Overview
A tribute to Los Angeles in film. Dreaming about somewhere over the rainbow and defying gravity with Wicked stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo singing the house down. 2025 ceremony host — and four-time Oscar-viewer — Conan O'Brien making a The Substance-inspired entrance, then regaling the crowd and the watching world with a genuinely funny opening monologue. A Real Pain winner Kieran Culkin telling Jeremy Strong how phenomenal he was in The Apprentice when collecting the first award of the night. Parks and Recreation favourite Nick Offerman announcing the presenters. That's how the 97th Academy Awards began.
As they went on, this year's Oscars made dreams come true for the folks behind some of the best movies of the past 12 months. Flow, Wicked, Anora, Conclave, The Substance, Emilia Pérez, No Other Land, Dune: Part Two, The Brutalist, I'm Still Here: with A Real Pain, they're now all Academy Award-winners.
Accordingly, 2025 is the year that an independent, dialogue-free film about animals — a movie that marked the first-ever Latvian title nominated for an Oscar, and to make good on that nod — won Best Animated Feature, and Flow couldn't be a more-worthy victor. Wicked costume designer Paul Tazewell made history as well, his award for the stage-to-screen musical making him the first Black man to ever take out the category. Best Supporting Actress Zoe Saldaña is the first American of Dominican origin to collect an Oscar statuette, too. I'm Still Here's Best International Feature prize makes it the first Brazilian flick to win that field.
For Anora, Tangerine, The Florida Project and Red Rocket's Sean Baker, one of American cinema's great champions of otherwise untold tales, now has multiple Academy Awards — including for directing, writing and editing. Adrien Brody is now a two-time Best Actor winner, nabbing his second trophy 22 years after his first, again for grappling with the horrors of the Holocaust.
By the numbers, this was a night of sharing the love, however. Best Picture's Anora wasn't the only film to get a shoutout more than once, even if it was the big winner with five awards. Also victorious multiple times: The Brutalist, Wicked, Dune: Part Two and Emilia Pérez. And, from the Best Picture nominees, only A Complete Unknown and Nickel Boys went home empty-handed — although both deserved better.
Among the ceremony's fun, the 2025 Oscars also delivered an ode from Morgan Freeman to the late, great Gene Hackman to start the in-memorium segment, worked in a Bond song-and-dance spectacle, nodded to Kill Bill, honoured Quincy Jones and saw Mick Jagger receive a standing ovation for presenting the award for Best Original Song. When Quentin Tarantino announced Best Director, he was rewarded with thanks from Baker, noting that Anora wouldn't exist if QT hadn't first cast Mikey Madison in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The Oscars featured a pitch for a building dedicated to watching streaming movies on the big screen as well, and a Dune and Dune: Part Two sandworm playing various musical instruments. If you needed a reminder of who was hosting, O'Brien wasn't afraid to skew silly, clearly — and savage in some of his jokes, including about standing up to Russians.
Wondering what and who won what, and the films and talents that were also contending, at this year's Academy Awards? Check out the full list below — and if you're curious, you can also see what we predicted would and should win, plus our full list of where most of this year's nominees are screening or streaming in Australia right now.
