97th Academy Awards facts for kids

Quick facts for kids 97th Academy Awards
Official poster
Date	March 2, 2025
Site	Dolby Theatre Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Hosted by	Conan O'Brien
Preshow hosts	Julianne Hough Jesse Palmer
Produced by	Raj Kapoor Katy Mullan
Directed by	Hamish Hamilton
Highlights
Best Picture	Anora
Most awards	Anora (5)
Most nominations	Emilia Pérez (13)
TV in the United States
Network	Broadcast: ABC Streaming: Hulu
Duration	3 hours, 50 minutes
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The 97th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During the evening, the AMPAS presented the Academy Awards (the Oscars) in 23 categories, honoring films released in 2024. The ceremony was televised in the United States by ABC and streamed on Hulu for the first time. Comedian Conan O'Brien was the host of the show for the first time, with Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan returning as executive producers.

Anora won a leading five awards, including Best Picture. Other winners included The Brutalist with three awards, Dune: Part Two, Emilia Pérez, and Wicked with two awards each, and Conclave, Flow, I'm Not a Robot, I'm Still Here, In the Shadow of the Cypress, No Other Land, The Only Girl in the Orchestra, A Real Pain, and The Substance with one each.

Key dates

Winners and nominees

The nominees for the 97th Academy Awards were announced on January 23, 2025, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, by actress Rachel Sennott and actor Bowen Yang. Emilia Pérez received the most Academy Award nominations for a non-English-language film, surpassing Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and Roma (2018) with 10 each. For her performance in the film, Spanish actress Karla Sofía Gascón became the first openly transgender performer to be nominated in an acting category. Emilia Pérez and I'm Still Here are also the 10th and 11th non-English language films to be nominated for both Best Picture and Best International Feature Film in the same year; this is the first time that two films have been nominated for both categories, with Emilia Pérez the first film nominated in both categories to lose both awards.

Nominated for his performance as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, 29-year-old Timothée Chalamet became the youngest two-time Best Actor nominee since James Dean in 1957. Chalamet had previously been nominated for Best Actor for Call Me By Your Name in 2018. Yura Borisov became the first Oscar-nominated Russian actor since Mikhail Baryshnikov for The Turning Point in 1978. For her direction on the body horror satire The Substance, Coralie Fargeat became the 9th woman to be nominated for Best Director. I'm Still Here became the first Portuguese-language film to be nominated for Best Picture. Flow became the second animated film to receive nominations for both Best Animated Feature and Best International Feature Film after Flee (2021). Memoir of a Snail became the second R-rated animated film to be nominated for Best Animated Feature after Anomalisa (2015), another stop-motion animated film.

Both Jacques Audiard (for Emilia Pérez) and Sean Baker (for Anora) received four nominations, becoming the 8th and 9th individuals to achieve this feat in a single year. Furthermore, the Best Director nominees—Audiard, Baker, Brady Corbet (for The Brutalist), Fargeat, and James Mangold (for A Complete Unknown)—are all first-time nominees in the category; the latter three all receiving three nominations. The last time an entirely new lineup of nominees competed in the director race was in 1998. For the first time since 1978, all the films featuring Best Actress nominees are also nominated for Best Picture. Sound mixer Andy Nelson continued to be recognized as one of the Academy's most honored individuals, receiving a nomination for Wicked; with a total of 25 nominations, he is second only to John Williams (with 54) for the most nominations for a living person. Sean Baker's four wins tied with Walt Disney for most Oscars won by a person in the same year. He is the only person to win four Oscars in the same night for the same movie.

Awards

Sean Baker, Best Picture co-winner and Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Editing winner

Samantha Quan, Best Picture co-winner

Adrien Brody, Best Actor winner

Mikey Madison, Best Actress winner

Kieran Culkin, Best Supporting Actor winner

Zoe Saldaña, Best Supporting Actress winner

Gints Zilbalodis, Best Animated Feature co-winner

Walter Salles, Best International Feature Film winner

Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham, Best Documentary Feature Film co-winners

Daniel Blumberg, Best Original Score winner

Clément Ducol and Camille, Best Original Song co-winners

Jacques Audiard, Best Original Song co-winner

Richard King, Best Sound co-winner

Lol Crawley, Best Cinematography winner

Paul Tazewell, Best Costume Design winner

Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger (‡).

Governors Awards

The Academy held its 15th annual Governors Awards ceremony on November 17, 2024, during which the following awards were presented:

Academy Honorary Awards

• Quincy Jones – "A prominent figure with an illustrious musical career spanning seven decades". (posthumous)
• Juliet Taylor – "A prolific casting director who is behind some of the most acclaimed casts in film history".

Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award

• Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson – For "their contribution to the industry's theatrical landscape".

Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award

• Richard Curtis – "A brilliant comedic storyteller [with] tremendous charitable efforts".

Films with multiple nominations and awards

Presenters and performers

The following individuals, listed in order of appearance, presented awards or tributes:

The following individuals, listed in order of appearance, performed musical numbers:

Ceremony information

Conan O'Brien hosted the 97th Academy Awards.

