NEW HEROES CHALLENGE HOLLYWOOD

Article by Felice Kinnear, Carly Thomas, Zoe G. Phillips & Lexi Carson

T’was film’s biggest night and all through the house, was decadence, controversy and tossed gum to a spouse. Visions dreamt by directors and artists from far, far away. Animation, horror and long winded speeches took our breath’s away. More views than the Super Bowl created new categories to beat. Where courage, creativity and feather rufflers came to meet. While there were tons of surprises at the Academy Awards, many epic moments on March 2, flew under the radar at the Dolby Theatre. When the nominations were unveiled last September, Demi Moore aged 62, female director Coralie Fargeat of The Substance, director Emilia Pérez, Wicked, Flow and Diane Warren were among the nominees make entirely new categories and records to beat

A brave new hero who spent his adolescent he dreaming of working for NASA growing up in country on hte brink of political upheavel settled for a different war amongst stars. Sebastian Stan, who was orginally cast to play received recognition for his ability to dissapear seamlessly into each repugnent character he has cjosen to play over the last 30 years. mirror a similar biograpphy to László Tóth the to a severe politcal regimes backround that began to the Brutalist, which he was orginally the part too. and recently challenged Trump with his first academy award nomination for his impersenation the President in the apprentice. Sebastian Stan’s began his story in Romania at a time he had to leran to survive amongst political rubble. The tulmelterous backdrop sparked intrigue with complex characters and edged him towards a remarkable career of playing repugnant characters.

Stan first dipped his toe in Hollywood by playing Carter in Gossip Girl before he leapt into the centre of the Marvel Universe as The Winter Soilder. He also lept with both feet into playing Tommy Lee without his or Pamela Anderson permission and is now holding up his middle finger to the loaded political gun of the president. Through this role he has revealed and brazenly asks ‘what is the cost of the American dream.’ He lives by ‘you gotta have an honest living.’

Unteathered to the repocutions of his raw dipiction of Americas unpredictable president, Sebastian Stan is scultping a well desreed reputation of artfully breathing life into Hollywood’s most thrilling villan and character contortionist. The characters out of grasp for most actors or performers seem to light Sebasitions creative fuse and turn a spotlight onto his high degree of flexibility and hypermobility, enabling them to bend and twist their body into unusual and often unnatural positions. physical conto shape-shifter for several poinant reasons.

But potentially the most middle finger up to the presieent up perhaps the most concrete evidence of is eerily accurate portrayal in The Apprentice is Presdent Trump’s reaction itself. Since the films release in December 2024 Trump threatened to sue the film flexing his right to The lady doth protest too much – Trump has accused The Apprentice of using ‘blatantly false assertions from pretend filmmakers,” in a statement to Variety. “This ‘film’ is pure malicious defamation, should not see the light of day, and doesn’t even deserve a place in the straight-to-DVD section of a bargain bin at a soon-to-be-Dumpster closed discount movie store, it belongs in a dumpster fire,” the statement read. Trump’s attorneys sent a cease and desist letter to the filmmakers in May, in hopes of blocking its release in the U.S.

“The Apprentice Film Makers Hold Cool Calm and Collected as Trump fires threats. A Crisp unbothered, response came shortly after “The film is a fair and balanced portrait of the former president.” the producers of the film based the movie on several Family depositions and Documented lawsuits found Here: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-niece-files-suit-saying-family-cheated-her-of-millions. he Wrap, Casetext, NBC, NPR, FBI, New York Times, The Trump Organization, PBS, Variety, The Economic Times, ABC News

The producers added, “We want everyone to see it and then decide

 Feige says that, without Stan, the character’s strange journey wouldn’t have been the emotional gut punch it is – Vanity Fair. Abbasi told TheWrap that in addition to covering the story of how Cohn helped Trump “become the person we now know,” the film is also “a story of a system, the depiction of the American system, the legal system, the inherent corruption in a system that allowed people like Roy Cohn to navigate freely and sort of pull the levers of power as they see fit.”

