After what has felt like decades, awards season wrapped up on Sunday, March 15 with the 98th annual Academy Awards hosted — for the second year in a row — by Conan O’Brien.
Between catgate and ballet or operagate, I hope the Academy never schedules the Oscars for mid-March ever again because movie fans began to go a little insane on the internet.
With 2025 being such a heavy year for movies, the competition was tight, and no one could fully predict how the night was going to go. And unlike the Grammys, the Oscars aired all 24 awards they gave out, including their newest category Achievement in Casting.
As per usual, O’Brien’s opening monologue poked fun at many pop culture moments surrounding the films nominated, while also speaking on current happenings in the country.
Starting the show was the award for Best Supporting Actress, which went to Amy Madigan for her performance in “Weapons.” This was a rarity because the Academy notoriously doesn’t award horror.
Throughout the show, each film nominated for Best Picture was showcased in a video featuring clips from the movies, as well as voiceovers from the directors talking about the film. I thought this was a nice touch because it’s the biggest category. This allows the movies to get more recognition instead of just running through them before announcing the award. It’s also nice to hear people talking about their craft.
Best Animated Feature Film went to “K-Pop Demon Hunters” which surprised no one. This also kicked off a recurrence of cutting off the winners while they’re still accepting their awards. This ended up happening three times during the show, and twice to “K-Pop Demon Hunters.” The internet was rightfully peeved by this because winners’ speeches were being cut.
It also looks really bad on the Academy’s end when the people getting cut off don’t speak English as their first language. And if it’s for timing purposes (which it definitely is), cut some of the overly long bits instead. I think viewerswould rather hear what winners have to say in this possibly once-in-a-lifetime moment than have to suffer through Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans fumble through whatever they were doing on stage with a Shein thong.
As for technical awards, “Frankenstein” collected three in Costume, Hair and Makeup, and Production Design, while “Avatar: Fire and Ash” took home Best Visual Effects and “F1” took home Best Sound.
There weren’t as many political statements made as I was expecting, but the winning director for Best Documentary Feature Film David Borenstein (“Mr. Nobody Against Putin”), said in his acceptance speech that his film was about how you lose your country through small acts of complicity.
Later when “Sentimental Value” won Best International Feature Film, director and writer Joachim Trier, spoke about the writer James Baldwin who he said makes us remember that adults are responsible for children, and that we should elect politicians who take that seriously.
It’s interesting that both of these films focus on other countries, yet their directors were the only ones who had things to say about the political climate of the United States.
The Oscars brought back live performances this year after taking them away from “Emilia Perez” last year. The Juke Joint was recreated as Miles Canton and Rapheal Saadiq performed “I Lied To You” from “Sinners,” while theiconic scene from the movie played on stage with Misty Copeland, Shaboozey and many other performers bringing it to life.
Huntrix. of course, performed “Golden” from “K-Pop Demon Hunters” which featured the audience of A-list celebrities holding light sticks.
“Sinners” made history being nominated for 16 awards, but the movie only took home four awards. Ryan Coogler won Best Original Screenplay, and Ludwig Goransson won Best Original Score. Autumn Durald Arkapaw made history becoming the first woman — and first woman of color at that — to ever win Best Cinematography. And of course, the Michael B. Jordan vs. Timothée Chalamet battle for Best Actor finally has a winner: Michael B. Jordan. I think it would have been hilarious to give Ethan Hawke the award for “Blue Moon,” but that’s just me.
And while no film swept the night, “One Battle After Another” did take home the most wins with six. Paul Thomas Anderson won for both Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, and Sean Penn won for Best Supporting Actor, but he wasn’t there to accept it. They also won Best Casting and Best Editing, and of course the coveted Best Picture.
Overall, I’d say it was a pretty good show, I think O’Brien is a good host and if the Academy just tightens things up a bit with the presenters, (looking at you, Bill and Lewis Pullman, because why did it feel like you’ve never had a conversation before?) it could be perfect. Jessie Buckley won for Best Actress which was obvious but still felt so good to hear, and “Marty Supreme” got nothing, so all is right in the world.