The award season is coming to a close, and it certainly ended with a bang! The 97th Academy Awards, otherwise known as the Oscars, occurred on March 2nd in Hollywood, California. This award show celebrates all of the amazing works in film over the past year.
Below, I have listed some of the most popular award categories, the nominees, and who won:
1. Actor in a Leading Role
- Winner: Adrien Brody, The Brutalist
- Nominees:
- Timothée Chalamet, A Complete Unknown
- Colman Domingo, Sing Sing
- Ralph Fiennes, Conclave
- Sebastian Stan, The Apprentice
2. Actor in a Supporting Role
- Winner: Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain
- Nominees:
- Yura Borisov, Anora
- Edward Norton, A Complete Unknown
- Guy Pearce, The Brutalist
- Jeremy Strong, The Apprentice
3. Actress in a Leading Role
- Winner: Mikey Madison, Anora
- Nominees:
- Cynthia Erivo, Wicked
- Karla Sofía Gascón, Emilia Pérez
- Demi Moore, The Substance
- Fernanda Torres, I’m Still Here
4. Actress in a Supporting Role
- Winner: Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Pérez
- Nominees:
- Monica Barbaro, A Complete Unknown
- Ariana Grande, Wicked
- Felicity Jones, The Brutalist
- Isabella Rossellini, Conclave
5. Best Picture
- Winner: Anora, Alex Coco, Samantha Quan and Sean Baker, Producers
- Nominees:
- The Brutalist, Nick Gordon, Brian Young, Andrew Morrison, D.J. Gugenheim and Brady Corbet, Producers
- A Complete Unknown, Fred Berger, James Mangold and Alex Heineman, Producers
- Conclave, Tessa Ross, Juliette Howell and Michael A. Jackman, Producers
- Dune: Part Two, Mary Parent, Cale Boyter, Tanya Lapointe and Denis Villeneuve, Producers
- Emilia Pérez, Pascal Caucheteux and Jacques Audiard, Producers
- I’m Still Here, Maria Carlota Bruno and Rodrigo Teixeira, Producers
- Nickel Boys, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Joslyn Barnes, Producers
- The Substance, Coralie Fargeat and Tim Bevan & Eric Fellner, Producers
- Wicked, Marc Platt, Producer
To open the show, the stars of Wicked, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, sang a medley of songs from The Wizard of Oz, The Wiz, and Wicked. It was incredibly beautiful and moving! It was a terrific way to start the night of awards. As shown above, Wicked didn’t win any of the big awards. This was very upsetting to me and many other Wicked fans. I feel that this film was one of the best not only this year but of all time. It was such a well-made movie, so seeing them lose is a bit disheartening, especially after opening the show in such a fabulous way.
In addition, another big upset was Timothee Chalamet losing to Aidan Brody for the Best Actor in a Leading Role. Timothee recently won the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award for Best Actor, so many fans were hoping he would win the Oscar as well. I definitely was hoping that Timothee would be recognized for his work as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. However, Aidan Brody is also a terrific actor. I believe that Timothee will get his flowers in time from the Academy.
Anora swept the Academy Awards, and rightfully so! Anora received 5 Oscars this season, which is nearly unheard of! Mikey Madison also won her first Oscar for this role. I have yet to see Anora, but I plan on seeing this tremendous film soon. As well, the film Emilia Perez did not receive as much love from the Academy Awards as they have from other award shows. Although this film has been winning, fans have not been happy about it. The film has been very successful in winning awards, but movie fans have not been loving it as much. Especially in comparison to other amazing films this year with music, Emilia Perez seemingly falls short.
What are your thoughts on the Academy Awards this year?