The 97th Academy Awards ended this year’s awards season with a bang on March 2, 2025. The biggest story of the night came from Anora, which dominated the Oscars. The film won five of the six awards it was nominated for. Anora won for Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Editing and Best Screenplay. This also meant a huge night for director Sean Baker. As the writer, director and editor of the film, Baker took home four Oscars. This feat tied him with Walt Disney for the most Academy Awards won by a single person in a single night.

Due to Anora’s sweep of the awards, several heavily nominated films left with few awards. Emilia Pérez was nominated for 13 Oscars but only received two: Best Supporting Actress for Zoe Saldaña and Best Original Song for El Mal. Both Wicked and The Brutalist received 10 nominations. Wicked took home two Oscars for Best Costume Design and Best Production Design. The Brutalist won three Oscars for Best Original Score, Best Cinematography and Best Actor.

Adrien Brody’s acceptance speech for Best Actor was a bizarre moment of the night. After taking gum out of his mouth and tossing it to his girlfriend, Brody delivered a speech that was played off twice. The first time the music started playing over his speech, the two time Oscar winner asked for it to be turned off, saying, “Turn the music off. I have done this before. Thank you. It’s not my first rodeo.” It worked initially, but he was played off a second time later in the speech. The speech ran nearly five minutes, much longer than the 45 seconds usually allotted to winners.

Conan O’Brien hosted the ceremony and delivered a fresh style to the Oscars. From a Dune sandworm playing instruments to LA firefighters delivering jokes, O’Brien added his own zany and risky spin to the night. However, it wasn’t just O’Brien adding humor to the night. Many presenters were also very funny. Bowen Yang stole the show in his Wicked costume while presenting Best Costume Design, and Amy Poehler delivered snappy jokes while presenting the writing categories.

This year, one notable change in performances was that the Best Original Songs were not performed. This was an unfortunate choice in many ways. While it did keep the show moving, it felt like a major omission. However, the night was not without music. During the opening of the show, Ariana Grande sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Cynthia Erivo then sang Home from The Wiz before the two sang Defying Gravity.

The Wizard of Oz-themed medley was simply gorgeous, and Erivo’s singing especially brought down the house. Later in the show, Queen Latifah sang another song from The Wiz, Ease on Down the Road, as a tribute to Quincy Jones.

In addition to Oz-themed music, the show also featured a tribute to James Bond. However, this segment didn’t work as well. The tribute started with a video package and led into a choreographed dance number featuring Margaret Qualley to the James Bond Theme.

Lisa then sang Live and Let Die, followed by Doja Cat’s Diamonds Are Forever, and finally, Raye performed Skyfall. While Amazon recently acquired the rights to the James Bond franchise, this tribute felt as if it came out of nowhere and was generally an odd choice for the show.

While there were no performances of Best Original Songs, one winner tried to change that. Emilia Pérez’s El Mal won in the category. Camille, Clément Ducol and Jacques Audiard came on stage to accept the award. After Camille and Ducol’s speeches, Camille started to sing a song from the film before being played off by the orchestra.

Overall, the show was a big and flashy night with solid comedy and big wins. However, director Sean Baker ended the ceremony with a simple message during his fourth speech of the night for Best Picture, “One last thing: I wanna thank the Academy for recognizing a truly independent film. This film was made on the blood, sweat and tears of incredible indie artists. Long live independent film.”