Hollywood’s biggest night delivered everything we hoped for—history-making wins, hilarious antics from first-time host Conan O’Brien, and a few surprises that had the Dolby Theatre buzzing at the Oscars. From honoring the first responders in the LA fires to a stunning James Bond tribute, the 97th Academy Awards in 2025 offered a fantastic telecast.
As winners stepped backstage, ComingSoon film reporter Jonathan Sim was in the Press Room to hear their unfiltered post-victory reactions—including an exclusive quote from the team behind The Substance, who took home the Oscar for Best Makeup & Hairstyling. Here’s a recap of the evening’s biggest wins and unforgettable moments, directly from the Loews Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles, California.
Oscar winners
What were the biggest winners of the night? Anora took home five Oscars, with four of those going directly to Sean Baker for Director, Original Screenplay, Editing, and, of course, Picture. Mikey Madison took home the gold for Best Actress in a stunning upset over Demi Moore. Many predicted Moore would win the Oscar for her role in The Substance; however, The Substance did end up with the award for Best Makeup & Hairstyling.
The Brutalist also took home its fair share of Oscars, from Cinematography to Original Score to Cinematography. Star Adrien Brody won the Oscar for Best Actor, marking the second time in his career he has won the gold statue after previously winning in 2003 for The Pianist. He delivered quite a long speech, at one point silencing the music when they tried to play him off the stage.
Dune: Part Two went home with two wins for Sound and Visual Effects, while Nickel Boys and A Complete Unknown were the only two Best Picture nominees that didn’t come home with a win. As many predicted, Kieran Culkin won Best Supporting Actor for his role in A Real Pain and Zoe Saldaña won Best Supporting Actress for her role in Emilia Pérez. Speaking of Emilia Pérez, Conan took a jab at star Karla Sofía Gascón’s recent controversial tweets, remarking that Anora featured more F-bombs than Gascón’s publicist after the tweets came out.
For a full list of winners and nominees, click here.
Oscar performances and sketches
With a comedic force like Conan taking the reins this year, this became one of the most watchable Oscars telecasts in a while. He brought a hilarious presence with an excellent opening monologue filled with fun bits. He came in intermittently throughout the show with great one-liners and a sketch where he introduces audiences to a brand new way to watch movies (that looks suspiciously like a movie theater).
The show opened with Oscar nominees Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande performing together, as their stunning vocals enchanted audiences once again, including their now-famous rendition of “Defying Gravity” from Wicked.
One of the more random performances of the night was a tribute to James Bond, which began with Margaret Qualley essentially turning in a Bond girl audition, while we got covers of classic Bond songs from Doja Cat, Raye, and Lisa. While this performance comes at a time when longtime producer Barbara Broccoli recently left the franchise and creative control to Amazon MGM Studios, it does feel like it happened at a time when Bond is in the back of our minds, as the last Bond movie came out over three years ago.
The Substance makeup
One of the most famous sequences in cinema from 2024 is the final act of The Substance, where Sue, in an effort to make a more perfect version of herself, injects herself with the substance. However, a copy of a copy is never a good idea, as this creates a horrifying creature named Monstro Elisasue. This finale brought an already-great film into one of the best of the year, having topped off ComingSoon’s best movies of 2024.
The Substance makeup artist Pierre-Olivier Persin shared his process for making this look with ComingSoon. “Coralie really wanted a dramatic, a tragic character and not a monster,” Persin says. “And what can I say. She had in mind, David Lynch’s The Elephant Man. So we put a little bit of that purposely on her face, but for the rest of the body, it comes from a maquette I’ve done very early on during prep. And Coralie liked it. What was written in the script was, “Elisabeth, Demi’s head on Monstro’s back. You know, with a frozen expression.” That was written. That was in the script. But apart from that, it was just to try to come up with a design that was interesting in kind of every angle. We didn’t want to copy anything.”
Conclusion
The 97th Oscars were an excellent time. Although there was a great focus on the movies that brought everyone here, there was also a tribute to the first responders of the devastating fires that tore through California earlier this year. And only Conan would pay tribute to them by having them read off jokes that he wrote.
With awards season now officially behind us, one question lingers: how will these victories shape the future of the cinematic landscape? If tonight was any indication, the industry’s next chapter is bound to be just as thrilling.
