2025 Academy Award Winners

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We made it! Conan was a safe host. He had a couple good jokes, but stayed very neutral with politics. There were some puzzling musical numbers, like a Bond tribute full of people who didn't actually write any Bond songs. There were some surprise wins, some for the good, others not so much. Here are my thoughts on all the winners.

Best Picture
Anora
The Brutalist
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
Nickel Boys
I’m Still Here
The Substance
Wicked
I will admit defeat here. A lot of people were predicting Anora, I just couldn't see it over Conclave, but it won big tonight, especially Sean Baker. 

Best Director
Jacques Audiard – Emilia Pérez
Brady Corbet – The Brutalist
Sean Baker – Anora
Coralie Fargeat – The Substance
James Mangold – A Complete Unknown
Baker had quite the night. I liked that he thanked the sex worker industry, which has played a huge part in several of his films. 

Best Actress
Cynthia Erivo – Wicked
Karla Sofía Gascón – Emilia Pérez
Mikey Madison – Anora
Demi Moore – The Substance
Fernanda Torres – I’m Still Here
Could The Substance's point be proven any further than having Mikey, the youngest nominee with this award? She was great in Anora, but I'm devastated for Demi Moore, who easily gave the toughest performance here. 

Best Actor
Adrien Brody – The Brutalist
Timothée Chalamet – A Complete Unknown
Colman Domingo – Sing Sing
Ralph Fiennes – Conclave
Sebastian Stan – The Apprentice
I now understand that joke Kieran Culkin made at the SAGs about Adrien Brody going over the 45 second allotment. This dude rambled for SO long unchecked even though the orchestra cut off all the Dune winners in the technical categories. Boring win, which is on par for Best Actor lately. 

Best Supporting Actress
Monica Barbaro - A Complete Unknown
Ariana Grande - Wicked
Felicity Jones - The Brutalist
Isabella Rossellini - Conclave
Zoe Saldaña - Emilia Pérez
The most I will say is that I love when people get up there and cry. That's probably what I would do.

Best Supporting Actor
Yura Borisov - Anora
Kieran Culkin - A Real Pain
Edward Norton - A Complete Unknown
Guy Pearce - The Brutalist
Jeremy Strong - The Apprentice
Kieran brought up how his wife said they could have another child if he wins. Girlfriend should keep moving that goalpost. You want more kids? EGOT, bitch!

Best Original Screenplay
Anora
The Brutalist
A Real Pain
September 5
The Substance
This let me know Anora was winning Best Picture later. 

Best Adapted Screenplay
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Emilia Pérez
Nickel Boys
Sing Sing
At least Conclave got something.

Best Cinematography
The Brutalist
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
Maria
Nosferatu
Brady Corbet flat out kissed this guy on the mouth when he won, and you know what...good for him. 

Best Original Score
The Brutalist
Conclave
Emilia Pérez
Wicked
The Wild Robot
 

Best Original Song
“El Mal” - Emilia Pérez
“The Journey” - The Six Triple Eight
“Like a Bird” - Sing Sing
“Mi Camino” - Emilia Pérez
“Never Too Late” - Elton John: Never Too Late
The cringiest moment of the night went to the female songwriter who started singing at the end of her speech while her husband tried to get her off stage. 

Best Editing
Anora
The Brutalist
Conclave
September 5
Wicked
I really think Conclave should've won here, but I digress. 

Best Production Design
The Brutalist
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Nosferatu
Wicked


Best Costume Design
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Gladiator II
Nosferatu
Wicked
Happy for Paul Tazewell. 

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
A Different Man
Emilia Pérez
Nosferatu
The Substance
Wicked
I really hope The Substance winning here opens up more doors for Horror films to be nominated, because we should at LEAST be getting one horror nom every year. 

Best Sound
A Complete Unknown
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
Wicked
The Wild Robot


Best Visual Effects
Dune Part II
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Alien: Romulus
A Better Man
Wicked


Best International Feature
Flow - Latvia
I'm Still Here - Brazil
Emilia Perez - France
The Seed of the Sacred Fig - Germany
The Girl With The Needle - Denmark
When I tell you I screamed at this upset.... I'm so happy Brazil took this. 

Best Animated Feature
Flow
Inside Out 2
The Wild Robot
Memoir of a Snail
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
Flow did it! Many were doubting it, including me. It felt like it lost a lot of steam, but it prevailed. It's the first Oscar win for Latvia. 

Best Documentary Feature
Black Box Diaries
No Other Land
Porcelain War
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Sugarcane
I am SHOCKED this actually won because it has been losing EVERYTHING leading up to this. The Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers gave the best speech of the night. Great win, and I hope it gets a US distribution soon so more people can see it. 

Best Animated Short
Beautiful Men
In the Shadow of the Cypress
Magic Candies
Wander to Wonder
Yuck!
I'm just glad Yuck! didn't win like I thought it was. This was a very good short, Magic Candies was my favorite but this is a worthy winner. 

Best Live-Action Short
A Lien
Anuja
I’m Not a Robot
The Last Ranger
The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent
This might be my favorite Oscar win of the night. I thought this Dutch film had zero chance but I'm so happy that it prevailed. It's seriously so hilarious, especially if you spend a lot of time online. 

Best Documentary Short
Death by Numbers
I Am Ready, Warden
Incident
Instruments of a Beating Heart
The Only Girl in the Orchestra
I know this was heavily favored, but I'm still kind of surprised at this win considering how low stakes it feels compared to the other nominees. 

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