The Best and Worst Moments from This Year’s Oscars

The 97th Academy Awards have come and gone. The ceremony marks the end of a tumultuous awards season. As an avid movie watcher and someone who watched every Best Picture nominee this awards season, I had been eagerly awaiting this night for months. While the night was filled with multiple triumphant wins and performances, it also featured a slew of eye-roll-worthy and cringe moments. In this article, I will recap the best and worst moments from this year’s Oscars. 

Best: 

Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo’s Opening Number

I truly believe that Wicked was the most influential and “Popular” film of 2024 (no pun intended), so it was only natural that the film’s two stars, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, would open up film’s biggest night. The duo performed a medley of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and “The Wiz”, finishing with a powerful rendition of “Defying Gravity.” The medley was a beautiful way to kick off a night about celebrating the best movies of the year and certainly set the tone for a magical night.

Anora Wins Big & Mikey Madison Upsets

There was a sense of uncertainty in the days and hours leading up to the Oscars as to who would take home the night’s biggest prizes. The races most up in the air were Best Picture and Best Actress. The Best Picture prize was anyone’s to win; many were betting on Anora, while others predicted Conclave, but dark-horse films like The Brutalist and I’m Still Here also posed threats. By the end of the night, there was no doubt as to which film the Academy adored most this year. Anora swept the night, winning 5 of the 6 awards it was nominated for. Writer-director Sean Baker walked away with 4 awards: Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Director, and Best Picture. This is the most awards won by anyone in a single night in Oscars history. In all truthfulness, I was most intrigued by the Best Actress category going into the ceremony. Veteran actress Demi Moore had won 3 of the 4 major awards that season and was the favorite to win. However, Moore had been pushed to her limits all season long by Anora’s breakout star, Mikey Madison. The 25-year-old, who won the British Academy Film Award for Best Actress, slowly but surely gained momentum the whole awards season. It was ultimately Madison who walked away with the trophy to the utter shock of the audience and herself. I was thrilled by this win, as Madison delivered an unforgettable performance in Anora; she was simultaneously hilarious and heartbreaking, truly embodying an Oscar-worthy performance. 

Conan O’Brien as host 

Massachusetts-native, Conan O’Brien did an excellent job as host for the evening. O’Brien had a great opening monologue, and one of the most memorable moments of the night came early when O’Brien poked fun at controversial Emilia Perez star, Karla Sofia Gascon’s recently unearthed offensive tweets. O’Brien did not stop there; he had funny bits the entire night. My favorite was the sand worm they brought on stage in honor of the sand worm popcorn bucket from Dune Part 2. O’Brien was also able to get serious when it came to honoring Los Angeles following the recent wildfires that have ravaged the city. Overall, O’Brien did a great job and certainly made Massachusetts proud. 

 

Worst: 

Adrien Brody’s Acceptance Speech

20 years after his win for The Pianist, Adrien Brody once again returned to the Oscar stage a winner, this time for his work in The Brutalist. What should have marked a triumphant return turned out to be perhaps the worst moment of the entire night. Brody began by tossing his used gum to his partner, not a good start; he then proceeded to mumble his way through a 6-minute long acceptance speech. Keep in mind the limit is 45 seconds per winner; Brody was the only winner who seemed to have trouble keeping his speech at a reasonable length. He even demanded that the walk-off music be shut off. To me, this came off as entitled, as if Brody thought he was in some way superior to the other winners. Now, if Brody had been delivering a moving speech, I may not have minded as much; however, Brody gave maybe the worst and most uninspiring speech of the night. At about 5 minutes and 45 seconds, the orchestra once again began to play Brody off, and by the end of his speech, I was more happy that he was finally done talking than I was at the fact he had just won an Oscar. 

The Failed Sing-Along

Perhaps the most controversial movie of the night, Emilia Perez, walked away with two awards. Zoe Saldana won for Best Supporting Actress and gave a moving speech, and “El Mal” won for Best Original Song. Songwriters Clement Ducol, Camille, and Jaques Audiard went up to accept the award, and for the most part, they delivered a standard acceptance speech. It wasn’t until the very end that things got cringe-worthy. Camille took the microphone and began singing lyrics from the song. I’m not sure what her hope with this was. If she had hoped to begin a ceremony wide sing- along, she failed miserably; the trio would ultimately awkwardly shuffle off stage as the orchestra began to play, signifying for them to beat it. I genuinely cringed watching this moment, and for the first but, as alluded to above, not the last time, the orchestra came in clutch. 

Hulu Cuts Off

Like I’m sure a majority of the Oscar viewers, I was streaming the ceremony on Hulu. The telecast was supposed to run from 7 pm to about 10:30 pm. Well, it appears Hulu did not account for Adrien Brody’s obnoxiously long acceptance speech, as at approximately 10:33 pm, viewers who were streaming on Hulu were met with the message that the telecast had ended. The two biggest and most anticipated awards of the night, Best Actress and Best Picture, were still to be presented. After a few minutes of trying to refresh the feed, I eventually gave up. I would, unfortunately, just have to learn the winners through Instagram. While I understand that this was no one’s fault, besides Adrien Brody, I was still disappointed that I did not get to watch live, the two awards I had been waiting for the whole night. 

Ultimately, the 97th Academy Awards were a success. The ceremony served as a messy conclusion to what was surely a messy awards season. Triumphant wins and many lovely performances made the telecast enjoyable. I now embrace a new year of films that 2025 has to offer.