Highlights and Lowlights from the 2025 Oscars
2025’s Oscars was a great show from start to finish despite its once again bloated length. So what were the high and lows of the annual awards?
5. Highlight-Conan’s Perfomance
Conan had probably the best showing from a host in at least a decade. It may be skewed by the fact that anybody besides Kimmel again would be a positive but he did a great job keeping things light even with his dark humor. That;’s a tough task for anyone. He also didn't overstay his welcome nor disrespect any of the guests. The Drake and Trump jokes were also amazing.
4. Lowlight-Chalamet Snubbed Again
This writer and what appeared to be most of America wanted old Timmy to finally take the Oscar home. Sadly, we can add his reaction video to his loser’s face compilation. I really felt like this was the year for him. 5 years of training usually doesn’t go unnoticed yet the voters wanted to pick a guy whose movie used AI and was very similar to a character he won it for years ago. This didn’t feel like the right call even if Brody gave a great performance.
4. Highlight-Mikey Madison’s Surprise Win
Not gonna lie, I didn’t really think anyone stood a chance against Demi Moore. She was my pick although when they announced Mikey I was pleasantly surprised unless the Best Actor decision. Mikey has showed promise in Scream and Once Upon a time in Hollywood but who thought she had this in her. She was extremely dedicated to this role, meeting and learning from sex workers for preparation. Mikey was dynamic in Anora and was just as deserving as Demi.
3. Lowlight-Nosferatu Gets Shut Out
This is a minor gripe here, but Nosferatu had arguably the worst night of the multi-nominated films. It was great to see that they were given four nods for Costume and Production design, Makeup and hairstyling, and cinematopgraphy - but they went home empty handed. One of the Wicked wins could have gone to them but hey more on that later.
3. Highlight-Dune’s Achievements
DUNEEEEEE. Yours truly is a huge fan and was super excited to see how the awards went with their five nominations. Fortunately for me, they took home the award for Best Visual Effect and Sound for the epic movie that is its sequel. Dune: Part Two improves one everything from the first movie and I was stoked to see that the Academy felt the same way. Crossing my fingers the third one lives up the now sky-high expectations.
2. Lowlight-Brody’s Acceptance Speech
When they announced Adrien Brody’s win for Best Actor, I was already annoyed by the fact that Chalamet was not picked. It was also at the point of the night where things were dragging on. Luckily for us, Adrien Brody decided to make it worse with the insanely drawn out speech that wasn't very good even to begin with. Who does he think he is waving away the play off music and say he would be brief before going to speak for another eternity. Just some irritating stuff although I did appreciate his attention to anti-semitism.
2. Highlight-Wicked’s Performance
Dare I say, I am the not biggest Wicked fan in the world. Yet, I still acknowledge how well-crafted of a movie it was in almost all facets. They had been shut out by most voters in the other award shows so the Oscars felt like it was the last stop of the same treatment. To the audience’s delight, they bagged both Best Production and Costume Design which I felt was the perfect amount for what they brought to the table. Cynthia and Ariana also shined to kick off the show and I wanted to give them their kudos.
Lowlight-The Runtime
I don’t want to nitpick here, as the Oscars was an entertaining event this year. However, they do need to figure out how to shorten the broadcast. Despite starting an hour earlier this year, things were starting to drag on about an hour prior to the Best Picture announcement. Even Conan looked tired of this.
Highlight-Anora Takes Home All the Gold
Hands down the biggest highlight of the show was Anora’s killer performance. With five wins to their name, they shockingly became 2025’s winningest film. they were gaining momentum heading into the presentation but this still felt like The Brutalist’ to lose for multiple categories like Best Picture and Best Director. I’m more than happy to see that wasn’t the case and that they spotlighted a movie such as Anora. Ending on a different note here: I loved Kieran Culkin’s acceptance speech it was just awesome. Nonetheless, the show was an overall 8/10 that subverted expectations throughout.
