Film awards: Anora has its greatest day with Best Picture win at the 2025 Oscars
Anora was the major winner at the 97th Academy Awards, winning the Oscar for Best Picture.
Sean Baker’s indie darling won four more Oscars on Hollywood’s biggest night to outclass the competition.
Film News Blitz’s David Bason helps usher in the era of Anora!
Five Oscars for Best Picture winner Anora
Anora won five awards on Oscars night, and its journey to Best Picture began with Writer-Director Sean Baker's winning the award for Original Screenplay.
Baker would be up and down the Oscars stage several times on Sunday night, taking prizes for Editing and Best Director.
Anora surged into the race for Best Picture at the Oscars throughout the awards season, building a strong foundation after winning top prizes at the Producers, Directors, and Writers Guild Award ceremonies.
A Critics Choice Award for best picture and the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival last year further cemented Anora’s credentials pre-Oscars.
However, one of the biggest obstacles that Anora faced was in the category for Best Actress, the penultimate award of the 2025 Oscars.
The showstopping Mikey Madison faced stiff competition from The Substance’s Demi Moore, who had racked up several awards including a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Still, Madison’s BAFTA win last month was the necessary fuel to propel her to Oscars glory and with her win on Sunday night, Best Picture felt like a forgone conclusion.
And so it was as Harry Met Sally stars Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal took to the stage to award Anora the biggest prize of the night.
A $6 million indie feature seldom wins Hollywood’s biggest prize, and Baker and his producing partners paid tribute to independent film and the cinemagoing experience.
“We made this movie independently. If you’re trying to make independent films please keep doing it, we need more. This is proof,” producer Alex Coco said.
“We made this with very little money, but with all of our hearts,” added producer Samantha Quan. “To all the dreamers and young filmmakers out there: tell the stories you want to tell. Tell the stories that move you. I promise you, you will never regret it.”
The 2025 Oscars spreads acclaim
Despite Anora being the clear winner of the 2025 Oscars, the Academy Awards spread acclaim fairly evenly throughout the ceremony.
Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist took home three awards, one for Cinematography, another for Original Score and lastly Best Actor, the second time that prize has gone to Adrien Brody.
Two blockbuster hits of 2024 picked up two prizes each, Wicked and Dune: Part Two.
The former was awarded for Costume and Production Design whereas the latter took home prizes in Sound and Visual Effects.
Netflix’s Emilia Perez landed the most nominations with 13, but was embroiled in controversy when Karla Sofía Gascón had some controversial tweets come to the surface after four years lurking in the murky waters of social media.
Eventually, Emilia Perez won two prizes, Best Song for El Mal and unsurprisingly, Supporting Actress for Zoe Saldana.
But in the end, the night belonged to Anora.
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Oscars 2025: the full list of winners
Best Supporting Actor
Yura Borisov, Anora
Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain
Edward Norton, A Complete Unknown
Guy Pearce, The Brutalist
Jeremy Strong, The Apprentice
Best Animated Feature
Flow
Inside Out 2
Memoir of a Snail
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
The Wild Robot
Best Animated Short
Beautiful Men
In the Shadow of the Cypress
Magic Candies
Wander to Wonder
Yuck!
Best Costume Design
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Gladiator II
Nosferatu
Wicked
Best Original Screenplay
Anora
The Brutalist
A Real Pain
September 5
The Substance
Best Adapted Screenplay
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Emilia Pérez
Nickel Boys
Sing Sing
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
A Different Man
Emilia Pérez
Nosferatu
The Substance
Wicked
Best Editing
Anora
The Brutalist
Conclave
Emilia Pérez
Wicked
Best Supporting Actress
Monica Barbaro, A Complete Unknown
Ariana Grande, Wicked
Felicity Jones, The Brutalist
Isabella Rossellini, Conclave
Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Pérez
Best Production Design
The Brutalist
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Nosferatu
Wicked
Best Original Song
El Mal, Emilia Pérez
The Journey, The Six Triple Eight
Like a Bird, Sing Sing
Mi Camino, Emilia Pérez
Never Too Late, Elton John: Never Too Late
Best Documentary Short
Death By Numbers
I Am Ready, Warden
Incident
Instruments of a Beating Heart
The Only Girl in the Orchestra
Best Documentary Feature
Black Box Diaries
No Other Land
Porcelain War
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Sugarcane
Best Sound
A Complete Unknown
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
Wicked
The Wild Robot
Best Visual Effects
Alien: Romulus
Better Man
Dune: Part Two
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Wicked
Best Live Action Short
A Lien
Anuja
I’m Not a Robot
The Last Ranger
The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent
Best Cinematography
The Brutalist
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
Maria
Nosferatu
Best International Feature
I’m Still Here (Brazil)
The Girl With the Needle
Emilia Pérez
The Seed of a Sacred Fig
Flow
Best Original Score
The Brutalist
Conclave
Emilia Pérez
Wicked
The Wild Robot
Best Actor
Adrien Brody, The Brutalist
Timothée Chalamet, A Complete Unknown
Colman Domingo, Sing Sing
Ralph Fiennes, Conclave
Sebastian Stan, The Apprentice
Best Director
Sean Baker, Anora
Brady Corbet, The Brutalist
James Mangold, A Complete Unknown
Jacques Audiard, Emilia Pérez
Coralie Fargeat, The Substance
Best Actress
Cynthia Erivo, Wicked
Karla Sofía Gascón, Emilia Pérez
Mikey Madison, Anora
Demi Moore, The Substance
Fernanda Torres, I’m Still Here
Best Picture
Anora
The Brutalist
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
I’m Still Here
Nickel Boys
The Substance
Wicked
