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
Image source, ReutersWicked star Cynthia Erivo stuns the audience with a performance of Defying Gravity, alongside Ariana Grande.
As she hits that final iconic note, the audience stands in applause.
Image source, Getty Images
Image source, ReutersThe Oscars has just begun, opened by a performance from Wicked star Ariana Grande wearing a gorgeous red sequined dress. On her back is a nod to the ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz.
She's stood under the backdrop of a moon and a starry sky projected on the screen behind her.
Then her Wicked co-star Cynthia Erivo appears in a white gown and begins to sing.
We're moments away from the 97th Academy Awards beginning in Hollywood.
With more than 20 awards to be announced, and performances including from Wicked's Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, we'll be covering every cough and spit - stick with us.
Image source, Getty ImagesMonica Barbaro
Best supporting actresses Monica Barbaro, nominated for A Complete Unknown, and Isabella Rosselini, up for the same category for Conclave have arrived, along with Michelle Yeoh, who won best acress in 2022 for Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Rosselini appeared to be paying homage to the late director David Lynch, who died in January by appearing with Laura Dern - they both starred in his film Blue Velvet,for which he was Oscar-nominating in the directing category.
It also incidentally describes Rosselini's dress. Clever stuff eh?
Image source, Getty ImagesLaura Dern and Isabella Rosselini
Image source, Getty ImagesMichelle Yeoh
Scarlett Harris
Fashion critic
Image source, ReutersAnora is a Cinderella story of sorts about a stripper made good who realises her fairytale isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
So it’s only fitting that Mikey Madison, the ingénue who plays the titular character and who is up for Best Actress tonight, pays homage to another sex worker fable, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, in a baby pink and black column Dior gown and a Tiffany's necklace from the 1910s - very reminiscent of Audrey Hepburn.
Emma Saunders
Culture reporter
Image source, EPAAlthough the best song nominees won’t be showcased in the usual way, Wicked pair Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande will be performing, as will Lisa from BlackPink, Doja Cat, Raye and Queen Latifah.
Rumours abound that the Wicked duo will be opening the show, possible with a medley. We’ll have to wait and see! Broomsticks at the ready.
Peter Bowes
Reporting from Los Angeles
The tables are set in the Blossom Room at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, as guests begin to arrive for the glitziest of Oscars viewing parties.
The venue, home to the first Academy Awards in 1929, is right across the road from the Dolby Theater on Hollywood Blvd where the awards are handed out.
The hoopla and razzmatazz surrounding the 97th Oscars is a far cry from the event that started as a cosy dinner party for a select few.
If only the walls in this room could talk.
Image source, Getty ImagesJesse Eisenberg is nominated for best original screenplay for A Real Pain
Image source, Getty ImagesWhile his co-star, Kieran Culkin, is nominated for best supporting actor
Scarlett Harris
Fashion critic
Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/ShutterstockThe Academy Awards are always a cause for celebration, and this year is no different, with Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez, Raffey Cassidy, presenter Rachel Zegler, last year’s Best Actress winner and newly short-haired Emma Stone, in varying shades and textures of champagne.
Other metallics echoed throughout the carpet, including on Mindy Kaling, best supporting actress nominee Felicity Jones and best actress frontrunner Demi Moore - who are both in custom Armani Privé.
Another burgeoning trend leading up to the awards was stars matching to the red carpet, with singer Raye, Marissa Bode, Gal Gadot and Storm Reid favouring voluminous scarlets
Image source, ReutersEmma Saunders
Culture reporter
Previous Oscar winner Halle Berry is a mirror image in a shiny corset-style full-length dress, which gives the appearance of shattered glass.
Image source, Getty Images
Image source, ReutersTimothee Chalamet, Kylie Jenner, Edward Norton and Shauna Robertson hang out on the red carpet
Image source, Reuters3,2,1... say Wicked for best picture!
Image source, Getty ImagesIt's date night for best supporting actor nominee Kieran Culkin and his wife Jazz Charton.
Helen Bushby
Culture reporter
Image source, Getty ImagesRapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer Doja Cat has arrived.
