97th Academy Awards (2025): When the Oscars Chose Intimacy Over Spectacle
The 97th Academy Awards, held on March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, arrived carrying a familiar tension: would the Academy reward scale, familiarity, and box-office dominance — or would it lean into vulnerability, specificity, and stories that linger rather than explode? By the end of the night, the answer was clear. This was an Oscars ceremony that repeatedly chose intimacy over spectacle, emotional truth over noise, and performances that felt lived-in rather than engineered for awards season.
Below is the complete breakdown of nominees and winners, and what those choices revealed about where the Academy’s values currently stand.
BEST PICTURE
Nominees:
- A Complete Unknown
- Anora — WINNER
- The Brutalist
- Conclave
- Dune: Part Two
- Emilia Pérez
- Nickel Boys
- Sing Sing
- The Substance
- Wicked
Anora’s Best Picture win didn’t feel like a last-minute upset — it felt like a culmination. A film rooted in emotional specificity and moral complexity, its victory signaled the Academy’s willingness to honor quieter storytelling that trusts its audience rather than overwhelms them.
DIRECTING
Nominees:
- Sean Baker — Anora
- Brady Corbet — The Brutalist
- Edward Berger — Conclave
- Denis Villeneuve — Dune: Part Two
- Coralie Fargeat — The Substance — WINNER
Coralie Fargeat’s win for The Substance was one of the night’s boldest choices — and one of its most exciting. A genre-defying film that balanced body horror with biting cultural critique, her direction was fearless and unapologetically specific.
ACTING — LEADING ROLES
Best Actor
Nominees:
- Adrien Brody — The Brutalist — WINNER
- Timothée Chalamet — A Complete Unknown
- Colman Domingo — Sing Sing
- Ralph Fiennes — Conclave
- Daniel Craig — Queer
Brody’s performance was monumental without being performative. His win felt like the Academy acknowledging a career built on risk — and honoring a portrayal that allowed silence, discomfort, and restraint to do much of the work.
Best Actress
Nominees:
- Cynthia Erivo — Wicked
- Karla Sofía Gascón — Emilia Pérez
- Angelina Jolie — Maria
- Mikey Madison — Anora — WINNER
- Demi Moore — The Substance
Mikey Madison’s win was the heart of the night. Her performance in Anora is raw, exposed, and emotionally intelligent — never begging for sympathy, never flattening complexity. It was the kind of acting that trusts the audience to keep up.
SUPPORTING ROLES
Best Supporting Actor
Nominees:
- Yura Borisov — Anora
- Kieran Culkin — A Real Pain — WINNER
- Robert Downey Jr. — The Apprentice
- Guy Pearce — The Brutalist
- Denzel Washington — Gladiator II
Culkin’s win felt inevitable — a performance balancing humor and heartbreak with chaotic precision. It was sharp, self-aware, and deeply human.
Best Supporting Actress
Nominees:
- Danielle Deadwyler — The Piano Lesson
- Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor — Nickel Boys
- Ariana Grande — Wicked
- Margaret Qualley — The Substance
- Zoe Saldaña — Emilia Pérez — WINNER
Saldaña’s victory continued her awards-season sweep, honoring a performance that elevated every scene it touched without ever overpowering the story.
SCREENPLAY
Best Original Screenplay
Nominees:
- Anora — Sean Baker
- The Brutalist — Brady Corbet & Mona Fastvold
- A Real Pain — Jesse Eisenberg
- September 5 — Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum & Alex David
- The Substance — Coralie Fargeat — WINNER
Fargeat’s writing was as daring as her direction — sharp, provocative, and unafraid to unsettle.
Best Adapted Screenplay
Nominees:
- Conclave — Peter Straughan — WINNER
- Dune: Part Two — Denis Villeneuve & Jon Spaihts
- Nickel Boys — RaMell Ross & Joslyn Barnes
- Sing Sing — Clint Bentley & Greg Kwedar
- Wicked — Winnie Holzman & Dana Fox
Conclave’s win here rewarded political storytelling that trusted nuance over melodrama.
CRAFT & TECHNICAL CATEGORIES
Best Cinematography
- The Brutalist — Lol Crawley
- Conclave — Stéphane Fontaine
- Dune: Part Two — Greig Fraser — WINNER
- Nickel Boys — Jomo Fray
- Nosferatu — Jarin Blaschke
Best Editing
- Anora
- Challengers — Marco Costa — WINNER
- Conclave
- Dune: Part Two
- The Brutalist
Best Production Design
- The Brutalist
- Conclave
- Gladiator II
- Wicked — WINNER
- Dune: Part Two
Best Costume Design
- Conclave
- Gladiator II
- Maria
- Wicked — WINNER
- Dune: Part Two
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
- Dune: Part Two
- Nosferatu
- The Substance — WINNER
- Wicked
- A Different Man
Best Visual Effects
- Dune: Part Two — WINNER
- The Creator
- Godzilla x Kong
- Wicked
- Better Man
MUSIC
Best Original Score
- Daniel Blumberg — The Brutalist
- Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross — Challengers — WINNER
- Hans Zimmer — Dune: Part Two
- Volker Bertelmann — Conclave
- Kris Bowers — The Wild Robot
Best Original Song
- “Beautiful That Way” — The Last Showgirl
- “Compress / Repress” — Challengers
- “El Mal” — Emilia Pérez — WINNER
- “Mi Camino” — Emilia Pérez
- “Kiss the Sky” — The Wild Robot
ANIMATION & INTERNATIONAL
Best Animated Feature
- Flow
- Inside Out 2
- Memoir of a Snail
- Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
- The Wild Robot — WINNER
Best International Feature Film
- All We Imagine as Light
- Emilia Pérez — WINNER
- I’m Still Here
- The Seed of the Sacred Fig
- Vermiglio
Final thoughts on the 97th Academy Awards
The 97th Academy Awards didn’t chase viral moments or bombastic statements. Instead, it rewarded precision, emotional bravery, and storytelling that trusted silence as much as spectacle. With Anora at its center and The Substance pushing boundaries on the margins, this was an Oscars ceremony that felt — refreshingly — human.
It wasn’t about the loudest film in the room. It was about the one you couldn’t stop thinking about afterward.
Learn more about the 97th Academy Awards from their site! Which win shocked you the most? Let us know on social media!
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