In October 2024, the Academy hired television producers Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan, for the second year in a row, to oversee production of the 2025 ceremony with veteran television director Hamish Hamilton selected to direct the telecast, also for the second consecutive year and his fifth time overall. "We are delighted to announce the return of our incredibly dynamic and creative Oscars team, Raj, Katy, Hamish, Misty, Alana and Dave. And we are thrilled to announce the addition of the brilliant Michael Bearden," said AMPAS CEO Bill Kramer and AMPAS President Janet Yang in a press release justifying their selection of the producers. "Their love for cinema, their collective creative vision, and their unparalleled expertise in live television make them the perfect team to create an exceptional show for our global audience on the film industry's biggest night." In response, Kapoor and Mullan released a statement, stating: "We are thrilled to lead the brilliant Oscars production team again and work alongside the Academy and Disney/ABC to help create an unforgettable night of television for movie lovers worldwide. We hope to continue to inspire and connect new generations to share our love for the art of filmmaking and celebrate all the incredible artists who are Oscar-nominated this year."

The following month, comedian, former talk show host and podcaster Conan O'Brien was announced as host of the event. Before this decision, speculation and word from reliable sources indicated the Academy was leaning toward a format with multiple hosts sharing duties throughout the show; this was floated after both Jimmy Kimmel, who hosted four times (in 2017, 2018, 2023, and 2024), and John Mulaney, who had hosted the 14th Governors Awards to much praise, both reportedly turned down the opportunity. A combo of Deadpool & Wolverine stars Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman were also among those buzzed to be in the mix, but Reynolds told Deadline Hollywood that it was highly unlikely though he said he would like to host it with Jackman "someday". As for the production team, returning to the telecast are Rob Paine as co-executive producer, Taryn Hurd and Sarah Levine Hall as producers, Mandy Moore as supervising choreographer, and Bob Dickinson and Noah Mitz as lighting designers; producers Jeff Ross and Mike Sweeney, long-time collaborators of O'Brien, join the team for the first time. Collaborating with O'Brien as writers are Amberia Allen, José Arroyo, Josh Comers, Dan Cronin, Jessie Gaskell, Skyler Higley, Berkley Johnson, Ian Karmel, Brian Kiley, Laurie Kilmartin, Carol Leifer, Jon Macks, Matt O'Brien, Agathe Panaretos, and Sweeney.

In February 2025, the Academy announced that the telecast would not include past acting winners presenting the nominees for the acting categories. This format, dubbed as the "Fab 5", first used in 2009 and featuring five previous winners praising one acting nominee each, was brought back in 2024 after a fifteen-year absence. Instead, it will be used in categories to highlight below-the-line talent, with notable Oscar winners speaking out about the contributions of people behind the scenes. For the acting categories, the format has not yet been announced, though the previous ceremony's acting winners were confirmed as presenters; all four will most likely speak generally and then name the nominees for a category. For the third year in a row, the ceremony will feature a special tribute to the James Bond franchise, in this case to honor longtime franchise producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson following being honored with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for "their contribution to the industry's theatrical landscape".

For the second year in a row, Amelia Dimoldenberg returned as the social media ambassador and red carpet correspondent. The ceremony, for the first time, was streamed live on Hulu and internationally on Disney+. On December 5, 2024, ABC announced that a special half-hour preview of season 23 of American Idol would air immediately following the ceremony.

Impact of Los Angeles wildfires

Voting for the nearly 10,000 Academy members opened on January 8, 2025, and was originally set to close on January 12, but due to the Southern California wildfires, the deadline for Oscar nomination voting was extended to January 17. The nominations announcement, originally scheduled to be announced on January 17, was delayed to January 23.

Changes to the ceremony itself would also occur in the wake of the wildfires, with the Academy choosing to honor the Los Angeles community and its role in the film industry. As part of this shift, it was announced that the five musical pieces nominated for Best Original Song would not be performed live, and instead the songwriters will be highlighted through personal reflections and behind-the-scenes insight from the creative teams behind the music. In response, the Society of Composers & Lyricists urged the Academy to walk back its decision. A letter was sent to the Academy's CEO, president and board of governors, as well as to the producers of the telecast; the Academy declined to comment. During a virtual panel discussion for the Songwriters Hall of Fame in which all the songwriter nominees were in attendance, Diane Warren (nominated for "The Journey" from The Six Triple Eight) deemed the decision "extremely disrespectful". She added: "We've all written songs that are really integral to the movies they're in. And to me, it's unfair to both the nominees and the audience out there to not be able to hear them."

In January 2025, addressing how the wildfires would affect preparation of the ceremony and his position as host, O'Brien told The Hollywood Reporter: "It's not the easiest assignment I've ever had, but I'm embracing it. And it's not about me, obviously. This is a moment for all of us to step back and say, 'Be humble.' Just be humble and say, 'This is a massive moment. This is a terrible thing that's happened in Los Angeles' ... The strategy is my writers and I, and the team that I'm working with at the Oscars, who are fantastic, the producers, everyone, we've got all of our sensors out." That same month, O'Brien further expanded on his process amid the tragedies, speaking with ABC News on Good Morning America, stating: "There's a lot that's happening nationally that people are very tense about and it changes day to day. And so my job right now with my writers is to create possibilities ... That's what we're doing. We're working hard to create possibilities."

Technical glitch for Hulu

Streaming service Hulu crashed multiple times throughout the ceremony and ended the live event early just before the Best Actress nominees were announced.

"In Memoriam"

The "In Memoriam" segment, which featured the Los Angeles Master Chorale performing "Lacrimosa" from Mozart's Requiem, paid tribute to the following individuals:

The segment faced criticism for omitting several significant personalities, notably Jim Abrahams, Alain Delon, Bernard Hill, Michelle Trachtenberg (who had died the week prior), Tony Todd, Olivia Hussey, Linda Lavin, Martin Mull, and Shannen Doherty.

See also

In Spanish: 97.ª edición de los Premios Óscar para niños