The 2025 Oscars came in a flurry of viral press tours and left with an Anora sweep. It also ended with no Timotheé Chalamet Oscar, but we’ll get into that later. There is a lot for me to discuss regarding this year’s celebration of cinema. There was a new host, some fabulous performances (albeit perhaps a bit random), great fashion, and of course, some big winners. Without further ado, let’s get started!
About the Ceremony
Before getting into the nitty gritty, allow me to give some background on the actual ceremony. Since 2001, the Oscars have been held at the historic Dolby Theater in Hollywood, California, and this year was no different. The show stuck with its newer and earlier time slot introduced at last year’s Oscars beginning at 7 pm Eastern, 4 pm Pacific. As the show is nearly four hours, and I’m an early sleeper, the early slot was much appreciated. The Oscars also brought in a new host, but kept it in the late night family, with Conan O’Brien taking over hosting duties. I found myself thoroughly entertained from O’Brien’s strong eighteen-minute opening monologue to his hilarious crowd work. Conan thoroughly exemplified how to be sincere while still seemingly having a blast in front of Hollywood’s biggest names. I hope we see him return next year.
Red Carpet Fashion
The show may have started at 4 pm Pacific, but for me it began at 3:30, on the red carpet. The fashion we get to see before the Oscars ceremony begins is nearly as exciting to me as the ceremony itself. This year’s carpet had no shortage of celebrities in their Oscar’s best. There was lace, there was structured dresses, and a whole lot of color on this year’s carpet! Here are just a few of my favorite looks and a bit about each one.
Ariana Grande
Ariana Grande arrived at the Oscars red carpet in the most gorgeous jellyfish-esque gown I’ve seen in a minute. The pale pink structured gown was custom Schiaparelli fresh off the designer’s spring 2025 runway. The Schiaparelli magic didn’t end there, because Ariana donned the stage in another gorgeous Schiaparelli gown when it came time to perform.
After the pink Glinda perfection that was Ariana’s red carpet look, I didn’t think it could be topped. I was proven wrong after just one look at the dress she wore that was directly inspired by Dorothy’s ruby red heels for her performance. It was also the perfect tribute to the film that started all this Ozian magic that directly inspired Wicked’s creation. How could one sing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” without their ruby slippers to click three times? Perfection.
Coleman Domingo
Red seemed to be one of the colors of the night, and there’s no complaints here. Consistently landing himself on my personal, and many others’ best dressed lists, Coleman was one of my most anticipated celebrities to look out for. Continually locking in his title as the best dressed man in Hollywood, Coleman Domingo arrived in custom Valentino. He once again proved that he’s every bit the fashion lover he claims to be.
Lily Rose Depp
Lily Rose Depp, famously known as a Chanel darling, used her Oscar debut to wear this custom Chanel piece designed for her, and inspired by a 90s collection. Decked out in a shimmering lace black floor length dress, Lily Rose Depp certainly channeled gothic glam for her Oscars debut. The sultry gothic look was paired with stunning diamonds, and a smoked out makeup look that suited Lily perfectly. It also suited the dark moody themes of Nosferatu, which of course was the film she was there to represent. All in all, this was one of my favorite looks of the night.
Memorable Moments
While I could write on and on about Oscar’s fashion, I should probably get on with talking about the ceremony itself. As you know, it was quite long, and I’m not necessarily looking to break down every minute of the ceremony. What I will do is provide a spotlight on some of my most notable moments throughout the show. With great performances, celebrity interactions, and speeches, this ceremony had it all. Let me give you my favorite parts.
Performance
While the Quincy Jones tribute was gorgeous, and the Bond Tribute was sensual and phenomenally choreographed, neither surpassed what was personally my favorite performance. When it comes to my favorite performance of the night, how can it not be Ariana and Cynthia’s Wizard of Oz/The Wiz/ Wicked melody. It was so strong that they had them open up the ceremony. Ariana and Cynthia’s blend of the three stories was seamlessly done, with Ariana covering “Somewhere Over the Rainbow, and Cynthia covering “Home” after her. Of course, the two of them came together at the end to perform a gorgeous live rendition of their film’s version of “Defying Gravity”, iconic final note and all. They sounded gorgeous, they looked gorgeous, and the crowd ate it up, but hey, so did I.
Celeb Interaction
A brief moment in the middle of Conan O’Brien’s opening monologue, during a joke that had nothing to do with him initially, Sandler and Chalamet, had one of my favorite interactions of the night. What began as a skit calling out Adam Sandler for his famous and consistent use of casual attire, ended with a callback to a viral joke that began between Timothée and Adam at the Golden Globes.
Speech
What made Sean Baker’s best director speech so special to me was how centered it was on the importance of movie theaters. After briefly paying his respects to Quentin Tarantino, who handed the award off to him, he dove into the value of the movie going experience. Baker, highlighted how vital the theater is to movie making and the raising of the next generation of filmmakers. He also pointed out the recent decline in movie theater attendees. He finished off his speech by begging all listening film distributors and filmmakers to prioritize releasing movies in the theater. As a movie theater lover, to that speech I say: “Long live the movie theater!”
Wins (and losses)
All that remains in this recap is the entire aspect this show revolves around, and that is the awards! Through following the lead up to the Oscars in prior film award shows, the path to the eventual winners that won big at The Academy ceremony was fairly clear to me. That’s not to say there weren’t a few surprises for me, or some losses that I was sad to see. Here are some of my biggest wins and losses at the 97th Oscars.
The Big Winner
Anora was the night’s biggest winner with the film taking a total of five Academy Awards. Mikey Madison took home best actress while director Sean Baker took home four of his own awards. Reactions to the film’s success at the ceremony have vastly varied. Despite this, many agree with one point: a win this big for indie filmmaking is a huge.
Saddest Loss
I have to admit I had a bit of bias when it came to this category. How could I not? Not only have I been a fan of him and his career for more than six years, Timothée Chalamet put on one of the most creative Oscar campaigns I’ve ever seen. Though all signs pointed to Adrien Brody taking the award home for The Brutalist after winning in many of the major precursor award shows, after Timothee’s SAG win, I got my hopes up. The silver lining I found in his loss was that if Chalamet has been in or led seven Best Picture nominees thus far, there will be more. An Oscar is almost certainly in Timothee’s future, we can rest easy.
Personal Favorite
Finally, Kieran Culkin’s win for his supporting role in A Real Pain was a big win for me as well. As a longtime Succession fan, I was gunning for either Kieran or Jeremy Strong to pull through on this one. As they both put on phenomenal performances in their respective roles, it was never a question of if they had earned it for me. To make the moment even better, Kieran took time in his speech to shout out his fellow best supporting actor nominee, and TV brother Jeremy Strong. Celebrating his strong performance as Roy Cohn in The Apprentice Culkin said to Jeremy, “I’m not supposed to single anyone out, that’s favoritism. Anyway, but you were great.” Succession lovers everywhere cheered.
Until Next Year
The end of the 2025 Oscars signified the end of the year’s cinema awards season. Safe to say watching, rooting, and talking about it left me so tired you would think I’m on the pr teams myself. Despite all of its surprises, rooting for my favorite films and cast and crew members was just as fun as ever. I can’t wait to do it all again next year. For a full list of this years winners click here.
