Oscars 2025, ‘Anora’ and the fabulous Baker boy
The 97th annual Academy Awards were a lackluster affair. But they're worth celebrating because the best film won
The entertainment industry has been vocally resistant to artificial intelligence, believing that unchecked usage will endanger the work of writers and visual artists. It is ironic, then, that one of the most emphatic arguments in its favour was made at this year’s Academy Awards, when Conan O’Brien attempted to speak in Hindi — and sounded far worse than Siri ever did. O’Brien, 61, has always been an atypical and freewheeling talkshow host, but he handled the biggest stage in unmemorable fashion. The 97th annual Academy Awards (streaming in India on JioHotstar) were a lackluster affair, better read about than watched live.
I love award show pageantry. A couple of weeks ago Kristen Bell killed it while hosting The Screen Actors Guild Awards (Netflix) and a couple of weeks before that, David Tennant brought the house down with the British Academy Film Awards. Compared to those clever, witty shows — and efficiently timed ones, coming in at just over 2 hours — the Oscars, weighing in at nearly four hours, were an interminable drag. Also, the 50th anniversary special of Saturday Night Live in February actually featured the one thing the Oscars may currently be missing most: Jack Nicholson in the front row, wearing sunglasses and a grin.
Also read: ‘Anora’, leading the Best Picture race, is finally streaming in India
The Oscars are supposed to be the most glamorous night in cinema. Where, then, are the A-listers, sitting in the front rows joshing affably with the host? Where are Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, Meryl Streep and Leonardo DiCaprio? Where is George Clooney, turning on that effervescent charm? Are we truly running out of movie stars? Where on earth is The Rock when we need someone larger than life? (Please tell me he isn’t already putting together an inevitable campaign to run for President.)
Instead here we are, forced to sit through forgettable music performances, most painful of which was a tribute to James Bond that featured many current singers messing up iconic theme tunes: Lisa of the K-pop band Blackpink sang Paul McCartney’s Live And Let Die, popstar Doja Cat sang Dame Shirley Bassey’s Diamonds Are Forever, and the British singer Raye sang Adele’s Skyfall. This pointless 007 ‘tribute’ officially kicks off the Amazon-Bond years: a time of remakes and reboots. Imagine, instead, Adele taking the stage to hit those high notes. Nobody does it better.
Still, these Oscars are worth celebrating because the best film won. Sean Baker’s Anora — which I wrote about in last week’s column — won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Editing and Best Actress for Mikey Madison. This unanimous sweep for a fiercely independent film, a film made for $6 million, is a heartening thing. Anora did indeed win the top prize, the Palme D’Or, at the Cannes Film Festival last year, but rarely do these lines interject, with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences preferring more mainstream flagbearers. Whenever they do intersect — most recently with Bong Joon-Ho’s 2019 film Parasite — the result is thrilling.
It’s delicious, for instance, to see Madison winning Best Actress ahead of the odds-on favourite Demi Moore, nominated for the (overrated) body horror film The Substance. Conventional Oscar wisdom dictated a Moore victory, capping off decades spent in the movies, but instead Madison’s many efforts — which included learning Russian and pole-dancing — were recognised. As gifted young Oscar winner Emma Stone handed the Oscar statue to Madison, it felt palpably exciting. Winners with their careers ahead of them are winners who can shape the trajectory of Hollywood itself.
Quentin Tarantino was the one giving out the Best Director trophy, making it one indie outsider with a distinctive voice passing the baton to another. Baker, who first thanked Tarantino for casting Madison in Once Upon A Time In Hollywoodwhere Baker spotted her, took the opportunity to make a case for the big-screen movie experience, one that is increasingly under threat. “In a time in which the world can feel very divided, this is more important than ever," he said. “It’s a communal experience you simply don’t get at home. If we don’t reverse this trend, we’ll be losing a vital part of our culture. This is my battle cry."
Sean Baker is a street poet. Tangerine, shot on an iPhone, is a riotous sprint through Hollywood’s fringes, a dazzling, donut-fueled odyssey of survival. The Florida Project takes us into the pastel purgatory of a motel near Disney World, where childhood glows neon against economic despair. His cinema is urgent, intimate, and irresistibly human, and I’m so glad to see his work resonating this way, across juries, across audiences. At this ceremony, he became the only other person — after Walt Disney in 1954 — to win 4 Oscars in one night. Take a bow, you fabulous Baker boy.
One Conan O’Brien line resonated, however. As the show dragged on and on, the lanky Irish comedian grinned at us: “For those enjoying the show, you have something called Stockholm Syndrome." This doesn’t feel like a joke. I’ve been setting alarms to wake up for the Oscars for so many years that I can’t quite explain why I do it anymore. Do awards matter? Do they go to the right people? Like democracy, awards most frequently exasperate. Yet I’ll be up at dawn next year again, because the Oscars do matter. They will make more people around the world watch The Brutalist and Emilia Perez and Anora. Now there’s a prize.
Streaming Tip Of The Week:
Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite, an irresistible and unforgettable satire, is streaming in India on SonyLiv. A wickedly elegant thriller, it slithers through class warfare, morphing from dark comedy to horror with hypnotic precision and brutal wit.
Also read: 'The Brutalist' review: Life and death of the American dream
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