The 97th Academy Awards took place last night in Hollywood, California. Anora and its filmmaker Sean Baker were the big winners, winning five of the six Oscars for which it was nominated: Best Picture, Best Director Sean Baker, Best Original Screenplay, Best Editor – all for Baker – and Best Actress for Mikey Madison. In the musical categories, Emilia Pérez, which led this year’s nominations with 13 total, won Best Song for ‘El Mal’, while Daniel Blumberg won Best Original Score for The Brutalist.
Songwriters Clément Ducol, Camille, and Jacques Audiard won their first-ever Academy Award for ‘El Mal’. The Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger presented the award, joking, “The producers really wanted Bob Dylan to do this. Bob didn’t want to do it because he said the best songs this year were obviously in the movie A Complete Unknown. Bob said, ‘You should find somebody younger.’ I said, ‘Okay! I’m younger! I’m young enough, Bob! I’ll do it!’ So here I am.”
“We hope it speaks to the role music and art can play and continue to play as a force of the good and progress in the world,” Camille said while accepting the award. This year’s other Best Song nominees included ‘Mi Camino’ from Emilia Pérez (which Selena Gomez sang), ‘Never Too Late’ from Elton John: Never Too Late, ‘The Journey’ from The Six Triple Eight, and ‘Like a Bird’ from Sing Sing.
This is was also Blumberg’s first Academy Award win, beating out Volker Bertelmann for Conclave, Clément Ducol and Camille for Emilia Pérez, John Powell and Stephen Schwartz for Wicked, and Kris Bowers for The Wild Robot. Mark Hamill presented the award for Best Original Score.
“Thank you to the Academy and everyone who watched the film and honored the work. It means a lot to be acknowledged like this,” Blumberg said during his acceptance speed. “I’ve been an artist for 20 years now, since I was a teenager. When I met Brady, I found my artistic soulmate. For him to trust me in this work and to grow alongside him has been so special. Thank you, Brady. I love you. I want to thank my collaborators, my co-producer Peter Walsh, and the artists who played on the score. The sounds you hear on The Brutalist are made by a group of hardworking, radical musicians who’ve been making uncompromising music for many years. I’m accepting this award on behalf of them, too.”
The 2025 Academy Awards also featured a performance from Wicked co-stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, who sang a number of Wizard of Oz-inspired songs. LISA, Doja Cat, and Raye performed a medley paying tribute to the James Bond franchise: Lisa did ‘Live and Let Die’, Doja Cat performed ‘Diamonds Are Forever’, and Raye sang Adele’s ‘Skyfall’. In a tribute to Quincy Jones, Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey indtroduced a performance of The Wiz‘s ‘Ease on Down the Road’. Jones, who died on November 3, 2024, was the first Black composer nominated in the Original Song category in 1967.
LISA PERFORMING AT THE #Oscars pic.twitter.com/fAs3JI4Gf6
— honors lisa (@honorslisa) March 3, 2025
Raye canta "Skyfall" nos #Oscars #Oscars2025 pic.twitter.com/VoeA1RO80g
— Task Movies (@TaskMovies) March 3, 2025
