Anora sweeps awards with best picture, best director and best actress for Mikey Madison

Summary

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

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Watch: Best director winner Sean Baker speaks to BBC

Live Reporting

Edited by Frances Mao, with Noor Nanji reporting from the winners room

'How's she going to sit down in that dress?'published at 23:12 Greenwich Mean Time 2 March
Noor Nanji
Reporting from the Oscars
Image source, Getty Images
Everyone in the press room is obsessed with Ariana’s dress.
“It’s giving chandelier,” one reporter just tells me, while another says it’s very “first scene” of Wicked.
On social media, the reaction has been very similar. “Shut it all down, she won,” says one X user.
Others were asking the important questions. “Please tell me… How is she going to sit down with that dress?”
Lisa's double actpublished at 23:11 Greenwich Mean Time 2 March
Image source, Getty Images
K-pop star Lisa is pulling double duty tonight. She's both on the Oscars red carpet in custom MarkGong, and appearing in tonight's episode of HBO’s hit TV show The White Lotus.
Demi Moore is stunning in silverpublished at 23:07 Greenwich Mean Time 2 March
Helen Bushby
Culture reporter
Image source, get
Demi Moore has arrived looking fabulous in figure-hugging silver dress, which drapes around her hips and flows behind her.
She is of course up for best actress for body horror film The Substance, and will be wondering if tonight is her night... not too long to wait now.
Ten years since #OscarsSoWhitepublished at 23:05 Greenwich Mean Time 2 March
Noor Nanji
Reporting from the Oscars
It's been a decade since the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite started trending, because of the lack of diversity at the 2015 Academy Awards.
This year, there are people of colour in both the best actress and best actor categories.
In fact, Sing Sing's Colman Domingo is nominated for best leading actor for the second year in a row.
Elsewhere, however, progress remains slow.
Coralie Fargeat is the only woman to be nominated for best director, for The Substance, out of a field of five.
"Has there been progress, yes. Has there been enough? Absolutely not," April Reign, LA-based founder of the #OscarsSoWhite movement, told me.
"It was never just about the Oscars not being black enough. It was also about gender, age, class, sexuality and geography too."
"If we're still able to count them on one hand, then we're not there yet."
Will the Oscars get political?published at 23:02 Greenwich Mean Time 2 March
Tom Brook
Reporting from Los Angeles
The Oscars could get political tonight when the Best Documentary Feature prize is announced.
No Other Land - a film chronicling the forced displacement of Palestinian villagers in the Occupied West Bank - is favoured to win.
If it does, members of the Israeli-Palestinian film collective which made it may criticise Israel - as they have at past film events.
Another documentary, Porcelain War, is also a strong contender and could bring the voices of protest from its Ukrainian filmmaking team to the Oscar podium.
Next up... Best Supporting Actress frontrunner Zoe Saldañapublished at 23:00 Greenwich Mean Time 2 March
Scarlett Harris
Fashion critic
Image source, Getty Images
The hot favourite for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the ill-fated Emilia Peréz, Zoe Saldaña goes for a maroon duvet-dress with a jewel-encrusted bustier, a curious choice for if (when) she has to inevitably schlep it up those steps to collect her Academy Award.
A Complete Unknown stars arrive in stylepublished at 22:58 Greenwich Mean Time 2 March
Helen Bushby
Culture reporter
Image source, Getty Images
A Complete Unknown star Edward Norton, who plays folk music legend Pete Seeger in the film, to Timothée Chalamet's Bob Dylan, has arrived on the red carpet.
The film's Elle Fanning, who plays Dylan's girlfriend Sylvie Russo, arrived in a classic, flowing Oscars ensemblet, wearing Sarah Burton for Givenchy Courture, and Cartier jewellery.
Image source, Getty Images
Elle Fanning and Ariana Grande hanging outpublished at 22:56 Greenwich Mean Time 2 March
Image source, Reuters
Still on the red carpet is Ariana Grande, who has just been spotted embracing Elle Fanning.
Fanning stars in A Complete Unknown and Grande stars in Wicked - both films are up for Best Picture tonight.
Anora's male stars Borisov and Eydelshteyn look dapperpublished at 22:52 Greenwich Mean Time 2 March
Emma Saunders
Culture reporter
Supporting actor nominee Yura Borisov and co-star Mark Eydelshteyn from Anora are on the red carpet, looking effortlessly cool and classy. Borisov arrived with his wife Anna.
Image source, Getty Images
Image source, Getty
Which Brits might win this year?published at 22:48 Greenwich Mean Time 2 March
Emma Saunders
Culture reporter
Image source, Getty Images
At first glance, it might not look like an epic year for the Brits. Daniel Craig (Queer) and Marianne Jean Baptiste (Hard Truths) both missed out on acting nominations.
But we do still have some big guns flying the flag. Here's a few to look out for:
