Photo Credit: clip.africa.com
The 2025 Oscars had many historic wins in different categories. From Best Animated Feature, “Flow” took the win as the first Latvian film to win an Oscar, and Paul Tazewell was the first black man to win for costume design. Tazewell had been previously nominated for his work on Steven Spielberg’s 2021 film “West Side Story,” and for two Broadway plays, “The Color Purple” and “In the Heights.”
The show opened with Ariana Grande singing “Over the Rainbow” from “The Wizard of Oz” followed by Cynthia Erivo singing “Home” from “The Wiz,” the 1978 movie adapted from the musical of the same name that retells the story of “The Wizard of Oz” with an all Black cast. It stars Diana Ross as Dorothy, a 24-year-old teacher from Harlem who ends up in the land of Oz after a snowstorm with music produced by Quincy Jones. This year marks the 50th anniversary of “The Wiz.”
“Wicked” was nominated in 10 categories, including Best Picture, Ariana Grande for Best Supporting Actress, and Cynthia Erivo for Best Actress. Grande lost to Zoe Saldana for “Emilia Perez,” and Erivo lost to Mickey Madison for “Anora.” Many were shocked that Wicked hadn’t won, with one York student Sade Akinyooye a junior and Psychology major saying, “I really feel like Wicked should have gotten award it was so good it had beautiful music, it featured a black Elphaba and I definitely think they were robbed of an award” Wicked was the first movie to feature a black Elphaba as well as having a disabled actress to play Nessarose. Wicked won two Oscars for Best Production and Best Costume Design.
Saldana became the first American woman of Dominican descent to win for best supporting actress in “Emilia Perez.” Saldana has starred in two major franchises, such as “Guardians of the Galaxy” as Gamora in the Marvel franchise, and for her performance as Neytiri in “Avatar.” This was the first Oscar nomination and win for Saldana.
“Emilia Perez” was nominated 13 times and was seen as controversial by some due to the film’s inauthentic portrayal of Mexico and the transgender experience. Some pointed out that the Spanish were often butchered due to not hiring native Spanish-speaking actresses, with many pointing out Selena Gomez’s performance as an example. Lead actress Karla Sofia Gascon became the source of additional controversy in the weeks leading up to the Oscars after racist tweets she posted nearly 10 years ago were unearthed in January. In 2016 Gascon tweeted “I really think that very few people ever cared about George Floyd, a drug addict swindler, but his death has served to once again demonstrate that there are people who still consider black people to be monkeys without rights and consider policemen to be assassins” “They are all wrong” In another tweet from 2020 Gascon wrote, “The Chinese vaccine, apart from the mandatory chip, comes with two spring rolls, a cat that moves its hand, 2 plastic flowers, a pop-up lantern, 3 telephone lines and one euro for your first controlled purchase.”
Anora ended up taking home five awards, with Mickey Madison winning for best actress and Sean Baker winning for best director. The film ended up winning for best picture over “The Substance,” “Wicked,” “The Brutalist,” “Conclave,” “I’m Still Here,” “Emilia Perez,” “Nickle Boys,” “A Complete Unknown,” and “Dune Part Two.”
“Anora won a lot and it was very surprising because I haven’t seen that movie, but I heard it was great,” said David Opeyemi, a senior majoring in Business at York. “I was just shocked it was actually that great.”
In the Animated Feature Film category, “The Wild Robot,” “Inside Out Two,” “Wallace and Gromit Vengeance Most Fowl,” “Memoir of a Snail,” and “Flow” were nominated. “Flow,” an indie film that uses free open-source software called Blender, won the award. With a budget of $4 million, the film won out over big-name studios Disney and Pixar.
“In the Shadow of the Cyprus” is the first Iranian animated film to win an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. The directors Shirin Sohani and Hossein Molayemi mentioned getting their visas right before the award show during their acceptance speech. Molayemi explained to “Vanity Fair” that they had been dealing with financial difficulties and had their aid from the Iranian government rescinded due to an interview in which they mentioned the challenges they faced. “Sohani recalls that “during an interview with Euro News Persian, we didn’t say anything political, but we talked about the financial challenges we faced because of sanctions and the devaluation of our currency and about how the unreliable internet here complicated things and how many useful online platforms are blocked here in Iran,” according to the “Vanity Fair” article. Travel has also been difficult due to the visa process in America. “Going abroad was always hard for us,” he said. “The situation has become more complicated since President Trump’s time in office.” With the geopolitical state between Iran and America on rocky terms, and views on immigration and visas being a hot-button issue.
“I really enjoyed the cinematography and writing, where some were centered around family and others were centered around the main character’s personal growth,” Opeyemi said, referring to the animated movies.
James Bond was celebrated at the Oscars for its 60th anniversary with Lisa, Doja Cat, and Raye performing classic James Bond songs such as “Live and Let Die,” “Diamonds Are Forever,” and “Skyfall.” Amazon has recently gotten the rights to James Bond with no announcement of who is playing the iconic character next.
The Oscars also paid tribute to Quincy Jones, with Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah discussing the iconic scores he produced. Then Queen Latifah took the stage to perform “Ease on Down the Road” from The Wiz.
Overall, the Oscars were well-received by students. “I thought it was amazing, lovely performances, everything was good,” said Akinyooye
“This year’s Oscars were very eventful for me, a lot of strong competition,” said Opeyemi.