Chastain saw Stan do that very thing in 2017’s I, Tonya, in which he played Tonya Harding’s then husband, who hatched the scheme to sabotage her rival, Nancy Kerrigan. He’s also played the son of Meryl Streep as a failed rock star Ricki and the Flash’ and

Featuring “When so many people are trying to make you this conventional movie star, it’s a risk to do something that isn’t that,” Chastain says. “He’s willing to play unlikable characters. I find that executives have trouble with characters that may be complex and have dark sides to them. He really embraces that. He’s not happy to just be a conventional movie star.”

Independent Vs Disney: Sean Baker had a massive night at the Oscars regardless of Anora’s modest six million budget. Anora was the big winner at the 97th Academy Awards, and since Sean Baker had his hands in every part of production, he won the majority of the film’s awards. His original script based on a sex worker afforded him Best Director, Best Editing, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Picture. Sean Baker’s four Oscars in one night ties him with Walt Disney, for the most Oscars, won in one night. Interestingly, all of Sean Baker’s Oscars were for the same movie, while Walt Disney’s won for four different movies. This arguably makes Sean Baker’s wins more impressive, with Anora‘s performance being one of the most significant stories coming out of the 2025 Oscars.

Wicked and Emilia Pérez Sing and Dance into History: Wicked and Emilia Pérez‘s Best Picture nominations mark the first time two musicals have been nominated in the category since 1968. The last time more than one musical was nominated for the Oscars’ top prize, the nominees were Oliver! and Funny Girl. The 2025 Oscars also marks the second time that two musicals each received 10 or more nominations in the same year. Emilia Pérez received 13 nods while Wicked received 10. Meanwhile, the last time two musicals each received double-digit Oscar nods in the same ceremony was in 1965, when Mary Poppins was nominated for 13 statuettes, while My Fair Lady was nominated for 12.

Jacques Audiard, who is nominated for both directing and original song for Emilia Pérez, is only the third person to earn a nod in both those categories and the first to do so in the same year and for the same film. He is credited for co-writing the lyrics to “El Mal.” Previously, Leo McCarey was nominated for directing in 1937, 1944 and 1945 and original song in 1957, in addition to Spike Jonze scoring a directing nomination in 1999 and original score nod in 2013. France’s Emilia Pérez takes France’s record number of nominations for best international feature to 39.

Italy is in second place, with 30 nominations. Emilia Pérez was also this year’s most nominated film, with 13 nods, which also set a record for a non-English-language film. Among other categories, the film is up for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress. Spanish-born Karla Sofía Gascón is the first openly transgender actress to receive a nomination. On the music side, Diane Warren and sound mixer Andy Nelson continue their reigns as Warren has now been nominated for an original song Oscar 16 times while Nelson’s 25 nominations make him second only to John Williams (with 54) for the most nominations for a living person. For this year’s Oscars, Ariana Grande, Sebastian Stan, Zoe Saldaña and more may be first-time nominees but this year, the directors competing in the best director race are also all first-time nominees in the category.

The 65-year Record Broken by Adrien Brody: Back in 1960, Charlton Heston set a record for the longest screentime for a Best Actor winner, boasting two hours and one minute for his role in Ben-Hur. Adrien smashed this record by almost seven minutes having been on-screen in The Brutalist for two hours and eight minutes. As well as breaking this record, on May 2nd he also made an entirely new category to beat. The King Kong star is currently the youngest ever Best Actor winner, having picked up the award when he was 29 for his performance in 2002’s The Pianist. After winning best Actor he is now the first person to win the lead actor category with his first two nominations. He’ll join a small group of actors with a 100 per cent success rate for two or more nominations, including Hilary Swank, Kevin Spacey, Christoph Waltz and Mahershala Ali.

Adrien Brody also became the latest winner to successfully get the orchestra to stop playing mid-speech at the 2025 Oscars. Only a handful of A-listers before him like Michael Moore to Bette Midler to Regina King, have refused to let their speeches be cut short at awards shows including the Oscars, the Emmys, the Tonys and the Golden Globes. They are just a few in a string of famous faces who have stood their ground against producers and an orchestra all too quick to start the music and disrupt their acceptance speeches. Brody beats the record of 5 minutes and 30 seconds held by Greer Garson when she won for ‘Mrs. Miniver’ in 1943.

