Surprises at The Oscars 2025
The Oscars surprised us like it always does.
The ceremony opened with a duet from Wicked stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, performing “Defying Gravity” from the musical. Followed by a Substance-inspired skit with the show’s host, Conan O’Brien.
Going into the show there were a few clear favorites, Adrien Brody for best actor, Mikey Madison for best actress, and The Brutalist for best picture. However, many of the other films had gained momentum in the other award shows. Demi Moore won her first ever award for best actress at the Golden Globes and then SAG awards, and Timothee Chalamet won best actor at the SAG awards as well. However, there were few surprises tonight, with the expected winners for the acting awards. Anora won best picture, but that was seen as close behind The Brutalist in the race. Kieran Culkin was expected to win best supporting actor, as was Zoe Saldana for best supporting actress.
Some surprises were Flows win for best animated film, continuing Disneys animated oscar drought to now three years. Their last win was for Encanto in 2021. Another surprise was how few awards Emilia Perez won. While being a widely hated film, it had secured thirteen nominations, ranging from best score to best actress to best picture. However, the films backlash, and the controversy surrounding the lead actresses online posts likely sank its chances for most the awards, besides best original song and best supporting actress. Nosferatu and A Complete Unknown took home nothing on Sunday, despite a combined 12 awards between them.
The biggest surprise would be what wasn’t nominated. Dune Part 2 was only nominated for five awards, and Challengers wasn’t nominated for anything at all. This was despite it winning a Golden Globe and being nominated for a grammy and an SAG award.
The night itself seemed to go on forever, with multiple speeches going way over the time limit. Several stars simply ignored the music cueing them out, and a few were muted when they ran over. The show found itself running 53 minutes over its allotted 3 hour runtime, pushing back American Idol to the next timeslot.
