By John Corrado

The 97th Academy Awards were presented tonight, with Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or-winning Anora emerging as the big winner. Baker’s film took home a total of five Oscars, including Best Actress for Mikey Madison, with Baker himself winning the awards for Screenplay, Editing, Director and Picture.

This makes him the first person to win four Oscars in the same night since Walt Disney in 1953, and the first to ever do it for the same film. What an achievement. Baker also used his speeches to recognize the importance of movie theatres, giving an impassioned plea to keep the cinema experience alive. He closed the night with the rallying cry of “long live independent cinema,” highlighting how Anora was made for six million dollars and shot on location with a crew of forty people in Brighton Beach. Again, what an achievement.

In second place in terms of wins was Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, which was up for ten awards and took home three for Cinematography, Original Score and Best Actor for Adrien Brody. Brody won his second Oscar for the film, over two decades after becoming the youngest winner for his thematically similar work in The Pianist.

Elsewhere, Supporting Actor went to Kieran Culkin for his knockout performance in A Real Pain, while Zoe Saldaña won Supporting Actress for Emilia Pérez. Despite leading with thirteen nominations, the controversy-riddled Emilia Pérez only won two; for Saldaña and Original Song. In one of the night’s big upsets, International Feature went to Brazil’s I’m Still Here, which rode a wave of passion off its surprise Best Picture nomination to beat presumed frontrunner Emilia Pérez in the category.

Madison’s win in Best Actress meant that she beat Demi Moore, who was going up for a career award for her work in The Substance. The Oscars went with the young ingenue instead, and in a fitting moment, last year’s Best Actress winner Emma Stone presented the award to her. In another moment of cinematic kismet, Quentin Tarantino presented the Best Director trophy, allowing Baker to thank him for casting Madison in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which is where he discovered her.

The ceremony itself was hosted for the first time by Conan O’Brien, who did a good job playing the role of emcee, starting with a solid opening monologue. The best aspect of the night was how much the show celebrated the craft of filmmaking, instead of disparaging the nominated films. Several of the tech categories (including Costume Design and Cinematography) were presented by cast members of the nominated films, highlighting the work behind them.

I didn’t do that well in terms of my predictions, only getting 15 out of 23 categories (partially because I took risks in a few), but overall I’m happy with the winners. One of the tight races I did call correctly was Flow in Animated Feature, with the Latvian movie becoming one of the biggest independent animated film success stories of all time. I’m also thrilled that Baker and Madison were rewarded for their work, and Anora is one heck of a deserving Best Picture winner.

The full list of winners and nominees are below, in the order they were announced.

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 Film
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 Film 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
Elton John: Never Too Late – “Never Too Late”
Emilia Pérez – “El Mal”
Emilia Pérez – “Mi Camino”
Sing Sing – “Like A Bird”
The Six Triple Eight – “The Journey”

Best Documentary Short Film
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

Live Action Short Film
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 Film
Emilia Pérez (France)
Flow (Latvia)
The Girl with the Needle (Denmark)
I’m Still Here (Brazil)
The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Germany)

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
Jacques Audiard – Emilia Pérez
Brady Corbet – The Brutalist
Sean Baker – Anora
Coralie Fargeat – The Substance
James Mangold – A Complete Unknown

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