Strip club Cinderella story ‘Anora’ wins best picture at the 97th Academy Awards

“Anora,” a strip club Cinderella story without the fairy tale ending, was crowned best picture at the 97th Academy Awards on Sunday, handing Sean Baker’s gritty, Brooklyn-set screwball farce Hollywood’s top prize.

In a stubbornly fluctuating Oscar season, “Anora,” the Palme d’Or-winner at the Cannes Film Festival, emerged as the unlikely frontrunner. Baker’s tale of an erotic dancer who elopes with the son of a Russian oligarch -- unusually explicit for a best-picture winner -- was made for just US$6 million.

But Oscar voters, eschewing blockbuster contenders like “Wicked” and “Dune: Part Two,” instead added “Anora” to a string of recent indie best picture winners, including “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “CODA” and “Nomadland.”

For a film industry that’s been transformed by streaming and humbled by economic turmoil, Baker and “Anora” epitomized a kind of cinematic purity. On the campaign trail, Baker called for the return to the 90-day exclusive theatrical release.

“Where did we fall in love with the movies? At the movie theatre,” Baker said Sunday. “Filmmakers, keep making films for the big screen.”

In personally winning four Oscars on Sunday, Baker tied the mark held by Walt Disney, who won for four different films in 1954. That Baker and Disney share the record is ironic; his “The Florida Project” took place in a Florida low-budget motel in the shadow of Disneyland.

“Long live independent film!” shouted Baker from the Dolby Theatre stage.

Twenty-two years after winning best actor for “The Pianist,” Adrien Brody won the same Oscar again for his performance as another Holocaust survivor in Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist.”

Brody’s win came over Timothee Chalamet (“A Complete Unknown”), who had the chance of becoming the youngest best actor ever, a record owned by Brody -- just short of 30 when he won for “The Pianist.”

“I’m here once again to represent the lingering traumas and the repercussions of war and systematic oppression and of antisemitism and racism and othering,” said Brody. “I pray for a healthier and happier and more inclusive world. If the past can teach us anything it’s to not let hate go unchecked.”

Mikey Madison won best actress for her breakthrough performance in “Anora,” a victory that came over the category favorite, Demi Moore (“The Substance”).

“I want to thank the sex worker community,” said Baker, echoing comments he made when “Anora” won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. “They have shared their stories. They have shared life experiences with me over the years. My deepest respect. Thank you. I share this with you.”

The Oscars otherwise spread the love around, dishing out awards to “Anora,” “Conclave,” “Wicked” and “The Substance.” Eight of the 10 movies nominated for best picture came away with at least one award at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday. That included the beleaguered Netflix contender “Emilia Perez,” which, despite a backlash to old offensive tweets by star Karla Sofia Gascon, won best supporting actress for Zoe Saldana.

“I am a proud child of immigrant parents with dreams and dignity and hard-working hands,” said Saldana. “I am the first American of Dominican origin to accept an Academy Award, and I know I will not be the last.”

The two films seen as the most likely to win best picture, “Anora” and “Conclave,” each took an award for screenplay. “Conclave” scribe Peter Straughan won best adapted screenplay for his adaptation of Robert Harris' novel. “Anora” filmmaker Sean Baker won best original screenplay -- an award he soon followed with best editing, too.

“I want to thank the sex worker community,” said Baker, echoing comments he made when “Anora” won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. “They have shared their stories. They have shared life experiences with me over the years. My deepest respect. Thank you. I share this with you.”

An expected win and an upset

The night’s first award, presented by Robert Downey Jr., went to Kieran Culkin for best supporting actor. Culkin has cruised through the season, picking up award after award, for his performance alongside Jesse Eisenberg in “A Real Pain.”

“I have no idea how I got here,” said Culkin, “I’ve just been acting my whole life.”

Culkin spent most of his speech recalling an earlier, hypothetical promise from his wife Jazz Charton, that they could have a fourth child if he won an Oscar. Culkin used the opportunity to take Charton -- “love of my life, ye of little faith” -- up on the offer.

The biggest upset early on came in the best animated feature category. “Flow,” the wordless Latvian film upset DreamWorks Animations' “The Wild Robot.” The win for “Flow,” an ecological parable about a cat in a flooded world, was the first Oscar ever for a Latvian film.

