2025 Oscars Recap
After much anticipation, the 2025 Oscars happened on March 15th. As pointed out in Conan O’Brien’s opening monologue, this year, the 98th year of the Academy Awards, 31 countries across six continents were represented, with thousands of people “speaking different languages, working hard to make something of beauty.”
After a long wait with much speculation, the winners for best picture and best directing were both Paul Thomas Anderson for his film One Battle After Another. The predictions for these categories were very divided between One Battle After Another and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, as it seemed like a very tight race between the two, but ultimately, Anderson, who had never won an Oscar before this night, was rewarded in both of these categories with two out of the six that the film walked away with.
One Battle After Another also won for best supporting actor, with Sean Penn; best writing (adapted screenplay), which also went to Anderson; best film editing; and a brand new category, best casting. This category was the first one added since the award for best animated feature film was added in 2001. Cassandra Kulukundis was the first-ever winner of this category, saying during her speech that she dedicated this award “to the casting directors that never got the chance to get up here.”
Though One Battle After Another was the film that won the most awards of the night and Sinners only won four out of its record-breaking sixteen nominations, Sinnersfans were not left completely disappointed. Ryan Coogler won his first Oscar for best writing (original screenplay), and Michael B. Jordan went home with the award for best actor in a leading role, which people feel was well deserved, although there is definitely a crowd that believes it should have gone to Timothée Chalamet in Marty Supreme.
Autumn Durald Arkapaw was the first woman, and the first Black woman, to ever win in the category of cinematography for her work in Sinners. In the history of the category, she is one of only four total women to be nominated in this category, and she made history with her win, asking all of the women in the audience to stand up, because “I don’t get here without you.” Sinners also won for best original score, which was done by Ludwig Göransson. This was his second Oscar that he won for a film created by Coogler, as he also won for best original score with Black Panther in 2018.
As was expected, Jessie Buckley took home an Oscar for best actress in a leading role for her work in Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet, and she was the first Irish woman to have ever won in this category. She dedicated this award “to the beautiful chaos of a mother’s heart,” after just recently becoming a mother herself. She also added, "We come from a lineage of women who continue to thrive against all odds,” continuing this year’s theme of women recognizing women in their speeches. Buckley also won awards at the Actor Awards, the BAFTA Awards, the Critics’ Choice Awards, and the Golden Globes, completing her award season sweep.
Some other expected winners were Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, winning best international feature film; Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, winning in costume design, makeup and hairstyling, and production design; and K-Pop Demon Hunters winning both best animated feature film and best original song for “Golden.” One unexpected moment of the night was there being two winners for the live action short film category. “The Singers” and “Two People Exchanging Saliva” tied, which is only one of seven total ties in Academy history.
This 2025 Academy Awards season was, as always, divisive with the choices of winners, but there were historic moments made this year. The full results for the 2025 Oscars are listed on the ABC website and videos of acceptance speeches and other highlights are available for free also on ABC.