all things Oscars, he hosts the AwardsWatch Podcast. He also is co-host of the Director Watch podcast. When he’s not watching movies, he’s rooting on all his favorite sports teams, including his beloved Texas Longhorns. You can follow him on Twitter at @ryanmcquade77.
Ryan McQuade is the AwardsWatch Executive Editor and a film-obsessed writer in San Antonio, Texas. Raised on musicals, westerns, and James Bond, his taste in cinema is extremely versatile. He’s extremely fond of independent releases and director’s passion projects. Engrossed with all things Oscars, he hosts the AwardsWatch Podcast. He also is co-host of the Director Watch podcast. When he’s not watching movies, he’s rooting on all his favorite sports teams, including his beloved Texas Longhorns. You can follow him on Twitter at @ryanmcquade77.
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