Independent film Anora sweeps the Oscars, winning five awards including best picture and best actress for lead star Mikey Madison
"This is very surreal," says Madison, who plays a sex worker who has a whirlwind romance with a Russian oligarch's son
The film's director Sean Baker - the first person to win four Oscars for one film, including best director - tells the BBC: "It's crazy, I'm going to be processing it forever"
Meanwhile, Adrien Brody won his second best actor gong for The Brutalist, Zoe Saldaña was honoured with best supporting actress for Emilia Pérez, and Kieran Culkin was named best supporting actor
Ariana Grande - who wore a sculptural Schiaparelli gown that got lots of people talking - performed a duet with Wicked co-star Cynthia Erivo, while Morgan Freeman paid tribute to Gene Hackman
Wicked took out costume gongs and Brazilian historical epic I'm Still Here won the best international film- read the winners and nominees in full
Watch: Best director winner Sean Baker speaks to BBC
Cai Pigliucci
Reporting from the Vanity Fair watch party
An audible "Ohh!" went through the journalists and people on the carpet here at Vanity Fair when Mikey Madison was announced as best actress.
It's quite the win- with Demi Moore being a heavy favourite and the one many people had on their list for wild card was Fernanda Torres.
Emma Saunders
Culture reporter
Image source, ReutersMikey Madison follows up her Baftas success with an Oscars win
She might have been a dark horse at the start of awards season, but this year’s youngest best actress nominee has only gone and done it!
While comeback queen Demi Moore set the pace, scooping up prizes left, right and centre in the run-up to tonight, 25-year-old Madison’s win at the Baftas a couple of weeks ago put her right in the race.
Her raw and honest portrayal of a sex worker trying to keep a lid on her vulnerability has won plaudits since it premiered in Cannes and won the Palme d’Or. Now she’s won the ultimate prize. She said she hadn’t prepared a speech for her Bafta win but hopefully that prompted her to make some notes for this one!
The other nominees in this category were:
Francesca Gillett
Live editor
Not long until best film is announced - and here in the BBC's offices in London and New York we're making our last-minute predictions.
Rachel Flynn, live reporter: The Brutalist
Brandon Livesay, live editor: Conclave
Helen Bushby, culture reporter: Anora
Emma Saunders, culture reporter: Anora
And me: Anora (...I promise I'm not copying, I loved it!)
Emma Saunders
Culture reporter
Image source, NetflixZoe Saldaña (left) plays a lawyer who works for Emilia Perez
The divisive Netflix musical is directed by French filmmaker Jacques Audiard and leads this year's Oscars nominations with 13 in total.
Emilia Pérez is about a Mexican drug lord (played by Karla Sofía Gascón) who transitions to become a woman.
She then begins a new life and embarks on a mission to help the families of Mexico’s “disappeared”, the thousands of victims of gang and drugs-related violence.
We're closing in on the best picture award. Will Emilia Pérez get the nood? Stay with us.
Helen Bushby
Culture reporter
Image source, ReutersThe Oscar for director was handed out by a perky-sounding Quentin Tarantino, to Sean Baker for Anora - his third win tonight.
"Quentin if you didn't cast Mikey in [your film] Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, there would be no Anora," he said.
His speech was a tribute to watching a film "in a theatre", or cinema, as we would say in the UK. He spoke about the US losing nearly 1,000 screen in the US during the Covid pandemic.
Calling his words a "battle cry" to make films for the big screen, he asked for distributors to focus on the cinema release first.
"Let's keep the great tradition of the movie-going experience alive and well," he added.
Noor Nanji
Reporting from the winners room
Image source, ReutersBrazil’s Walter Salles gets a hero’s welcome in the press room, after accepting the award for best international feature film.
“We knew this was a story that was necessary and we never thought it would end here,” he said.
He said the film is about the hope of embracing life.
Democracy is becoming “so fragile” around the world, he said, adding that he never expected to see it reach this point. He said that was one reason why this film resonated so widely.
Emma Saunders
Culture reporter
Image source, ReutersWe will bring you the latest from Sean Baker's speech in a moment. But let's quickly look back at Adrien Brody's speech for best actor.
"I feel so fortunate," he tells the audience.
"Acting is a very fragile profession, it looks very glamorous and it is in certain moments but there's one thing I've learned... it is to have some perspective."
Acting "is a chance to begin again and hopefully in the next 20 years, I am worthy of such meaningful and important roles.
"Popsy's coming home a winner," he tells his two step-children.
He asks them to turn the music off as they try to play him off the stage: "It's not my first rodeo", and they agree!
He then thanks his parents.
He adds that he's there "to represent the trauma... of war. I pray for a happier and more inclusive world. If the past teaches us anything, it's to let hate not go unchecked."
Emma Saunders
Culture reporter
Image source, ReutersSean Baker is a champion of smaller, independent films
Sean Baker has held off the competition in a hard-to-call contest this year, winning for his dark comedy film Anora, starring Mikey Madison.
