The 97th Academy Awards are being held in Los Angeles today. Stay up to date with our coverage as we bring you all the winners and performances.
The 97th Academy Awards are being held in Los Angeles today. Stay up to date with our coverage as we bring you all the winners and performances.
Take a look at the list of Oscar nominees here. We’ll be updating this awards module as winners are announced.
The award for Best Costume design was presented by Elle Fanning, Lily-Rose Depp, a slightly annoyed-looking John Lithgow, Connie Nielsen, and Bowen Yang (the only one who didn’t get the memo not to dress up).
Each celebrity had worked with the nominees, and the stars shared stories from their projects, which proved a cute touch (not sure how it fits into O’Brien’s I Won’t Waste Time edict).
Ultimately, and perhaps unsurprisingly, Paul Tazewell won the Oscar for Best Costume Design for Wicked.
As the first black man to win this award, a visibly emotional Tazewell teared up as he received a standing ovation: “Cynthia and Ariana, I love you so much. Thank you for trusting me with bringing your characters to life – this is everything.”
This category is a reminder to not sleep on the shorts, people! Sure, they may not get the cinematic run that major blockbusters do, but they’re often a brilliant way for emerging filmmakers to show the industry what they’re made of.
This year’s award for best animated short goes to In the Shadow of the Cypress, a film that follows a former sea captain who lives a secluded life alongside his daughter and struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Its creators Shirin Sohani and Hossein Molayemi accepted the award, describing it as a “miracle”.
“It’s very surreal,” Molayemi said. “Believe me or not, three hours ago, our plane landed in LA. We hadn’t obtained our visa until yesterday and we were totally disappointed. And now we are here with this statuette in our hands.”
Despite a few fumbles with the speech, the pair paid tribute to those still struggling in their home country, Iran.
“The fact that we managed to make this film under the extraordinary circumstances of our country is a miracle. If you persevere … miracles do happen. We dedicate this award to all those who are still fighting in inner and outer battles … especially to our fellow Iranians who are still suffering,” Molayemi said.
Robert Downey Jr looked great in a snazzy flared tux suit, and was very collegial in shouting out to each of the nominees, even if he did advise Kieran Culkin to give up on trying to be as funny as he (Downey Jr) on the awards circuit. Yura Borisov is a newcomer to this stage, but off to a flyer. Edward Norton is a long-time legend. Guy Pearce is a chameleon. Jeremy Strong is the most serious actor on the planet.
But when Kieran Culkin wins it, his acceptance speech confirms what we’d all suspected: He wasn’t acting in A Real Pain, he was playing himself. Or Roman Roy. Who was also, clearly, also Kieran Culkin. Kinda.
He starts by swearing, chews up half his allotted time before even getting to the start of his speech, and then makes what might be a little piece of Hollywood history by propositioning his wife from the stage, in front of a few hundred million people.
He tells everyone that a year ago his wife, Jazz Charton, had promised him the third child he so desperately wanted if he won and Emmy for Succession. “Turns out she said that because she didn’t think I was going to win,” he says.
After the show, he says, he told her he really wanted four. “She turned to me and said that she would give me four when I win an Oscar. I held my hand out and she shook it. I’ve not brought it up once until just now.
“Love of my life … ye of little faith. No pressure. I love you. I’m really sorry I did it again. And let’s get cracking on those kids. What do you say? I love you.”
Poor Jazz is in hysterics. She makes a finger gun and holds it to her head. But she’s smiling. Guess we know how they’re going to be celebrating…
The first upset of the Oscars is the win for the low profile Latvian film Flow for best animated feature film. So no luck for director Adam Elliot and producer Liz Kearney for Australia’s wonderfully idiosyncratic Memoir of a Snail. In a category dominated by big budget Hollywood animations and an Aardman film, one of the two outsiders won.
It might be his first time hosting the Big Dance, but Conan O’Brien showed no signs of beginner nerves.
Kicking things off with a Substance-themed sketch, O’Brien emerged from the body of Demi Moore – the hot favourite to win best actress. Seeing Conan fist-deep in a corpse was not how anyone expected this show to start, but hey, that’s showbusiness baby!
The longtime late night host and comedian seemed perfectly at home as he launched into his first gag: “A Complete Unknown, A Real Pain, Nosferatu, these are just some of the names I was called on the red carpet.”
He touched on all the best picture nominees, a low-hanging fruit joke for the Brutalist, claiming: “I never wanted it to end and luckily, it didn’t.”
There was some love for Anora, the Sean Baker film that is tipped to win best picture: “The film uses the F-word 499 times, that’s more than the record set by Karla Sofía Gascón’s publicist.”
