The Oscars Are International, and That’s OK
No guts, no glory. The way to win your Oscar pool this year was to skip some of the obvious frontrunners, note the surge in popularity on the ground, and bet that the international bloc (over 20 percent of the Academy’s 10,000 voters) would push over the top Sideshow/Janus Films’ Animated Feature nominee “Flow” (the first Latvian Oscar win), Cinetic Media’s Documentary Feature “No Other Land” (the first Palestinian win), and Sony Pictures Classics’ International Feature “I’m Still Here” (Brazil’s first Oscar in a major category). Even the Live Action and Animated Short winners were international (The Netherlands’ “I Am Not a Robot” and Iran’s “In the Shadow of the Cyprus”).
As American as “Anora” is, the raucous $6-million comedy launched at Cannes with the Palme d’Or and mustered support over the next 10 months across the globe. Oscar-winners “Flow,” “The Substance” (Makeup & Hairstyling), and “Emilia Pérez” (Zoe Salda?a for Supporting Actress, Original Song) also played big at Cannes.
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Many folks expected “Anora,” with its trifecta of Guild wins (DGA, PGA, WGA) to take Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay. That it also summoned enough votes to win Editing (for Baker himself) and Best Actress (Mikey Madison) for a total of five wins out of six (Yura Borisov lost to “A Real Pain” star Kieran Culkin) was a thrill for the folks at the Dolby Theatre Sunday. The support for the movie was as palpable as it had been at the Spirit Awards, as the audience lustily cheered all five wins. At the Neon after-party at Soho House (the site of many prior Oscar celebrations), CEO Tom Quinn was all smiles. After “Anora” won Editing, he said, he knew the night would go their way. For the first time, his young son wanted to come to the Oscars to see his daddy win.
Writer/director/editor/producer Sean Baker, who won a record four Oscars for one movie, used his acceptance speeches to sell his message of support for sex workers, for the theatrical box office, and for independents. “Long live independent films!” he said, waving his golden statue at the end of a three-hour and forty-five-minute show. (“If you’re still enjoying the show, you have something called Stockholm syndrome,” joked host Conan O’Brien late in the night, who had promised to keep things short.) And breakout Mikey Madison’s win reminds that, when an actress in a Best Picture winner takes home another major award or two (in her case, Critics Choice, Spirit Award, and BAFTA), the two often align. In other words, “Anora” had coattails.
Indie French/American hybrid “The Substance” (marking the first Oscar win for Mubi), couldn’t compete, even with five Oscar nominations and Globe and SAG wins for Best Actress frontrunner Demi Moore. Despite the movie and Moore’s powerful feminist narrative, too many voters were grossed out by the body horror flick to put it over the top.
Another indie, Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist” (A24) landed its expected three wins for Original Score, Cinematography, and Actor Adrien Brody, who took the stage to accept his second Oscar (22 years after “The Pianist”) and wouldn’t let it go. “I’ve done this before. It’s not my first rodeo. I will be brief,” he said as the orchestra tried to play him off. In the end, he lost the room and delivered a record-long acceptance speech (five minutes and 40 seconds exceeded “Mrs. Miniver” star Greer Garson’s five minutes and 30 seconds).
And what happened to BAFTA and SAG winner “Conclave” (Focus Features)? The British film took home one Oscar, for Peter Straughan’s impeccable adaptation of Robert Harris’s Vatican potboiler. Again, as popular as it was with U.K. and mainstream voters, the entertaining thriller couldn’t compete with “Anora,” which combined crowdpleaser with high art.
Netflix, which entered the Oscar fray with a dominant 18 nominations, including 13 for “Emilia Pérez,” as usual spent a fortune for a relatively paltry return. They would have fared better if “Emilia Pérez” hadn’t encountered controversy over Spanish trans actress Karla Sofia Gascón, who was exiled by Netflix. The streamer relented after being invited to the Oscars, and paid her way in the end. In his monologue, O’Brien got huge laughs when he told her: “If you tweet about the Oscars, remember my name is Jimmy Kimmel.” But finally, Netflix only summoned three wins, for Supporting Actress, Song, and documentary short “The First Girl in the Orchestra.” Next time.
Except for the Culkin win, Searchlight went home empty-handed, even though “A Complete Unknown” boasted eight Oscar nods. 29-year-old Timothée Chalamet will have plenty of other chances to be great.
Truth is, the international Oscars are here to stay. As much as some complain that this indie slant will doom the Oscars to low ratings without enough blockbuster support, this is where the action is. Given that the studios rarely make art films, the best films of the year are often independent and foreign. “Barbenheimer” was great, but the two box-office juggernauts didn’t push Oscar ratings into the stratosphere. Disney-owned ABC’s numbers will be buttressed this year for the first time by streaming on Disney-owned Hulu, which cut out before the end of the (endless) show. But the Oscar ratings will never be what they once were. In 1998, the year of “Titanic,” arguably the most popular movie of all time, 50 million viewers tuned in. Last year, it was 19 million. And that’s OK. The movies are no longer the dominant cultural force. The Oscars will continue to celebrate their best. As it should be.
At the Governors Ball, after a power huddle with Disney executives Bob Iger and Dana Walden, Conan O’Brien told me that he wanted an inclusive show free of politics, with a warm, friendly atmosphere celebrating the people who work in Hollywood, not the elite. Like every Oscar show, some of the music bits were stellar (“Wicked” stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande), others unnecessary (the Governors Awards leftover tributes to James Bond and Quincy Jones), but Oscars 2025 was one of the best-written in years — O’Brien had the Dolby crowd in his hand. Nearly all the intros were funny, which is rare, from Production Design presenter Ben Stiller falling into the floor to Adapted Screenplay presenter Amy Poehler (“We all know how hard it is to find the right adapter”). And O’Brien did manage to slip in one political zinger about “Anora”: “I guess Americans are excited to see somebody finally stand up to a powerful Russian.”
At the Governors Ball, SPC’s co-presidents Tom Bernard and Michael Barker were cheering the win for Walter Salles’ “I’m Still Here,” 26 years after their release, Salles’ “Central Station,” was also nominated for Foreign Film and Actress (Fernanda Torres’ mother Fernanda Montenegro, who plays her older character in “I’m Still Here”). This time, finally, the movie won an award. At the ball, Torres congratulated rising star Madison on her Oscar. And Barker reminded that the movie is playing on over 600 screens, and has grossed $5.2 million domestic and over $28.2 million worldwide.
Next up: Cannes in May. “Anora” was the fifth Neon film in a row to win the Palme d’Or, starting with “Parasite,” which launched the pivot to the international Oscar bloc having such a big role in Oscar wins, and continuing with “Titane” (2021), which was submitted by France but not nominated for the Oscar, and Best Picture Oscar contenders “Triangle of Sadness” (2022), “Anatomy of a Fall” (2023), and “Anora” (2024). Eyes will be on which movies Quinn acquires.
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