As usual, the 97th Academy Awards produced their fair share of surprises and memorable moments. In the end, no movie had a bigger spotlight than Anora.
A dark romantic drama about a New York sex worker who elopes with the son of a Russian oligarch, Anora claimed the most awards of any movie on Sunday with five, including the coveted Best Picture honor. Breakout star Mikey Madison, 25, won her first Oscar for Best Actress in the titular role, while director Sean Baker made his own impressive history with multiple awards (more on that in a bit).
Elsewhere, Adrien Brody won his second Best Actor trophy for The Brutalist, while A Real Pain’s Kieran Culkin and Emilia Pérez’s Zoe Saldaña completed their awards season sweeps with victories in the Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress categories, respectively.
Up and down the ballot, 2025 Academy Award winners made history with their accomplishments. Here’s a look at some of the biggest feats from the ceremony.
Sean Baker tied a record held by Walt Disney
Along with Madison, Anora director Baker solidified his star status with the night’s biggest award haul. The 54-year-old—who also wrote, edited, and co-produced the movie—won the statuettes for Best Director, Original Screenplay, Film Editing, and Best Picture.
Baker and Walt Disney are the only two people to win four individual Oscars in one year. However, Baker has the historic distinction of receiving those four Oscars all for the same movie. Disney’s four wins in 1954 were the result of four different projects: Best Documentary Feature for The Living Desert; Best Documentary—Short Subject for The Alaskan Eskimo; Best Short Subject—Cartoon with Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom; and Best Short Subject—Two-Reel thanks to Bear Country.
Famed director Francis Ford Coppola previously won three awards in one night for his work on The Godfather: Part II (1974). Bong Joon Ho accepted four awards for Parasite in 2020, but the movie’s win for Best International Feature Film went to South Korea.
Baker, previously known for the 2017 movie The Florida Project starring Willem Dafoe, entered this year’s ceremony as a first-time nominee. He was poignant during his acceptance speech for Original Screenplay, thanking members of the sex worker community for sharing their stories and inspiring Anora. But later, he also poked fun at his own work after winning for Best Editing. “I truly appreciate the recognition for this because, God, if you saw that footage, I saved this film in the edit. Trust me. That director should never work again,” he said.
Zoe Saldaña celebrated her Dominican heritage
Zoe Saldaña gave one of the most emotional speeches of the night while accepting her Best Supporting Actress award for Emilia Pérez. The 46-year-old became the first American actor of Dominican origin to win an Oscar.
Saldaña held back tears as she offered praise to her fellow nominees and thanked members of her family for their support. “I am a proud child of immigrant parents with dreams and dignity and hard-working hands,” she said. “The fact that I am getting an award for a role where I got to sing and speak in Spanish, my grandmother if she were here she would be so delighted. This is for my grandmother!”
Emilia Pérez, the Netflix crime musical also starring Karla Sofía Gascón and Selena Gomez, won just two of the 13 Oscar categories it competed in. Clément Ducol, Camille, and Jacques Audiard won Best Original Song for “El Mal,” which heavily features Saldaña.
Wicked’s Paul Tazewell won a historic costuming Oscar
The big screen adaptation of Broadway smash Wicked factored heavily into Sunday night’s ceremony. Stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, who were both nominated for 2025 awards, opened the show with a medley of songs celebrating the movie and the city of Los Angeles. Wicked ultimately won two awards: Best Production Design and Best Costume Design.
The latter marks the first Oscar for Paul Tazewell, who simultaneously became the first Black man to win in the category. The 60-year-old was previously nominated for Costume Design from the Steven Spielberg musical West Wide Story (2021). Tazewell also tackled costuming for the 2019 historical drama Harriet about famed abolitionist Harriet Tubman.
“My Ozzian muses, Cynthia and Ariana, I love you so much. All the other cast, thank you, thank you, thank you for trusting me with bringing your characters to life. This is everything,” Tazewell said in his acceptance speech.
Flow makes history for Latvia
Following its Golden Globe and Producers Guild of America wins, the animated animal adventure Flow took home the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film. The movie is the first project from Latvia to win an Academy Award.
Flow, directed by Gints Zilbalodis, only cost a reported $3.7 million to produce—making it a theoretical underdog against big-budget hits The Wild Robot (from DreamWorks) and Inside Out 2 (Disney and Pixar). The movie was made with Blender, a free open-source editing software.
“Any kid now has tools that are used to make these now–Academy Award winning films, so I think we’re going to see all kinds of exciting films being made from kids who might not have had a chance to do this before,” Zilbalodis said during a press conference after the ceremony.
Flow was also nominated for Best International Feature but lost out to I’m Still Here. The historical drama gave Brazil its first win in that category.
Tyler Piccotti joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor and is now the News and Culture Editor. He previously worked as a reporter and copy editor for a daily newspaper recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors. In his current role, he shares the true stories behind your favorite movies and TV shows and profiles rising musicians, actors, and athletes. When he's not working, you can find him at the nearest amusement park or movie theater and cheering on his favorite teams.
