Oscars 2025: Adrien Brody wins Best Actor; Strip club Cinderella story 'Anora' bags Best Picture

“The Brutalist” star Adrien Brody has won the best actor award besting Timothée Chalamet, who was nominated for his role as a young Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown.”

While Mikey Madison claimed her first Academy Award on Sunday, winning best actress for her role as a sex worker who marries the son of a Russian oligarch in the drama "Anora."

Sean Baker’s dramatic comedy “Anora” bagged five awards, including the coveted best picture. “The Brutalist” won three awards, and another leading Oscar contender “Wicked” earned two wins.

Also read: Oscars 2025: Zoe Saldaña wins best supporting actress for Emilia Pérez

Brody wins for 'Brutalist'

The actor clinched his second Oscar for best actor for his role as a visionary Hungarian architect in “The Brutalist”, solidifying his legacy as one of Hollywood's most compelling talents.

The 25-year-old beat "The Substance" actor Demi Moore, Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres, Cynthia Erivo of "Wicked" and "Emilia Perez" star Karla Sofia Gascon.

Brody took home best actor at the 97th Academy Awards for his powerful portrayal of Lázló Tóth, who escapes the Holocaust and sails to the United States to find his American Dream. The film spans 30 years in the life of Tóth, a fictional character whose unorthodox designs challenged societal norms, and his relentless pursuit of artistic integrity.

Brody triumphed over fellow nominees Timothée Chalamet, “A Complete Unknown,” Colman Domingo, “Sing Sing,” Ralph Fiennes, “Conclave,” and Sebastian Stan, “The Apprentice.”

“The Brutalist," which is nominated for 10 Oscars including best picture, is Brady Corbet's three-and-a-half-hour postwar American epic filmed in VistaVision. Brody starred in the film alongside Felicity Jones and Guy Pearce.

Powerful message

After winning best actor at the 78th British Academy Film Awards in February, Brody said "The Brutalist" carries a powerful message for the divided times we live in.

“It speaks to the need for all of us to share in the responsibility of how we want others to be treated and how we want to be treated by others,” he said. “There's no place any more for antisemitism. There's no place for racism.”

"I'm here once again to represent the lingering traumas and the repercussions of war and systematic oppression and of anti-semitism 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.”

A gap of 22 years

Brody won an Academy Award for best actor in 2003 for his role in “The Pianist.” His gap of 22 years would be the second longest between best actor wins. It was 29 years between wins for “Silence of the Lambs” and “The Father” for Anthony Hopkins.

Brody is also known for his performances “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “The Darjeeling Limited” and “Midnight in Paris.” For Brody, his role in “The Brutalist” had obvious echoes with arguably his most defining performance. In Roman Polanski's 2002 “The Pianist,” Brody also played a Jewish artist trying to survive during WWII.

'Anora' unlikely frontrunner

Anora,” a strip club Cinderella story without the fairy tale ending, was crowned best picture at the 97th Academy Awards 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.

This film made at just USD 6 million streamed past blockbuster contenders like “Wicked” and “Dune: Part Two".

Baker called for the return to the 90-day exclusive theatrical release. “Where did we fall in love with the movies? At the movie theater,” Baker said Sunday. “Filmmakers, keep making films for the big screen,” he said.

He also thanked the sex worker community. “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," he said in his acceptance speech.

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.

Awards for nominated movies

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 Pérez," which, despite a backlash to old offensive tweets by star Karla Sofía Gascón, won best supporting actress for Zoe Saldaña.

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

Animation film

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.

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.

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

(With inputs from agencies)