2025 Oscars: ‘Anora’ wins big during low-key but also somewhat unpredictable show

Mikey Madison accepts her Best Actress award.

Last night, Anora, that scrappy little sex worker from Brighton Beach, finally got paid.

That character’s bold perseverance — and unabashed candor — helped the film of the same name dominate the 97th Academy Awards, beating bigger contenders to take home five Oscars, including Best Picture and a Best Actress prize for Mikey Madison.

It also helped indie filmmaker — and Short Hills native — Sean Baker make history by becoming the only person to win four Oscars for a single film. (In addition to winning for producing and directing “Anora,” he was also honored for editing it and writing its screenplay.)

Giving some of its most prestigious prizes to a low-budget film felt right for this year’s Oscars. The show itself was a bit stripped down, jettisoning the usual best-song performances. And first-time host Conan O’Brien was similarly low-key, mostly eschewing barbs for quiet irony.

Although padding the show with a number promising “I Won’t Waste Time” was a bit too ironic for me.

Yet for once, the ceremony seemed to be more about the people it was awarding rather than celebrating itself — fitting, as it was hard for many to join in the celebrations. While streaming for the first time on Hulu, an hours-long glitch left thousands of people across the country watching nothing but an announcement that the show was “not available in your region.”

If the studios had wanted to remind audiences how dodgy the streaming experience could be, they couldn’t have planned it better. (They didn’t plan it, did they?)

Conan O’Brien, during his opening monologue.

I was one of the viewers unexpectedly locked out, and ended up catching most of the show on the Oscars’ own site. It broadcast briefly delayed highlights, including acceptance speeches, O’Brien’s opening monologue and the production numbers (including a couple of soaring songs from “Wicked”), skipping most of the strained banter and comic bits.

Which, I’m beginning to think, may be the best way to watch the Oscars.

Because, honestly, one of the chief reasons we tune in to this spectacle isn’t for the scripted stuff but for the performances, and those little unrehearsed moments when actors — well-trained to summon up any emotion as needed — find themselves flooded by genuine, unchecked feelings.

Like Kieran Culkin, cruising to yet another Best Supporting Actor win for “A Real Pain,” giddily revealing that his wife had promised to “give” him a third child if he won an Emmy for “Succession” — and that now she owes him a fourth, for the Oscar. (Which, frankly, struck me as a little creepy, but then this year’s movies were clearly all about hey-whatever-works-for-you.)

Or like Passaic’s Zoe Saldaña, joyfully shouting out “Mommy!” to her mother in the audience, as she picked up her Best Supporting Actress prize for “Emilia Pérez.” “I am a proud child of immigrant parents,” she tearfully told the crowd. “I am the first American of Dominican origin to accept an Academy Award and I know I will not be the last.”

Zoe Saldaña accepts her Best Supporting Actress award.

It was a personal moment, and also a political one. Yet, the stridency of years past wasn’t much in evidence last night.

Yes, this was probably the first Oscars telecast in which sex workers, thanks to “Anora,” got several respectful shout-outs from the stage. It was also the first time a trans woman, Karla Sofía Gascón, was nominated for Best Actress (although her performance in “Emilia Pérez” did not win).

But mostly the topical references were subdued, and the emphasis on just getting along.

There were salutes to Los Angeles, and to the heroism of local firefighters. The director of the winning animated film, “Flow,” noted gently that when it came to the fate of the Earth, we were all “in the same boat.” Even the Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers behind the lauded documentary film “No Other Land” were sure to mention both the destruction of Gaza and the plight of the hostages.

True, there was also a joke about Russian bullies, and references to Ukraine, and antisemitism. But no one actually mentioned President Trump — something that probably bothered him more than anything.

Of course, the slightly tamped-down tone was not enough to head off any controversies online. (“Congratulations to HAMAS for its Oscar win,” conservative writer John Podhoretz Tweeted after the doc award.) But it did seem to suggest a Hollywood that — honestly exhausted after the presidential election and the devastating California wildfires — just wanted to have a night out.

But if the self-righteous rage of Oscars past was absent, sometimes the old clueless, show-business schlockiness poked through.

Raye sings the James Bond theme song “Skyfall.”

What was the point of a tribute to themes from James Bond movies, particularly as sung by artists like Raye and Lisa (of Blackpink) who had no real feel for the material? (Note to The Academy: Paul McCartney was probably available, you know.)

And didn’t this seem less like a salute than a eulogy, considering the family-nurtured franchise was just gobbled up by Amazon? (Although, come to think of it, Jeff Bezos would make a great Bond villain.)

And yes, it was nice to honor the late Quincy Jones, whose contributions to Hollywood included classic scores for “In the Heat of the Night,” “The Hot Rock” and Steven Spielberg’s “The Color Purple.” But why do it by bringing out New Jersey’s Queen Latifah to belt out “Ease on Down the Road” from “The Wiz” (a song Jones produced but did not write)?

Also, while we’re on the “What were they thinking?” topic, why haul out Morgan Freeman for a hasty, personal tribute to the late Gene Hackman — who was about to be honored, anyway, in the closing moments of the annual “In Memoriam” segment? When, keeping up a tradition of omissions, that segment couldn’t find a few seconds to mention Shannen Doherty, Michelle Trachtenberg or international icon Alain Delon?

It would have been nice, during the show’s nearly four hours, to have made room for them. And if the time could have been found by keeping long-winded Best Actor winner Adrien Brody from yammering on for five minutes — while admonishing the orchestra not to play him off because he had things to say and this was “not my first rodeo” — that would have been fine.

Adrien Brody accepts his second Best Actor Oscar.

It was, of course, Brody’s second prize in this category; his first, more than 20 years ago for “The Pianist,” got him in the record books as the Oscars’ youngest Best Actor winner (sorry, Timothée). But if Brody had been to this rodeo before, it was certainly a new experience for the 25-year-old Madison. “I grew up in Los Angeles, but Hollywood always felt so far away from me,” she confessed, deeming the experience “incredible.”

Demi Moore might have been a little incredulous, too. Various handicappers, me among them, had thought the Hollywood veteran was a lock to win Best Actress for her role in “The Substance,” whether she deserved it or not. But then there were those convinced Chalamet had the Best Actor edge, as the stars of musical biopics almost always take home the big prize.

Just as there were those who thought its 13 nominations made “Emilia Pérez” the odds-on favorites in its categories. Or that “Conclave” was exactly the sort of serious, star-studded, movie-for-grownups that the Academy likes to honor.

And that may be just the point, and the biggest takeaway from a sometimes glitchy night: Those were the sort of people and pictures that the Academy liked to honor. Once. But as we heard in one of the year’s films, the times they are a-changin’.

And not being predictable is what great art, and a good awards show, are all about.

Here are some clips from the show:

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