Eight talking points from the Oscars 2025

The wide open race to the Oscars in 2025 reached its peak in an evening filled with surprises and interesting takeout.

Ceremonies mainly avoid politics

Hollywood would have thought that the A-listers were a long-standing for free speech that opposed oppression, and that they used Oscars to launch early criticism of US President Donald Trump’s new administration. But it made Hollywood almost into words as Trump’s victory surprised Democrats and rushed to quietly rebuild them. Disney, a parent of show broadcaster ABC, recently settled a lawsuit with Trump. The media outlet’s corporate directors and billionaires owners are rushing to avoid the infamous, volatile and respectable presidential opposition. As a result, the tone of the show was almost easy, without the obvious politicization, and a scream to Ukraine from presenter Daryl Hanna, a reference to Conan O’Brien’s first show, the first show on Oscars. aor Star Mikey Madison’s title character stands up against powerful Russians and direct pleas for peace and coexistence from the Oscar-winning Palestinians and co-director of Israel’s best documentary functions There are no other lands.

But storytelling made their points loud and clear

The speech was generally limited to the work itself and thanked the loved ones, but the stories told by the candidate’s crops this year said a lot. The war on Trump’s diversity, equity and inclusive policy began long after Oscar nominees and winners became green light, but it’s hard to ignore how these films shine on the oppressed, underrated, and others. They skillfully navigated the narrative of resistance under tyranny (I’m still here, Dunes: Part 2), objectification of women (material), fear of institutional racism (nickel boy), expression of intersex (conclave), trans people (Emilia Perez) and the outsider (evil), immigration experience ( A brutal person) and raises the light-like perception of sex workers (aor).

Oscar producers deal with wildfire tragedy in class

This was not easy to plan, but Academy CEO Bill Kramer, ceremony producer and showrunner Raj Kapoor and Brien addressed aplomb to the Los Angeles wildfires. They acknowledged the collective trauma and heartbreak of an unparalleled local tragedy that took befell to LA County and affected many of the rooms and many who worked on the nominated films. At the same time, the show avoided being lamented. The producers used the spirit of rebellion and wit, moving the city forward in the way he spoke to the enduring love of the community that gave it.

The Academy spreads love

rear Oppenheimer It was exhilarating to see such a wide range of quality to take on the 96th award and win the award on Sunday. lastly, Anora, Distributed in North America by Neon, the winner won the night’s top award and one big surprise when Mikey Madison confused Demi Moore for the lead actress. Nonetheless, it was an exciting night. There, there were few positive conclusions other than the victory of supporting actors from Zoe Saldana and Kieran Culkin. Although this isn’t the case every year, the wide range of quality of the show after the previous year’s vintage season was strange to see.

Cannes regains its top spot

The Cannes Film Festival has regained its place as a place to launch a hopeful award several years after the period and events of Venice were neck and neck. Brought by 5 people for Palme de Orwine aorCroisette launched nine of the winners of this year’s 20 feature categories. This is the highest number of festivals in at least 25 years. That was more than four times more than from Venice. A brutal person and I’m still here.

Cannes movies aor, material, Emilia Perez and flow We were able to maintain the admiration from May 2024 until last night’s ceremony for over nine months. While the horse yard between the two festivals continues, it is clear that the spring and summer European festival axis is now the perfect place to push awards. Berlin launched a documentary, one winner There are no other lands – Not one winner that started at Sundance and Toronto’s major North American events, but in the Telluride title conclave The only recipient of the American Festival.

I’ll go together flow

It’s encouraging to see victory in the big money campaign with A-list celebrities flowa dialogueless story of a cat working with other animals in the flood. Produced and sold independently from Latvian Guinto (Charade), and distributed animation saw US studio titles on a much larger budget including Disney Inside Out 2 And universal Wild robots – And there’s no talk about everything.

