The 2025 Oscars will be remembered for its surprising spotlight on Sean Baker’s “Anora”, and for being what seems to be the first celebrity event in months where politics didn’t have a seat at the table. Here are three key takeaways of the big night on Sunday: 

A “Wicked” Good Opening from Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande

As the world awaited 2025 Oscars host Conan O’Brien’s opening monologue, viewers were dazzled by a gravity defying opening performance by “Wicked” stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande instead. 

After a short montage of films set in Los Angeles as a tribute to the devastating L.A. fires, the “Wicked” duo set out for another sensational performance. 

Ariana Grande kicked off the show wearing a glistening red gown to sing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from “The Wizard of Oz.” She then handed the spotlight to Erivo, nominated for best actress in a leading role, who sang a beautiful rendition of “Home” from “The Wiz.” The two then joined to serenade the crowd with “Wicked” showstopper “Defying gravity”; a performance not even the wizard himself could have stopped. 

The performance set a magical tone for the night, and “Wicked” earned ten Oscar nominations. Grande even earned her first ever Oscar nomination for her role as Glinda, but at the end of the night, the film ended up with just one victory for best film editing. 

Sean Baker’s “Anora” Made Oscars History

Sean Baker’s “The Florida Project” of 2017 became widely known as an indie darling, casting a spell over the Gen Z Tiktok community as well as The American Film Institute, who placed it in their top ten films of 2017. However, the film was made on a smaller budget and didn’t receive the biggest awards. The same cannot be said for “Anora”, which took home four Oscars this year, tying Walt Disney’s record for most Academy Awards won by a single person in one year. 

The film, which tells the not so Cinderella story of a sex worker who weds the son of a Russian oligarch, was awarded best picture and three other Oscars at the 97th Academy Awards. Sean Baker was victorious in the categories best director and best original screenplay, which he thanked the sex worker community and his mother for. Mikey Madison, 25, won best actress as the film’s title role, despite rumours and assumptions about Hollywood veteran Demi Moore’s performance in “The Substance”. 

Disregarding the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, “Anora” set a new record for lowest domestic ticket sales in best picture history. The film collected just $15.7 million since arriving to American and Canadian theaters in October; compared to the previous record-holder “The Hurt Locker”, which grossed around $17 million before winning best picture in 2010. Last year’s winner, “Oppenheimer,” earned more than $300 million. 

The nightly dose of politics 

As celebrity buzz circled around the Oscars on Sunday, it became clear that (surprisingly) political affairs were not at the face of the night’s conversation. Despite the many pressing issues that have presented themselves in speeches at recent Hollywood events (to call out two prominent occasions, think of speeches given by Chappell Roan and Shakira at the Grammys), conversation and declamation at this year’s Oscars remained fairly light and focused on the appreciation of the craft. However, this theme was disrupted after “No Other Land” was announced winner of best documentary feature.

It came as no surprise that “No Other Land” took home the Oscar. A film made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective, “No Other Land” captures the destruction of the Occupied West Bank community of Masafer Yatta by Israeli soldiers. Two of the film’s four credited directors, Palestinian activist Basel Adra and Israeli Journalist Yuval Abraham, accepted the Oscar with grace – but not without drawing attention to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. 

In his acceptance speech, Basel Adra said “We call on the world to take serious actions to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people”. 

Later on, Abraham added “We made this film, Palestinians and Israelis, because together we are stronger…When I look at Basel I see my brother, but we are unequal,” creating what seemed to be the only political talk of the night.