We wouldn’t call it a surprise but this was a tough category. And hats off to Baker for pulling it off on a $6m budget, which sounds like a lot of money but is a pittance by Hollywood standards.
The indy king, who is behind films such as The Florida Project, is used to working on smaller budgets and recently made an impassioned plea for the, external , external“unsustainable”, external independent film industry. , external
Adrien Brody was not about to get played off stage during his best actor award speech.
As the music began to play, he tells them "please turn the music off".
I've been here before, he says to laughs from the audience. "It's not my first rodeo".
And the music turns off, he continues his speech.
Helen Bushby
Culture reporter
Image source, ReutersThis comes as no surprise - The Brutalist star has been a favourite to win for some time. He played Hungarian immigrant and holocaust survivor László Tóth, who is trying to rebuild his life in post-war America through his work as an architect.
Brody is the first person to win the leading actor category with his first two nominations - this is his second Oscar, after he won his first aged 29 in 2003, playing another Holocaust survivor in The Pianst, making him the youngest ever winner of the best actor award.
As the BBC’s Steven McIntosh recently pointed out, only seven other actors currently have a 100% win rate at the Oscars from two or more nominations - Vivien Leigh, Hilary Swank, Kevin Spacey, Luise Rainer, Christoph Waltz, Helen Hayes and Mahershala Ali.
The other nominees in this category were:
Regan Morris
Reporting from Los Angeles
Oscar winners are starting to be played off with the music.
Microphones are being cut mid speech.
The longest ever Oscars was 4 hours and 23 minutes in 2002. In 1929, the first Oscars lasted just 15 minutes.
Many have encouraged the Academy to stop televising every category – like the Grammys – to make the show shorter. There are four categories left to go now – we’re 3 hours and 16 minutes into the show.
Noor Nanji
Reporting from the winners room
Backstage, Dune: Part Two’s Paul Lambert, Stephen James, Rhys Salcombe and Gerd Nefzer are asked where they will put the Oscar for best visual effects.
“I heard a lot of people put them on the toilet,” comes the response. “Maybe I’ll try that one.”
We didn’t need that mental image right now…
Image source, ReutersIntroduced by icons Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey, Queen Latifah performs Ease on Down the Road in an upbeat jazzy number to honour producer Quincy Jones.
The legendary composer died last November at the age of 91.
Winfrey says Jones scouted her for her first ever film roe in The Color Purple.
The performance receives a standing ovation from the crowd.
Helen Bushby
Culture reporter
Image source, SearchlightThis film is a biopic of veteran US singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, famous for hits such as Blowin in the Wind and Mr Tambourine Man.
It charts his singing career from the early 60s, exploring how he evolved from his folk music roots through to rock ‘n’ roll.
The movie ends with his performance Newport Folk Festival in 1965, which proved controversial when some of the audience booed - when he played an electric guitar instead of an acoustic folk one.
Will it win best picture? Stay tuned, we're getting to the pointy end of the awards.
Helen Bushby
Culture reporter
Image source, UniversalAlso up for best picture is Wicked - an adaptation of the hugely successful stage musical. It explores the Wizard of Oz origin story, from the perspective of its witches, Glinda and Elphaba. This film explores how they start out as friends but end up as enemies.
Ariana Grande told the BBC she channelled her personal feelings around “losing someone you love” to play Glinda, while Cynthia Erivo said her experiences of struggling with acceptance helped her play Elphaba, who’s outcast for her green exterior.
Emma Saunders
Culture reporter
Image source, Getty ImagesNot sure if you eagle-eyed viewers spotted it, but Ariana Grande had a ruby slipper incorporated into the back of her dress earlier (the red dress she wore to sing at the beginning of the show).
A nod to the Wizard of Oz of course!
Emma Saunders
Culture reporter
Image source, Amazon/MGM StudiosBrandon Wilson and Ethan Herisse star as two young men who are sent to the reform school
Let's take a look at another best picture nominee - Nickel Boys. It is adapted from the 2019 novel by Colson Whitehead which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
Elwood Curtis (Ethan Herisse) and his friend Turner (Brandon Wilson) are two young men who are abused during their time at a reform school called the Nickel Academy in 1960s Florida.
The film has split critics over the style of filming, with the viewer seeing everything from the point of view of the two lead characters.
The war in Ukraine has been referred to a few times this evening.
In a break before introducing the next award, host Conan O'Brien remarked on how Anora was doing well tonight with two wins.
"I guess Americans are glad to finally see someone stand up to a powerful Russian," he jokes - referencing the main character Anora who fights back against her Russian fiancé's family when the relationship turns sour.
The nominees were:
Emma Saunders
Culture reporter
The earlier win for I'm Still Here came after a face-off between that film and Emilia Perez, but the controversy surrounding the latter seems to have blown it off course.
"This goes to a woman... who decided not to bend, Eunice Paiva, and the two extraordinary women who gave life to her, Fernanda Torres and Fernanda Montenegro," says director Walter Sallas.
It's about a mother and activist whose husband has disappeared during the 1970 Brazilian military dictatorship.
Torres is also up for best actress.