March 2, 2025. Late-night show host Conan O’Brien made his debut as the host of the 97th Academy Awards Ceremony, again broadcast live from the Dolby® Theater on the ABC Network. The winners in all 23 film categories are listed below:
While the Oscars ceremonies were slated to run for three hours—notably, live performances of the nominees for Best Original Songs were absent—the broadcast still ran nearly an hour past the anticipated running time. After O’Brien’s attempts at warming up the audience with some harmless and often self-deprecating humor (“Are you wondering if I had work done?”), Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande kicked things off with one of the few musical moments of the broadcast with vocal excerpts from “Wicked” and “The Wiz.” Other musical tributes included song and dance numbers celebrating the James Bond film franchise and the Broccoli family’s receipt of the Academy’s Governor’s award with Blackpink’s Lisa delivering a hearty “Live and Let Die,” Doja Cat’s rendition of “Diamonds Are Forever,” and Raye singing “Skyfall.” Much later in the show, Queen Latifah and company got the audience bouncing with “Ease on Down the Road” as part of a tribute performance to the late Quincy Jones. Morgan Freeman also initiated the In Memoriam segment with a remembrance of acting legend Gene Hackman.
A truly touching moment occurred when a group of LAFD firefighters were called up to the stage and lauded for their courage in battling the recent and devastating fires in Los Angeles. Of course, this would not be a present-day Academy Awards ceremony without some political comments, this time coming from a Palestinian survivor of the ongoing war and his counterpart, an Israeli journalist both of whom pleaded for peace and dignity. Adrien Brody’s lengthy acceptance speech also touched on antisemitism (a theme of his film). Fortunately, the audience behaved itself and was free from outbursts.
Three films— Emilia Pérez, Wicked, and The Brutalist—led the pack with 13, 10, and 10 nominations, respectively, while 8 nominations went to A Complete Unknown and Conclave. The biggest winners of the evening were Anora with 5 golden statuettes—4 of which went to Sean Baker, and The Brutalist which took home 3 Oscar awards. The highly touted Bob Dylan biopic was shut out as was its lead Timothée Chalamet who also appeared in Dune: Part Two that did take home two awards. As in past years, there were some firsts—Paul Tazewell becoming the first Black man to garner the award for Best Costume Design, Zoe Saldana, the first actress of Dominican ancestry to win an Oscar, and Flow, an animated feature length film, that led to the first Academy Award for a Latvian duo, Gints Zilbalodis and Matiss Kaza.
All things considered, host Conan O’Brien did a creditable if not memorable job in his debut as the Oscars host, but the appearance of Billy Crystal, a 9-time Oscar host, as the presenter of the Best Picture award, reminded viewers that O’Brien still has a long way to go, if he is given a second opportunity. To echo what numerous people who populated the Dolby® Theater’s stage brought to our collective attention, let all us hope that the 2026 Awards Ceremony will find ends to the current conflicts and a world finally at peace
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