97th Academy Award Winners

After months of speculation and predictions, it was finally announced last night that the winner of the 97th Academy Awards is “Anora”. Sean Baker‘s independent drama entered contention very early following its Cannes success, where it was awarded the Palme d’Or. Despite the whole season being largely unpredictable across multiple categories, it appears that perhaps “Anora” was always the film to beat, having won 5 awards last night, including the coveted Best Picture Oscar.

It somehow turned out to be a fairly straightforward evening, with 20 of the 23 predictions I made recently proving to be accurate, making it my best year on Gold Derby and on Awards Expert. Quite remarkable given how so many categories could have gone one way or the other, but I think the signs of a mini “Anora” sweep were there. In fact the only categories I did not predict correctly, were Editing, Live Action Short and Animated Short, with the shorts famously being difficult to predict.

Mikey Madison and Adrien Brody managed to see off stiff competition from Demi Moore and Timothee Chalamet respectively in the lead acting categories, while Zoe Saldana and Kieran Culkin, the latter delivering one of the night’s most memorable speeches, completed their seasonal sweeps.

There was three awards on the night for “The Brutalist”, and two awards for each for “Dune: Part Two”, “Emilia Perez” and “Wicked”. There was also a great underdog win in Animated Feature, where small Latvian indie flick “Flow” beat studio juggernaut “The Wild Robot”, and deservedly so.

Full list of winners at the 97th Academy Awards:

Best Picture

• “Anora” | Neon | dir. Sean Baker – Winner
• “The Brutalist” | A24 | dir. Brady Corbet
• “A Complete Unknown” | Searchlight | dir. James Mangold
• “Conclave” | Focus Features | dir. Edward Berger
• “Dune: Part Two” | Warner Bros.| dir. Denis Villeneuve
• “Emilia Perez” | Netflix | dir. Jacques Audiard
• “I’m Still Here” | Sony Pictures Classics | dir. Walter Salles
• “Nickel Boys” | Amazon MGM | dir. RaMell Ross
• “The Substance” | Mubi | dir. Coralie Fargeat
• “Wicked” | Universal | dir. Jon M. Chu

Director

• Jacques Audiard “Emilia Perez”
• Sean Baker “Anora” – Winner
• Brady Corbet “The Brutalist”
• Coralie Fargeat “The Substance”
• James Mangold “A Complete Unknown”

Actor in a Leading Role

• Adrien Brody “The Brutalist” – Winner
• Timothee Chalamet “A Complete Unknown”
• Colman Domingo “Sing Sing”
• Ralph Fiennes “Conclave”
• Sebastian Stan “The Apprentice”

Actress in a Leading Role

• Cynthia Erivo “Wicked”
• Karla Sofia Gascon “Emilia Perez”
• Mikey Madison “Anora” – Winner
• Demi Moore “The Substance”
• Fernanda Torres “I’m Still Here”

Actor in a Supporting Role

• Yura Borisov “Anora”
• Kieran Culkin “A Real Pain” – Winner
• Edward Norton “A Complete Unknown”
• Guy Pearce “The Brutalist”
• Jeremy Strong “The Apprentice”

Actress in a Supporting Role

• Monica Barbaro “A Complete Unknown”
• Ariana Grande “Wicked”
• Felicity Jones “The Brutalist”
• Isabella Rossellini “Conclave”
• Zoe Saldana “Emilia Perez” – Winner

Original Screenplay

• “Anora” (Sean Baker) – Winner
• “The Brutalist” (Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold)
• “A Real Pain” (Jesse Eisenberg)
• “September 5” (Tim Fehlbaum, Moritz Binder)
• “The Substance” (Coralie Fargeat)

Adapted Screenplay

• “A Complete Unknown” (James Mangold, Jay Cocks)
• “Conclave” (Peter Straughan) – Winner
• “Emilia Perez” (Jacques Audiard)
• “Nickel Boys” (RaMell Ross, Joslyn Barnes)
• “Sing Sing” (Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar)

Animated Feature

• “Flow”| Janus | dir. Gints Zilbalodis – Winner
• “Inside Out 2” | Disney | dir. Kelsey Mann
• “Memoir of a Snail” | IFC | dir. Adam Elliot
• “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” | Netflix | dir. Nick Park, Merlin Crossingham
• “The Wild Robot” | Universal | dir. Chris Sanders

International Feature

• “Emilia Perez” | France | dir. Jacques Audiard
• “Flow” | Latvia | dir. Gints Zilbalodis
• “The Girl with the Needle” | Denmark | dir. Magnus von Horn
• “I’m Still Here” | Brazil | dir. Walter Salles – Winner
• “The Seed of a Sacred Fig” | Germany | dir. Mohammad Rasoulof

Documentary Feature

• “Black Box Diaries” | MTV
• “No Other Land” | Cinetic Media – Winner
• “Porcelain War” | Picturehouse
• “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” | Kino Lorber
• “Sugarcane” | Variance

Cinematography

• “The Brutalist” | Lol Crawley – Winner
• “Dune: Part Two” | Greig Fraser
• “Emilia Perez” | Paul Gulhaume
• “Maria” | Edward Lachman
• “Nosferatu” | Jarin Blaschke

Editing

• “Anora” | Sean Baker – Winner
• “The Brutalist” | David Jancso
• “Conclave” | Nick Emerson
• “Emilia Perez” | Juliette Welfling
• “Wicked” | Myron Kerstein

Production Design

• “The Brutalist”
• “Conclave”
• “Dune: Part Two”
• “Nosferatu”
• “Wicked” – Winner

Costume Design

• “A Complete Unknown”
• “Conclave”
• “Gladiator II”
• “Nosferatu”
• “Wicked” – Winner

Makeup & Hairstyling

• “A Different Man”
• “Emilia Perez”
• “Nosferatu”
• “The Substance” – Winner
• “Wicked”

Visual Effects

• “Alien: Romulus”
• “Better Man”
• “Dune: Part Two” – Winner
• “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”
• “Wicked”

Sound

• “A Complete Unknown”
• “Dune: Part Two” – Winner
• “Emilia Perez”
• “Wicked”
• “The Wild Robot”

Score

• “The Brutalist” – Winner
• “Conclave”
• “Emilia Perez”
• “Wicked”
• “The Wild Robot”

Song

• “Never Too Late” | Elton John: Never Too Late
• “Mi Camino” | Emilia Perez
• “El Mal” | Emilia Perez – Winner
• “Like a Bird” | Sing Sing
• “The Journey” | The Six Triple Eight

Documentary Short

• “Death by Numbers”
• “I Am Ready, Warden”
• “Incident”
• “Instruments of a Beating Heart”
• “The Only Girl in the Orchestra” – Winner

Animated Short

• “Beautiful Men”
• “In the Shadow of the Cypress” – Winner
• “Maybe Elephants”
• “Wander to Wonder”
• “Yuck!”

Live Action Short

• “A Lien”
• “Anuja”
• “I’m Not a Robot” – Winner
• “The Last Ranger”
• “The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent”

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