If you look back over the history of the Oscars, you’ll see just how often past winners were huge movies in scope. From Around the World in Eighty Days to Gladiator, epics were the name of the game. That’s still a trend that emerges (last year’s Oppenheimer, as one example). But the 2025 Academy Awards proved that Oscar voters also have a real appreciation for stories that are small in scope, as Anora won Best Picture along with four other major awards.
In fact, of this year’s nominees, Anora wasn’t just one of the smaller stories, but also probably the one that might best be described as a comedy. (Proof that things have really changed for the Oscars.) Its momentum was so powerful that it overwhelmed the expected win for Demi Moore in The Substance; Moore’s awards season narrative was a powerful one, but it couldn’t overcome the Academy’s affection for the story of Mikey Madison’s sex worker facing off against Russian oligarchs.
Perhaps, as host Conan O’Brien joked later in the evening, “people are excited to see someone stand up to a powerful Russian” in today’s climate. That joke, for the record, was perhaps one of the very few politically-themed bits of the night. Otherwise, what’s currently happening in American politics was largely left on the sidelines — overall, the night’s most political moment came from the winners for Documentary Feature Film, No Other Land, who spoke about “the atrocious destruction of Gaza and its people, which must end, and the Israeli hostages brutally taken in the crime of October 7th, which must be freed” in their acceptance speech.
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The biggest win for epics this year came via The Brutalist: While Brady Corbet’s very long drama and A Complete Unknown both tracked many years in the lives of their male protagonists, Adrian Brody ultimately won over Timothée Chalamet for playing a fictional architect. In fact, perhaps the biggest loser of the night was Bob Dylan: Not only did his biopic go winless, but the legendary folk singer was also the butt of multiple jokes throughout the night, including Mick Jagger pointing out that he’s younger.
Going into this year’s awards, there were a lot of question marks as to who would actually win in multiple categories: The only expected outcome to come true was Supporting Actor winner Kieran Culkin for A Real Pain. Otherwise, there was a respectable amount of sharing the wealth in terms of awards, with eight of the 10 Best Picture nominees winning at least one award. (Nickel Boys was the only other shutout, having been nominated for Best Picture as well as Adapted Screenplay.) This wealth-sharing was especially true in the crafts categories, with The Brutalist taking Cinematography and Score, Conclave taking Wicked taking Production Design and Costume Design, Emilia Perez winning for Original Song, and Dune: Part Two taking Sound and Visual Effects.
Production-wise, O’Brien did not run as tight a ship as he promised in his opening monologue (which did include a cheeky time-wasting musical number about how he wasn’t going to waste any time that night): The show ran three hours and 45 minutes, with the promised tributes to James Bond and Quincy Jones adding some musical moments but not much heft to the proceedings. At least we had some quality comedy bits scattered through the night, like Ben Stiller’s presentation for the Best Production Design Award (below).
Meanwhile, the In Memoriam segment did not, as past years have, turn into a distracting dance party on stage. Instead, the producers went in perhaps the most dramatically different direction possible: A choir performed “Lacrimosa” from Mozart’s Requiem while the deceased were recognized via montage. It was almost a touch too heavy-handed; more emotionally impactful was Morgan Freeman’s heartfelt tribute to Gene Hackman, who just passed away this week at the age of 95.
Still, one nice touch from the In Memoriam was the way it showcased the achievements of below-the-line artists, making sure to specify the films worked on by talent you might not know by name. In fact, between O’Brien’s monologue acknowledging the hard-working men and women responsible for what we see on screen, and the use of the Five Presenters format to pay tribute to the nominees for Cinematography, Costume Design, and other categories, the Oscars demonstrated a lot of respect for the craft of filmmaking — at any scale.
Will another intimate movie triumph at the 2026 Academy Awards? There are some notable epics due to be released in 2025. But a year like this one is a reminder that if a film like Anora can win like this, literally anything is possible at the Oscars. All thanks to the magic of the movies.