Last year, the Academy’s animation branch was separated from the Short Film Branch. The 700-member animation branch focuses solely on its format. flowA love for studio films with high visibility. After making her debut in Cannes’ specific UN tribute last year, she headed straight to the Annessy Animation Festival. Buzzy Independent Animations will look at its axis again for a push to the award.

meanwhile, There are no other lands Despite the absence of an official US distributor, it won the best documentary award (limited screenings of films in the US came through independent booker Michael Tuckman via Cinetic Media). Directed by a group of four Palestinians and Israeli filmmakers and sold internationally for Auto Look film sales, the film was headlined as it criticized the two directors’ speeches in Berlin Le last year and is popular with award voters.

Focus on International and the Universal Eye

The Universal Filmed Entertainment Group (UFEG) focus feature and Universal Pictures converted nomination domination into awards, turning 26 nods from films released outside the US on behalf of both studios into 10 wins. The internationally won focused film won 8 Oscars – aorfocus purchased in some territory, 5 wins at night, while A brutal personthe focus won at all internationals won 3. Universal evil He won two awards.

conclaveFocus, distributed only in the US, won one Oscar, bringing the overall haul of UFEG to 11 at night. aor Released in North America and A24 A brutal person In the US.

With the academy’s increasingly international membership, UFEG’s focus and universal has developed a talent to identify which titles work well with global audiences and how to sell. After last year Oppenheimer Universal domination, the wider group enjoyed another night’s success.

Elsewhere, you may feel at ease that Netflix has secured two Emilia Perez Winning following the Carla Sofia Gascon controversy, Warner Bros. won two awards Dunes: Part 2and Disney landed only one person – Kieran Culkin’s support actor Jesse Eisenberg’s Searchlight Photography victory in the film The real pain.

Several titles with diverse international distribution – conclave, flow, I’m still here, There are no other lands, material – Award won. This indicates that a full transaction for Oscar’s success is not a prerequisite.

Oscar and BAFTA will be separated in major categories

Following the Oscar and BAFTA film award ritual a year ago, the US and UK film academies agreed to almost all functional categories, so this year saw a healthy amount of divergence.

aor After Bakhta gave each of those awards, he scooped both the best photos and directors at the Oscars conclave And for Brady Corbett A brutal person.

All four acting categories matched (as often happens), but Oscar went in a different direction with the original script. aorAnother victory for Sean Baker after BAFTA handed the award to Jesse Eisenberg The real pain.

The documentary features and animation, the international features that two academies exude this year (a film not in English from BAFTA Speak), two academies forked. At Oscar: I’m still here, There are no other lands and flow. and bafta: Emilia Perez, Super/Man: The Story of Christopher Reeve and Wallace & Gromit: vengeance Most Fowl.

These three categories have been perfectly aligned for the past four years, including in 2023, when there was a significant gap between the results of the Oscar and BAFTA Film Awards. Everything is at once anywhere and Everything on the Western Front is quiet).

It was in 2017 that two academies last came up with different winners for each category of three animation, documentaries and foreign language films.

Craft is currently editing seven of eight categories that are common to both award sets arranged this year. aor And at BAFTA conclave. That level of overlap is not uncommon.

In total, 12 out of 19 functional categories lined up victory at Oscars and BAFTA this year. This is compared to 18 of last year’s 19.

BAFTA wasn’t very friendly though aor It can be argued that Mikey Madison’s leading actress victory at BAFTA foreshadowed her Oscar victory than Ampas was proven. (BAFTA was also awarded aor Casting Awards – Category that does not exist in the Oscars. )

Similarly, Wallace & Gromit: vengeance Most Fowl It won BAFTA for animation, and the results showed that it was an estimated favorite – Wild robots – It was vulnerable. So it proved to be an Oscar victory flow.

Ampas and BAFTA against the director are relatively rare (which coincided with 7 out of 10 in the last decade), but the two academies tend to struggle to agree on the best picture/movie. Over the past decade, the Academy has given the same film a top prize twice. Oppenheimer and It’s not either.