It was Anora’s night: NPR

Among Sunday evenings’ Oscars, there was a big winner, a lot of sincere speeches and not a lot of politics.

Here are eight things to know:

Many films have been recognized, but it was AnoraThe night.

The previous films of director Sean Baker, including Tangerine And Florida’s projectwere independent punishment, but they did not win the greatest prices. AnoraThe story of a sex worker who marries a former client and mixes with Russian oligarchs, has become his escape on the stadium of the Oscars. Baker won the prize for the best original script, then one for the edition, then one for the best director. Mikey Madison won the best actress, then the film crowned the evening with the victory that seemed inevitable: the best film. Because Baker is a producer, this best victory in the film meant that he personally won four Oscars in one night, which binds him with a fairly known filmmaker named Walt Disney. (Bong Joon-Ho accepted four to ParasiteBut one was for the best international feature film, which is officially given to the whole film, not to the director.)

That said, eight of the 10 nominees for the best films – all except A complete unknown And Nickel boys – I went home with something.

There was only one real surprise.

Most races have gone as planned: Kieran Culkin as best support actor for A real painand Zoe Saldaña as the best support actress for Emilia PérezAdrien Brody as best actor for The brutalist – All these people had made a lot of bonuses before Sunday evening. The only surprise arrived late in the evening when Mikey Madison won the best actress for Anora On half moore. It is a modest surprise, since Madison had in fact been a first favorite in the category. But Moore had made a hell of a race through the precursor prices for his turn The substanceAnd she was the favorite. In the end, however, Madison obtained the great victory.

People were talking a lot – but rarely politics.

Television started at 7 p.m. in the East, which is on the first side. It has left time for it to flow for a long time without becoming horribly late. And that’s what happened. The ceremony was loose and personal, leaving more space than in most years for presenters and winners to speak. And they talked about their work, the work of others and their appreciation for their profession. (Perhaps in particular Adrien Brody, who obstructed in an involuntary salvation at the operating time of 3.5 hours The brutalist.) But there was not much mention of politics, although politics was at the center of the minds of so many people. Daryl Hannah, presenting, said “Slava Ukraini”, but most of the winners did not take the opportunity to speak explicitly at the national or international political time – with a large exception.

The winner of the best documentary feature still has no American distribution.

In January, Justin Chang wrote that No other land “Bring us to Masafer Yatta, a community of Palestinian villages in the south of the Israeli Western West Westway, which is in bulldozer by the Israeli army to make room for a tanks of tanks.” He also said that the film, directed by a team of Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers, was “the most powerful non-fiction film (IL) saw in 2024”. Then, as now, it was missing from American distribution; In mid-February, the filmmakers were self-distributed to a few cinemas. The filmmakers spoke powerfully about the stadium of Oscars not only of the destruction described in the film, but also of their frustration towards American foreign policy. It is now almost certainly the most decorated film of last year not to be widely available in the United States.

A film rarely makes as much change of fortune as Emilia Pérez.

The story of Netflix of a transgender cartel boss once seemed on the right track to deliver the stream his first best image victory. He received 13 superb Oscar nominations, despite criticisms and reactions that have never fully equaled the reception that the film received in Cannes. But then, the main actress Karla Sofía Gascón saw her chances rushing after a scandal broke out on derogatory comments that she had made online several years ago on Islam, China and other subjects.

The story of Zoe Saldaña in Hollywood dates back over 20 years and includes time spent in the Star Trek universe, in the Marvel cinematographic universe and in Crossroads With Britney Spears. This experience can be the way she resisted negative advertising and won an Oscar, just like the original song “El Mal”. But the film itself has largely disappeared from the best image conversation, and Gascón of the Best Actress race, where it was the first openly transgender interpreter ever nominated in any category of actor.

No one missed the songs.

This year’s ceremony was done without the usual performances of the best nominees of original songs. Instead, there was an opening sequence of a killer featuring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo singing a mixture of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, “Home” (from from from Wizˆ), and (of course) “defying gravity”. There were also older Oscars numbers: a tribute to James Bond presented the singers Lisa, Doja Cat and Raye making some of the best -known Bond themes, while Queen Latifah went out to sing “ease on the road” in honor of Quincy Jones. In a year when the nominees of original songs were a bit of a “ragtag” (there was no “I’m jut ke” or “why I was done?”, No “naatu naatu” or “husavik”), it was wise not to count on them to animate the ceremony.

Accommodation is still very difficult; Conan was up to it.

Conan O’Brien did not have the most fluid beginning, although following the Erivo / Grande opening would have been difficult for anyone. He put his feet under him quickly, and when he arrived at his own silly opening number (called, sarcastically, “I will not waste time”), he turned into Conan’s comfortable bizarre that many of us know. A gag with a Dune Sandworm playing musical instruments had the same absurd quality and bad talent that his late evening show has always done – in the best way. He also commented later in the evening that people might like Anora Because they wanted to see “someone to resist a powerful Russian”, which was probably the closest thing we saw a direct joke by Donald Trump.

The structure has left a little more time to talk about the heart.

This year’s approach to some of the main categories was to ask the presenters to personally talk about each candidate. It could be a boring disaster, but it took a good start with Robert Downey Jr. talking seriously about his admiration for Jeremy Strong and the other nominees of supporting players. And they have not only used this format for the actors. They did it for the costumers, and they also did it for the filmmakers. When is the last time that the Oscars gave us actors speaking of the heart of their appreciation of filmmakers in their nominated films?

The evening was efficient with seriousness, whether these presentations, Andrew Garfield told Goldie Hawn how much his mother loved his work, or Zoe Saldaña’s emotional speech on what it meant for her to win an Oscar for having spoken and sung in Spanish.

The whole ceremony is always long and it remains self-indulgent. But all other things being equal, it goes down more easily when people have enough room to be grateful and complement each other.