After a rollercoaster awards season, the best and brightest of Hollywood and beyond came together last night to celebrate 2024’s most impactful films. While some predicted winners like Kieran Culkin, Zoe Saldaña, and Adrien Brody came out on top in their respective categories, there were still plenty of surprises across the board in other categories. It was an uneven show overall thanks to questionable production decisions and notable technological failures, but the competition stayed heated for the most part. All the biggest moments are recapped below.
Biggest winner: Anora and Sean Baker
By the time writer-director-producer-editor Sean Baker won his second award of the night, it was pretty clear that the Academy was all aboard the Anora train. The Palme d’Or winner had a strange trajectory this awards season, fading out during the Golden Globes but coming back in full force as the various guilds voted, and that was enough to secure the film five wins—including Best Picture. The fact that Baker is included in four of those wins means he matches a record held by Walt Disney for most wins in a single year, and he’s the first to win four Oscars for the same movie (for eagle-eyed Academy Awards viewers, Bong Joon-ho technically only won three for Parasite, even though he was around for four speeches on the night). Baker used his platform to call positive attention to sex workers, independent film, and movie theaters, all of which have been integral to his cinematic journey thus far.
Biggest snub: Demi Moore for The Substance
While Anora and its undeniably talented lead Mikey Madison won over the Academy, it was disappointing to not see Demi Moore celebrated for her revelatory and relevant work in The Substance. The feminist body horror flick was nominated in five categories but only won for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, a nod to its massive aesthetic achievements. The Academy has long held a tenuous relationship with the horror genre, so Oscar success was always going to be an uphill battle, but Moore’s massive wins and beautiful speeches on the awards circuit made her seem poised to take home the trophy. It would’ve been a powerful moment to see her recognized on Hollywood’s biggest night after over four decades of work, but it wasn’t to be. Again, Madison’s win is certainly deserved, but there’s a cruel irony to Moore losing out to the youngest actress in the category, given The Substance’s take on aging in the industry.
Biggest mess: Hulu’s live streaming
This was the first year that the Oscars dared to be broadcast both on network television and a streaming service, and Hulu really dropped the ball. First, many eager viewers weren’t able to view the show at all. Later, streams cut out just as Emma Stone was about to announce the aforementioned hotly contested Best Actress winner. The message from the streamer was that the show had concluded—before Best Picture was announced. Apparently, the powers that be at Hulu only allotted three and a half-ish hours for the stream, and the ceremony clocked in at three hours and 47 minutes. Cutting the show before the biggest award of the night is one of the biggest failures in live streaming yet, and it’s a major blow to Hulu’s (and parent company Disney) live streaming ambitions.
Biggest upset: I’m Still Here beats Emilia Pérez
Extratextual X/Twitter drama ended up having a sizable impact on the Oscars, a fact made most clear by Brazilian drama I’m Still Here winning Best International Film over the lauded (but controversial) Emilia Pérez. The latter film has been the subject of many a think piece thanks to its stereotypical characterizations and less-than-stellar Spanish, not to mention star Karla Sofía Gascón’s painful web presence. Even with all of that mess swirling about, though, Emilia Pérez looked to be the likely winner of Best International Film based on sheer exposure. But, in a welcome twist, Brazil took home its first Oscar for I’m Still Here, a far more culturally sensitive (and specific) work telling the story of activist Eunice Paiva.
Biggest statement: No Other Land wins Best Documentary
Despite not having a formal US distribution plan, No Other Land pulled off the unthinkable last night by winning Best Documentary. The co-production between Palestinian and Israeli activists is a vital document for our time, displaying the Israeli occupation of Masafer Yatta in the West Bank for all the world to see. Despite most of the documentary being recorded before the horrific October 7 attacks and the subsequent outbreak of war, distributors found it too controversial, but audiences and Academy voters clearly disagreed. Two of the film’s directors, Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham, gave the only overtly political speech of the night, with Adra calling on the world to put a stop to the “ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people” and Abraham calling out the current US foreign policy for blocking the path to peace and freedom. It was a powerful moment of unity and possibility in a ceremony that seemed surprisingly averse to politics.
Biggest underperformers: Wicked, A Complete Unknown
When the show opened with overlapping performances from Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, culminating in a live rendition of “Defying Gravity,” it seemed like the Oscars broadcast was ready and willing to highlight Wicked—if only the Academy felt the same. While the musical walked away with two deserved awards (Best Costume Design for Paul Tazewell, the first Black man to win in the category, and Best Production Design), it fell away in the other technical categories. In a real surprise, Dune: Part Two came out on top instead for Best Sound and Best Visual Effects. Given its lackluster nomination total compared to Dune, it looked like the sequel wasn’t destined to win anything, but looks can be deceiving! Surprisingly, Dune: Part Two was the only Timothée Chalamet vehicle to win an Oscar last night, as A Complete Unknown went zero for eight. The Bob Dylan picture seemed like a major player going into the ceremony, but it ultimately didn’t register with voters.
Biggest production fumble: timing should have been everything
Conan O’Brien finished his raucous monologue with a song and dance about not wasting time as the host, but the show as a whole didn’t have a good sense of what that actually meant. One of Conan’s big messages for the night was that the Oscars exist to celebrate craftspeople and artists who don’t get A-list recognition (or paychecks), so it was great to see five film-specific presenters for categories like Best Costume Design and Best Cinematography. However, the fact that other technical categories didn’t receive that same treatment was strange. Did we need a lengthy James Bond tribute, or could that time have been spent highlighting the nominees for Best Visual Effects and Best Production Design? Similarly, the Oscars seemed to pick and choose who they wanted to play off, cutting off speeches from the Dune: Part Two VFX and sound teams but letting The Brutalist’s Adrien Brody drone on for nearly six minutes. It was a hypocritical production choice to say the least, and disrespectful to the winners. But hey, at least we got to see the Dune sandworm play the piano!
