Night of surprises at the Oscars as ‘Anora’ sweeps five awards in a long and apolitical gala

For once, and hopefully this will set a precedent, there was excitement, surprise and gaping mouths. The 97th Academy Awards were not, as has been the case for years, a script written weeks in advance. This time, a different kind of cinema won, both in substance and form. Five of the Oscars went to Anora, a dramedy that cost $6 million to make and has grossed more than $40 million globally, has won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and the Independent Spirit Award, and been nominated for more than 260 prizes. With a script that contains the swear word “fuck” over 400 times and a cast of half a dozen actors who were largely unknown until now, Anora has neverthless taken home some of the most important awards of the night: Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Achievement in Directing, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role and Best Original Screenplay. The movie was written and directed by Sean Baker, an American filmmaker who is the first person to win four Oscars for a single film.

This year’s awards ceremony was very long and apolitical, with Hollywood ignoring Donald Trump and the hectic national and international situation. In terms of cinema, nothing was decided. There were two types of awards: the obvious ones like Kieran Culkin’s, the first to be handed out, and the open ones that could go either way. In the end, the night was all about surprises, with five for Anora, three for The Brutalist, two for Emilia Pérez (the big loser of the night, as it had 13 nominations), two for Dune: Part Two, two for Wicked, and one each for Conclave, A Real Pain, The Substance, Flow, and I’m Still Here. The three hours and 45 minutes were made more entertaining thanks to the host, Conan O’Brien, and charismatic presenters such as Mick Jagger, Billy Crystal —”I used to work here, nine tuxedos ago”— and Amy Poehler (if O’Brien doesn’t want to host the event again next year, organizers should call her).

It all started at four o’clock in the afternoon in Los Angeles, with Ariana Grande in the ruby red of her beloved Glinda’s shoes singing Over The Rainbow. She was joined by Cynthia Erivo, with her Defying Gravity from Wicked, which started out with 10 nominations, along with an elegant staging with an orchestra playing on stage. Following them on stage was Conan O’Brien, who shone bright during the long evening. In his opening monologue, he declared himself excited to be there. He knew how to be ironic without crossing the line, just touching it; there were also no political jokes. Instead, he made cracks about films and even about movie theaters themselves (encouraging people to go to these “buildings to watch movies”), he elegantly (and continuously) made fun of Timothée Chalamet and his young age, he joked about Jeff Bezos arriving at the gala inside an Amazon package, he spoke in Spanish (“Good evening and welcome to the Oscars, I am your host and I hope you enjoy the show”) and he boasted about how handsome he was.

Fifteen minutes into the gala, addressing the elephant in the room, he quipped: “Anora uses the f-word 479 times. That’s three more than the record set by [Emilia Pérez star] Karla Sofia Gascon’s publicist.” Gascón was in the audience, although the actress never stepped onto the red carpet. “Karla Sofía Gascón is here tonight,” he said, with the camera pointing for the first time at Gascón, who blew kisses at the stage. “Karla, if you are going to tweet about the Oscars, remember: My name is Jimmy Kimmel.” At the end of his 10-minute monologue, he asked for help so that the city could recover from the devastating fires and even launched into a song and dance number.

After that, it was time for the awards. The first was a big one, and probably the most obvious: Kieran Culkin’s Best Supporting Actor for A Real Pain. Although O’Brien had promised to cut short long thank you speeches, they let Culkin go on and on, even asking his wife, Jazz Charton, for another child, claiming that she had promised him one if he won the Oscar.

Of its 13 nominations, Emilia Pérez took home the first thanks to Zoe Saldaña for Best Supporting Actress. Shortly after, the movie took the second award for best original song for El mal, performed by Saldaña. “Music and art can play a role as a force for good and progress in the world,” said Camille and Clément Ducol, the composers. But the narco-musical did not go beyond those two accolades: the award for best international film, which a few weeks ago seemed to be a sure thing, went instead to the Brazilian film I’m Still Here, which brought the entire Brazil to raptures. If there has been any kind of punishment for Emilia Pérez over Gascón’s tweets, it was here.

As always, the four acting categories were the most highly anticipated ones. And there were surprises, but not with Culkin, or with Zoe Saldaña, or even with Adrien Brody. Instead, it was 25-year-old Mikey Madison who surprised everyone by winning an Oscar that many thought would go to Demi Moore, or if anything to the Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres.

Brody, winner for The Brutalist, gave one of the few political speeches of the night, along with that of No Other Land, a Norwegian-Palestinian co-production that won the Best Documentary award. “We have made this film, Palestinians and Israelis, because together our voices are stronger. The atrocious destruction of Gaza and its people must stop,” they said on stage.

Best Adapted Screenplay was more obvious, for Conclave. Best Production Design went to Wicked and its nine million tulips. It made sense that both sound and special effects went to Dune: Part 2, while makeup and hair went to the team that transformed Demi Moore into an incredible monster in The Substance. In best animated film, there were more surprises: the giant Pixar did not win with Inside Out 2, nor even the tender The Wild Robot; instead the award went to the small Latvian production Flow, the first film from this Baltic country to win an Oscar. The same happened with the animated short: pundits were leaning towards Magic Candies or Yuck!, but In the Shadow of the Cypress won instead. Meanwhile, The Only Woman in the Orchestra surprisingly won for Best Documentary Short, and I’m Not a Robot for Best Live Action Short Film.

A gala with an audience of 20 million viewers cannot be just about reading out awards. For its 97th edition, it mixed formats from past years. For example, it brought out five actors from different films nominated for best photography; it did the same with costume design. In addition, the humor of presenters like Amy Poehler and Ben Stiller gave substance to the more technical awards, which usually go more unnoticed.

The gala also had its moments of tributes. Among them, Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, the half-sibling producers of James Bond —whose creative control has just been bought by Amazon—, which was an excuse to pay homage to the eternal spy. The Korean singer and actress Lisa, the British Raye and the American Doja Cat sang classic songs from the saga with a live orchestra, while Margaret Qualley showed Bond girl qualities with her powerful dancing.

There was also was a special tribute to Gene Hackman, who died last week in circumstances that are still unclear. The segment was introduced by Morgan Freeman with a special speech for his colleague. There was another sort of in memoriam that followed, the tribute to Quincy Jones presented by actresses, presenters, friends and old colleagues in The Color Purple Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey, and performed by Queen Latifah, to which Colman Domingo, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo danced non-stop. They were probably part of the group that knew (although who knew anything?) that they weren’t going to win. And those are always the ones who have the most fun.

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