“Thank you to my cats and dogs,” director Gints Zilbalodis accepting the award.

`Wicked' wins two

“Wicked” stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo kicked off the ceremony with a tribute to Los Angeles following the wildfires that devastated the Southern California metropolis earlier this year. Grande sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and Erivo performed Diana Ross' “Home” before the “Wicked” stars joined together for “Defying Gravity” from their blockbuster big-screen musical.

Later, “Wicked,” the biggest box-office hit among the best-picture nominees, won awards for production design and costume design.

“I’m the first Black man to receive the costume design award,” said costume designer Paul Tazewell, who couldn’t finish that sentence before the crowd began to rise in a standing ovation. “I’m so proud of this.”

Best makeup and hairstyling went to “The Substance” for its gory creations of beauty and body horror. “Dune: Part Two” won for both visual effects and sound, and its sandworm -- arguably the star of the night -- figured into multiple gags throughout the evening.

Brady Corbet’s sprawling postwar epic “The Brutalist,” shot in VistaVision, won for its cinematography, by Lol Crawley, and its score, by Daniel Blumberg.

Politics go unmentioned, at first

Though the Oscars featured the first time an actor was nominated for portraying a sitting U.S. president (Sebastian Stan as a young Donald Trump in “The Apprentice”), politics went largely unmentioned in the first half of the ceremony.

Host Conan O’Brien avoided the topic completely in his opening monologue. The first exception was nearly two hours in, when presenter Daryl Hannah announced simply: “Slava Ukraini” (“Glory to Ukraine!”)

“No Other Land,” a documentary about Israeli occupation of the West Bank made by a collation of Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers, won best documentary. After failing to find a U.S. distributor, the filmmakers opted to self-distribute “No Other Land.” It grossed more than any other documentary nominee.

“There is a different path, a political solution, without ethnic supremacy, with national rights for both our people,” said Yuval Abraham, an Israeili, speaking beside co-director Basel Adra, a Palestinian. “And I have to say, as I am here, the foreign policy in this country is helping to block this path. Why? Can’t you see that we are intertwined, that my people can’t be truly safe if Basel’s people aren’t truly free?

Walter Salles' “I’m Still Here,” a portrait of resistance under the Brazilian military dictatorship, won best international film. At one point, that award seemed a lock for “Emilia Perez,” the lead nominee with 13 nods and backed by a robust campaign by Netflix.

But while “Emilia Perez” collapsed, “I’m Still Here” rode a wave of passionate support in Brazil and political timeliness elsewhere.

O’Brien scores in opening

O’Brien, introduced as “four-time Oscar viewer,” opened the ceremony with genial ribbing of the nominees and the former talk-show host’s trademark self-deprecation.

“`A Complete Unknown.' `A Real Pain.' `Nosferatu.' These are just some of the names I was called on the red carpet,” said O’Brien.

O’Brien, hosting for the first time, avoided any political commentary in his opening remarks, but the monologue was a smash hit. O’Brien lent on the disappointed face of John Lithgow, a full-throated “Chalamet!” from Adam Sandler and a gag of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos being delivered to the red carpet in a cardboard box.

O’Brien’s most sincere comments were reserved for Los Angeles, itself, in speaking about the enduring “magic and grandeur” of film in wake of the wildfires. O’Brien, whose house in the Pacific Palisades was spared by the fires, then segued into a musical routine, singing: “I won’t waste time.”

An unpredictable Oscar year

This year’s Oscars, among the most unpredictable in years, unspooled after a turbulent year for the film industry. Ticket sales were down 3% from the previous year and more significantly from pre-pandemic times. The strikes of 2023 played havoc with release schedules in 2024. Many studios pulled back on production, leaving many out of work. The fires, in January, only added to the pain.

Last year’s telecast, propelled by the twin blockbusters of “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie,” led the Oscars to a four-year viewership high, with 19.5 million viewers. This year, with smaller independent films favored in the most prominent awards, the academy will be tested to draw as large of an audience.

The ceremony took place days following the death of Gene Hackman. The 95-year-old two-time Oscar winner and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead Wednesday at their New Mexico home. Morgan Freeman, his co-star in “Unforgiven” and “Under Suspicion,” honored him.

“This week, our community lost a giant,” said Freeman, “and I lost a dear friend.”