She's performing tonight with Raye and Lisa.
And Doja is clearly enjoying wearing her flowing, shimmering leopard skin silky dress by Balmain.
Emma Saunders
Culture reporter
Image source, Getty ImagesBest actor hopeful Adrien Brody (The Brutalist) is wearing a classic black tux with a flourish - bird-shaped style beading just under his right shoulder.
Emma Vardy
Reporting from the red carpet
Watch: How to nail the red carpet at the Oscars
I’ve watched a lot of red carpets over the past couple of years in LA.
They all have a different vibe, the Golden Globes is more of a party atmosphere, while the Oscars feels a lot more formal.
As the stars walk into the Dolby Theatre, two giant Oscar statuettes stare imposingly down at them.
The awaiting press who line the carpet are penned in like cattle, but it’s a great vantage point to watch Hollywood’s cast of characters arriving and interacting with each other.
You get a sense of who are the serious types, directors like last year’s Oppenheimer winner Christopher Nolan striding in barely giving the decadent surroundings a look, and who likes to take their time and revel in the moment.
Usually the biggest stars arrive right at the end, and sweep through giving hardly any interviews, but it’s still fun to try and attract their attention, you might be lucky and get a wave and a shouted comment as they swan past.
Behind the scenes there is a lot of pressure during red carpet season on the actors to promote their productions, and a belief that the promotion a film receives can really make a difference when it comes to swaying the voting for the Oscar winners.
When I asked Daniel Craig on a red carpet recently whether he “enjoyed” the awards scene, he replied “I’m not sure enjoy is the right word”.
Bahman Kalbasi and Regan Morris
Reporting from Los Angeles
After struggling to get a US visa to travel to the Oscars, Iranian filmmakers Hossein Molayemi and Shirin Sohani have arrived in Hollywood.
With less than an hour to go before the Oscars starts – the filmmakers are changing into their red carpet gear in a public restroom, which is near the Dolby Theater where the Oscars are being held.
The pair are nominated for best Short Animated Film. Hopefully they can make it to the show on time.
The Substance star Margaret Qualley has just graced the carpet in a long black gown.
The body horror movie is nominated for best picture, best actress, best director, best original screenplay and best make-up and hairstyling.
Margaret's co-star Demi Moore, who is nominated for best actress, arrived a little earlier.
Image source, Getty Images
Noor Nanji
Reporting from the Oscars
Image source, Getty ImagesThis year, there were two big comeback stories - Demi Moore, whose role in The Substance has revitalised her career, and Pamela Anderson, who starred in The Last Showgirl.
Tonight could well be Moore’s night. She enters the evening with her first ever Oscar nomination – and could well leave with her first win.
Anderson, however, missed out on a nomination, despite managing to score earlier nods at the Golden Globes and SAG Awards.
When I asked her about it, she was characteristically stoic.
“The win is the work,” the Canadian actress told BBC News.
“You couldn't have told me I'd be here a decade ago, so this is very exciting for me, to even be in the conversation.”
She added that she was “really happy” for Moore.
"I think she's earned her place. And you have to earn it. You have to fight for it."
Scarlett Harris
Fashion critic
Image source, Getty ImagesTimothée Chalamet has been on a tour de force, not just for his nominated role as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, but in his red carpet choices.
It started with his pop of blue scarf at the Globes, then there was the lime green shirt he wore to accept the SAG Award last week, and tonight he wears a full daffodil tux.
Emma Saunders
Culture reporter
Image source, Getty ImagesSelena Gomez may have missed out on a nomination for her role in Emilia Perez but she aced the red carpet in a shimmery, chainmail fitted dress, reminiscent of old school Hollywood glamour.
Emma Saunders
Culture reporter
Coralie Fargeat is the only woman up for best director tonight, for body horror The Substance, starring best actress nominee Demi Moore.
Meanwhile, Lupita never lets us down on a red carpet and she wows again in a white full-length pleated dress with a diamante bodice, a silk bow and pearl detail.
Image source, Getty Images
Image source, Getty Images