Oscar Winners and Nominees 2025
Best Motion Picture
Anora — WINNER
The Brutalist
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
I'm Still Here
Nickel Boys
The Substance
Wicked
Best Director
Anora, Sean Baker — WINNER
The Brutalist, Brady Corbet
A Complete Unknown, James Mangold
Emilia Pérez, Jacques Audiard
The Substance, Coralie Fargeat
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Cynthia Erivo, Wicked
Karla Sofía Gascón, Emilia Pérez
Mikey Madison, Anora — WINNER
Demi Moore, The Substance
Fernanda Torres, I'm Still Here
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Adrien Brody, The Brutalist — WINNER
Timothée Chalamet, A Complete Unknown
Colman Domingo, Sing Sing
Ralph Fiennes, Conclave
Sebastian Stan, The Apprentice
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Monica Barbaro, A Complete Unknown
Ariana Grande, Wicked
Felicity Jones, The Brutalist
Isabella Rossellini, Conclave
Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Pérez — WINNER
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Yura Borisov, Anora
Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain — WINNER
Edward Norton, A Complete Unknown
Guy Pearce, The Brutalist
Jeremy Strong, The Apprentice
Best Original Screenplay
Anora, Sean Baker — WINNER
The Brutalist, Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold
A Real Pain, Jesse Eisenberg
September 5, Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum and Alex David
The Substance, Coralie Fargeat
Best Adapted Screenplay
A Complete Unknown, James Mangold and Jay Cocks
Conclave, Peter Straughan — WINNER
Emilia Pérez, Jacques Audiard in collaboration with Thomas Bidegain, Léa Mysius and Nicolas Livecchi
Nickel Boys, RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes
Sing Sing, Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Clarence Maclin and John 'Divine G' Whitfield
Best International Feature Film
I'm Still Here — WINNER
The Girl with the Needle
Emilia Pérez
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Flow
Best Animated Feature
Flow — WINNER
Inside Out 2
Memoir of a Snail
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
The Wild Robot
Best Documentary Feature
Black Box Diaries
No Other Land — WINNER
Porcelain War
Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat
Sugarcane
Best Original Score
The Brutalist, Daniel Blumberg — WINNER
Conclave, Volker Bertelmann
Emilia Pérez, Clément Ducol and Camille
Wicked, John Powell and Stephen Schwartz
The Wild Robot, Kris Bowers
Best Original Song
'El Mal', Emilia Pérez, Clément Ducol, Camille and Jacques Audiard — WINNER
'The Journey', The Six Triple Eight, Diane Warren
'Like A Bird', Sing Sing, Abraham Alexander and Adrian Quesada
'Mi Camino', Emilia Pérez, Camille and Clément Ducol
'Never Too Late', Elton John: Never Too Late, Elton John, Brandi Carlile, Andrew Watt and Bernie Taupin
Best Cinematography
The Brutalist, Lol Crawley — WINNER
Dune: Part Two, Greig Fraser
Emilia Pérez, Paul Guilhaume
Maria, Ed Lachman
Nosferatu, Jarin Blaschke
Best Film Editing
Anora, Sean Baker — WINNER
The Brutalist, David Jancso
Conclave, Nick Emerson
Emilia Pérez, Juliette Welfling
Wicked, Myron Kerstein
Best Production Design
The Brutalist, Judy Becker, Patricia Cuccia
Conclave, Suzie Davies, Cynthia Sleiter
Dune: Part Two, Patrice Vermette, Shane Vieau
Nosferatu, Craig Lathrop, Beatrice Brentnerová
Wicked, Nathan Crowley, Lee Sandales — WINNER
Best Visual Effects
Alien: Romulus, Eric Barba, Nelson Sepulveda-Fauser, Daniel Macarin and Shane Mahan
Better Man, Luke Millar, David Clayton, Keith Herft and Peter Stubbs
Dune: Part Two, Paul Lambert, Stephen James, Rhys Salcombe and Gerd Nefzer — WINNER
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Erik Winquist, Stephen Unterfranz, Paul Story and Rodney Burke
Wicked, Pablo Helman, Jonathan Fawkner, David Shirk and Paul Corbould
Best Costume Design
A Complete Unknown, Arianne Phillips
Conclave, Lisy Christl
Gladiator II, Janty Yates and Dave Crossman
Nosferatu, Linda Muir
Wicked, Paul Tazewell — WINNER
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
A Different Man, Mike Marino, David Presto and Crystal Jurado
Emilia Pérez, Julia Floch Carbonel, Emmanuel Janvier and Jean-Christophe Spadaccini
Nosferatu, David White, Traci Loader and Suzanne StokesMunton
The Substance, Pierre-Olivier Persin, Stéphanie Guillon and Marilyne Scarselli — WINNER
Wicked, Frances Hannon, Laura Blount and Sarah Nuth
Best 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
Emilia Pérez, Erwan Kerzanet, Aymeric Devoldère, Maxence Dussère, Cyril Holtz and Niels Barletta
Wicked, Simon Hayes, Nancy Nugent Title, Jack Dolman, Andy Nelson and John Marquis
The Wild Robot, Randy Thom, Brian Chumney, Gary A Rizzo and Leff Lefferts
Best Documentary Short Subject
Death by Numbers
I Am Ready, Warden
Incident
Instruments of a Beating Heart
The Only Girl in the Orchestra — WINNER
Best Animated Short Film
Beautiful Men
In the Shadow of the Cypress — WINNER
Magic Candies
Wander to Wonder
Yuck!
Best Live-Action Short Film
A Lien
Anuja
I'm Not a Robot — WINNER
The Last Ranger
The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent
The 2025 Oscars were announced on Monday, March 3, Australian and New Zealand time. For further details, head to the awards' website.