Oscars 2025: 'Anora' wins Best Picture, Adrien Brody and Mikey Madison win top acting honours

The 97th Academy Awards ceremony was held on Monday at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Comedian and podcaster Conan O' Brien, who hosted the ceremony (his first), surprised Indian viewers when he said, "Namaskar, nashte ke saath Oscar kar rahe hai aap log." ("You guys are having Oscars with your breakfast.")  

Anora won Best Picture, while Adrien Brody and Mikey Madison won Best Actor and Best Actress, for The Brutalist and Anora, respectively.

For Brody, this is his second Oscar after The Pianist, in 2002. Brody recently bagged the Best Actor trophies at the Golden Globes and BAFTA. 

Madison's win is a first. This year's Academy Awards also saw some first-time winners in the acting categories, chiefly Kieran Culkin and Zoe Saldana for Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress, for A Real Pain and Emilia Perez, respectively.

In the technical departments, filmmaker Sean Baker won Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing for Anora. 

In an emotional speech, Saldana, who became a household name with the two Avatar films, said the win is a big moment for a "proud child of immigrant parents" and the "first American of Dominican descent." 

Denis Villeneuve's 'Dune: Part Two' fetched two technical awards, namely, Best Sound and Best Visual Effects.

Conclave won Best Adapted Screenplay, while cinematographer Lol Crawley won for his work in The Brutalist.

The Best Animted Feature award went to Flow and Best International Feature was given to Brazil's I'm Still Here. 

Among the other notable wins was of costume designer Paul Tazewell (for Wicked), who became the first Black man to win the Oscar for costume design. 

The event also paid tribute to the late actor Gene Hackman, with his Unforgiven co-star Morgan Freeman honouring him through a speech.