The Oscars have become an indelible part of cinema history, and the conversations around it every year lends major credibility to the awards season. This time was no different as diverse films like The Brutalist, Emilia Perez, and Wicked lead the pack in the run-up to the 97th Academy Awards. While Jacques Audiard’s film Emilia Pérez was nominated in 13 categories, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist and Jon M Chu’s Wicked scored ten nominations each. Almost in the last lap of the awards race, Sean Baker’s Anora came into its own, and was nominated in six categories, namely Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing, and Best Supporting Actor. Anora won five.
Anora wins 5 Oscars, Sean Baker wins 4
It will be a massive understatement to call the Oscars 2025 as Anora’s night, and the film, lead by compelling performances from Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, and Yura Borisov, will be discussed for a long time from now considering how it was a rank outsider in the race to the Oscars. The night began with Sean Baker walking up to the stage to collect his first-ever Oscar, which was given to him in the Best Original Screenplay category. And it was also his first nomination in this category. This first nomination and first win double whammy continued with wins in Best Editing, Best Director, and Best Picture categories. In fact, Sean Baker went home with four Oscars on a single night, which is a record-equalling feat.
While there are continued debates that out of the four wins for Parasite at the 92nd Academy Awards, only three should be credited to Bong Joon-Ho, despite him being the producer of the film, which invariably gets him the Oscar for both Best Picture and Best International Feature, some believe the latter category goes to the country, and not the filmmaker. Much earlier than Parasite, this record was made by Walt Disney at the 26th Academy Awards when he won the Oscars for Best Documentary (Feature), Best Documentary (Short), Best Cartoon (Short subject), and Best Two-reel (Short subject). Nevertheless, Sean finds himself in an elite club, and with four awards in a single night for the same movie, history has indeed been made for an English film at the Oscars.
Mikey Madison wins debut Oscar
Anora also won Mikey Madison her maiden Oscar win in her first-ever nomination making it a rather happy one-two-three-four-five punch by Anora. Mikey beat the likes of Demi Moore (The Substance), Fernanda Torres (I’m Still Here), Cynthia Erivo (Wicked), and Karla Sofia Gascon (Emilia Perez). The only category that Anora missed out on was the Best Supporting Actor, where Yura lost to Kieran Culkin, who emerged the winner for his performance in A Real Pain.
Anora, made on a shoestring budget of $6 million, went on to make almost seven times its making cost in its theatrical run. No wonder Sean batted for the importance of theatrical releases, and the essential need for increased patronage for theatrical viewings. The film, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes 2024 also won awards at the Critics Choice Movie Awards, Directors Guild of America awards, and Writers Guild of America. Interestingly, despite five nominations at the Golden Globes, Anora returned empty handed, and had a considerably better showing at the BAFTAs with Best Actress (Mikey Madison) and Best Casting wins out of seven nominations, including Best Director, Best Film, Best Editing, and Best Original Screenplay.