O’Brien then turned his attention towards Gascón, who torpedoed Emilia Perez’s best picture chances after controversial old tweets surfaced: “Karla if you are going to tweet tonight, my name is JIMMY KIMMEL.”
Also, the foreign language film I’m Still Here: “This is a film about a woman who forges ahead alone after her husband goes missing. My wife called it the feel-good film of the year.”
Naturally, we needed a bit of Chalamet love: “Timothée is nominated for his portrayal of Bob Dylan, Dylan wanted to be here tonight, but not that badly. ”
O’Brien was in full late-night mode, shifting easily between Oscars material and wider industry news. Amazon’s recent takeover of the Bond franchise didn’t escape unscathed: “Where is Jeff Bezos?” asked O’Brien, before cutting to vision of an Amazon box being tossed somewhere backstage.
O’Brien also touched on the recent controversy surrounding Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s appearance at the White House, in which he was asked why he wasn’t wearing a suit. “Adam Sandler, what are you wearing?” Sandler refused to apologise for rocking a hoodie, instead leaving the show to a round of applause.
All in all, O’Brien played it relatively safe, declaring at one point that he needed to change the tone and paying tribute to the people behind the camera. “In moments such as this, any award show can seem self-indulgent and superfluous, but I want to have us all remember why we gathered here tonight. But it also shines a light on incredible people you will never see.”
Thankfully, we got to see a snippet of O’Brien’s musical skills (never forget he wrote the Monorail episode of The Simpsons), so he closed out his monologue with a catchy musical number about keeping the show brief called I Won’t Waste Time.
Is that a promise he can keep? Only time (and exhaustion) will tell.
Keiran Culkin has taken the award for best supporting actor for his role in the Jesse Eisenberg film A Real Pain.
First-time nominee Selena Gomez leads the pack of stars opting for glittering gowns tonight in a custom off-the-shoulder number from Ralph Lauren.
Monica Barbaro, Gomez’s competition tonight in the best supporting actress category, appears equally glamorous in a custom Dior dress that pairs a glittery triangle bra with a sweeping pink satin skirt. Completing the diamond trifecta, Emma Stone keeps it simple in a slinky sequinned slip from Louis Vuitton.
I’m a huge fan of Stephen Follows, an Englishman who churns out endlessly fascinating deep dives into the film industry via data.
Naturally enough, Follows has turned his attention to the Oscars, and his most recent piece, published last week at stephenfollows.com under the headline “Was Harvey Weinstein thanked more often than God at the Oscars”, is great fun.
Among the 14 charts Follows produces is one on the average number of words in winners’ acceptance speeches over the 97 years of the Academy Awards (well, to be more accurate, over the 80 or so since the 1940s, when his data starts – but also bear in mind that they weren’t telecast until 1953). And if you have a feeling the speeches have been getting longer and longer, you’re right. They have.
The 1950s was the peak era for brevity, with acceptance speeches averaging fewer than 50 words. But turning the cameras on clearly just encouraged the buggers. Up, up and away they went, until the 2010s, when they peaked at a smidge under 300 words. They’ve started to come down a little since, but the producers’ efforts to enforce the 45-second rule haven’t been entirely successful; according to Follows’ data, speeches this decade have still averaged more than 250 words.
Still, that’s a long way short of what is reputedly the longest speech in Oscars history, when actor Greer Garson spoke for more than five minutes while accepting the best actress award for Mrs Miniver in 1943.
The record for shortest speech goes to Patty Duke, who said “thank you” when collecting her best supporting actress award for The Miracle Worker in 1963.
This year’s host, Conan O’Brien, has a hairstyle that seems to have beamed in from the 1950s. So here’s hoping the winners take their cues from his rug tonight.
The show has started on an … interesting note. The evening’s host, legendary TV funnyman Conan O’Brien, literally climbed out of Demi Moore’s body, a la The Substance in a pre-recorded track. It was weird, it was gruesome, it was spectacular.
“I know what you were thinking, did Conan not have work done? He looks his age!” O’Brien joked in his typically self-deprecating fashion.
While this is O’Brien’s first time hosting the Oscars, he has led the Emmys twice before – once in 2002 and again in 2006. You may also know him from his iconic appearance on the YouTube series Hot Ones back in April, when he literally lost it over hot wings.
So, you can rest assured you’re in capable (and hilarious) hands tonight.
Last year’s breakout star, Mikey Madison, who is nominated tonight for her lead role in Anora, has paid tribute to Audrey Hepburn in a pink and black Dior gown that would not be out-of-place in a modern remake of Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
The homage is fitting, given Madison’s portrayal of Ani, a sex worker who falls in love with a Russian oligarch. Madison and her stylist, Jamie Mizrahi, topped off the look with a vintage Tiffany & Co diamond necklace.