All Five Best Actress Nominees Are Also in Best Picture Contenders: This year’s best actress nominees are in a close race, but what’s even closer is the best picture slot. Cynthia Erivo, Karla Sofía Gascón, Mikey Madison, Demi Moore and Fernanda Torres are all in the running for best actress. Erivo’s Wicked, Gascón’s Emilia Pérez, Madison’s Anora, Moore’s The Substance and Torres’ I’m Still Here are all up for best picture. This accomplishment marks the first time in 47 years that all of the best actress nominees’ films are up for best picture. Emilia Pérez, directed by Jacques Audiard, is leading the race with a total of 13 nods, which is a new Oscar record for a non-English language movie

Directors in a Class of their Own: For this year’s Oscars, Jacques Audiard (Emilia Pérez), Sean Baker (Anora), Brady Corbet (The Brutalist), Coralie Fargeat (The Substance) and James Mangold (A Complete Unknown) are all first-time nominees in the category. Fargeat’s is the 10th Best Director nomination for a woman. The last time an entirely new class of nominees competed in the director race was in 1998 when James Cameron (Titanic), Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty), Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting), Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential),and Peter Weir (The Truman Show) were honored. Cameron won the Oscar at the time.

Succession’s Roy Brothers Face Off as First-Time Nominees: May the best Roy brother win. Kieran Culkin is nominated in the Best Supporting actor category for his work in A Real Pain, alongside his TV brother, Jeremy Strong, who is nominated for The Apprentice. In A Real Pain, Culkin plays Benji Kaplan, who travels to Poland to honor his late grandmother and learn more about his Jewish heritage. In The Apprentice, Strong, plays political fixer, Roy Cohn, in the film that focuses on Cohn’s mentorship of a young Donald Trump. Both Culkin and Strong are first-time Oscar nominees. But they each picked up an Emmy for their work in the beloved HBO series Succession, so the question remains: Who will score the Oscar? 

Animation Levels Up. Flow is the first independent film to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, with this being a big step forward for independent animation. Flow is also the first Latvian film to win Best Animated Feature, with the film doubling down on its record-breaking status. The Wild Robot also made history with director Chris Sanders tieing the record for most nominations for animated feature film. This is Sanders’ fourth nod in the same category, after 2012’s The Croods, 2010’s How to Train Your Dragon and 2002’s Lilo & Stitch. He is tied with Hayao Miyazaki and Pixar’s Pete Docter.

Black British Designer to Wins Best Costume

In a night full of major awards, Wicked‘s Best Costume Design win is one of the most significant. Another record was broken thanks to its winner, Paul Tazewell – the first black man to win the Oscar for Best Costume Design. He won the award for his artistic vision and execution on Wicked, with the critically acclaimed costume department being one of the most memorable parts of the film’s production design. After his nomination for 2021’s West Side Story remake, losing to Cruella, Paul Tazewell finally won for Wicked, lifting Hollywood’s biggest night into a new sphere. With nine new world records set by independent artists and film makers, 2025 has expanded its standards to reward diversity giving hope to ambitious talent from all nationalities.

Cynthia Erivo received a historic nod by becoming the first Black British woman to receive two nods for acting — this year for Wicked and in 2020 for Harriet. surpassing 2025 super bowl social media impressions. Hosted by O’Brien, the 97th Oscars, held earlier this month on March 2, delivered a five-year high in both total viewers (19.69 million) and adults viewers aged 18-49 (4.54 rating) and ranked as the number one primetime entertainment telecast in both total viewers and adults for the 2024-2025 seasonThe 97th Oscars earned 104.2 million total social interactions, ranking as the number one most social TV program season-to-date, outperforming both The Grammy Awards (102.2 million interactions) and The Super Bowl (62.4 million) this season for the first time on record.

Non-English Language Films Are Making Moves 

Emilia Pérez and I’m Still Here are only the 10th and 11th non-English language films to be nominated for both International Feature Film and Best Picture in the same year. Previous films nominated in both categories that ultimately won best International Feature. In addition, three acting nominations are for non-English language performances, including Emilia Pérez stars Karla Sofía Gascón and Zoe Saldaña, and I’m Still Here actress Fernanda Torres. In eight of the last 10 years, at least one non-English language performance has been nominated in the acting categories.