- Actress - Cynthia Erivo (Wicked)
- Supporting actress - Felicity Jones (The Brutalist)
- Actor - Ralph Fiennes (Conclave)
- Supporting actor - Guy Pearce (born in Cambridgeshire although he moved to Australia when he was three)
- Adapted screenplay - Peter Straughan (Conclave)
- Editing - Nick Emerson (Conclave)
- Original score - Daniel Blumberg (The Brutalist) and John Powell (Wicked)
- Animated feature - Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (Nick Park, Merlin Crossingham and Richard Beek)
British star Felicity Jones arrivespublished at 22:44 Greenwich Mean Time 2 March
Scarlett Harris
Fashion critic
Felicity Jones is looking effortlessly cool in slinky metallic custom Armani Privé as she contends for Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Brutalist.
Image source, Getty Images
Pins and brooches - what we've spotted so farpublished at 22:42 Greenwich Mean Time 2 March
Scarlett Harris
Fashion critic
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Peter Straughan wore a pin with the Ukrainian colours
There’s been a marked increase in men upping their red carpet game in recent years.
For those for whom a coloured tux is a bridge too far, they’ve been experimenting with brooches.
Nominee for Best Actor, The Brutalist’s Adrien Brody, set the tone at the Golden Globes with a Elsa Jin brooch, while Joe Alwyn, Rowoon, Edvin Ryding, Kit Wilson, Omar Apollo, and Best Director contender Brady Corbet are all sporting brooches.
Meanwhile, political pins aren’t as prevalent this time around as in past years, however Peter Straughan, Conclave screenwriter, showed his support for Ukraine on his lapel, while the Swedish singer Kayo Shekoni has Free Congo printed on the bottom of her shoe.
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Swedish singer and actress Kayo Shekoni
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Brady Corbet sporting a brooch, alongside The Brutalist's co-writer Mona Fastvold
The winners' names are within reachpublished at 22:39 Greenwich Mean Time 2 March
Helen Bushby
Culture reporter
Image source, Reuters
The closely-guarded envelopes with the winners' names arrive in secure briefcases, carried by representatives from accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
They'll be handed out as each prize is announced.
Of course extra special care is now taken to get it right, after LaLa Land was wrongly named winner instead of Moonlight in 2017, when the previous winner's envelope was mistakenly handed to Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.
Wicked star Cynthia with yet another set of nails to wow us withpublished at 22:35 Greenwich Mean Time 2 March
Emma Saunders
Culture reporter
Image source, Getty Images
British star Cynthia Erivo stunned on the Oscars red carpet last year in a dark green dress to tie in with her upcoming film Wicked.
Now nominated for best actress in that same film, she's gone for another green dress along with her customary stunning bejewelled nails.
Erivo plays the green witch Elphaba in the movie.
Image source, Getty Images
A nod to Dorothy's red slipperspublished at 22:34 Greenwich Mean Time 2 March
Scarlett Harris
Fashion critic
Image source, Getty Images
Marissa Bode, who plays Nessarose in Wicked, is taking inspiration from Dorothy’s red slippers—which were Nessarose AKA The Wicked Witch of the East’s first!
Bollywood’s Priyanka Chopra Jonas backs film about child labourpublished at 22:32 Greenwich Mean Time 2 March
Noor Nanji
Reporting from the Oscars
Image source, Getty Images
Bollywood superstar Priyanka Chopra Jonas is a well-known fashionista and global icon.
She’s also executive producer for Anuja, which is nominated for Best Live Action Short.
The film tells the story of a nine-year-old girl, working in a garment factory in India, who gets a life-changing opportunity to attend school.
Speaking to me ahead of the Oscars, Priyanka warned that the demand for cheap clothing “does contribute to the exploitation” of vulnerable people around the world.
The actress, who is a Unicef ambassador and shares two young children with singer Nick Jonas, added a lot of young girls and women around the world “don’t really have a choice in their future”.
If changed, it would “really change the way the future looks,” she said.
Whoopi Goldberg shinespublished at 22:28 Greenwich Mean Time 2 March
Emma Saunders
Culture reporter
Image source, Getty Images
Hollywood star Whoopi Goldberg is shimmering on the red carpet - we're not sure if it's PVC, or silky taffeta or something else! But it's got pockets and that's a big plus for us.
The Brutalist's Joe Alwyn arrivespublished at 22:27 Greenwich Mean Time 2 March
Helen Bushby
Culture reporter
Image source, Getty Images
British actor Joe Alwyn, who plays the son of a businessman in The Brutalist, arrived in a bow tie and black tuxedo, and he's sporting an unusual purple and yellow brooch.
Pins and brooches are often worn to black-tie events, so it's worth keeping your eyes peeled for them - some are just for fashion and some carry political messages.
I'm Still Here star Fernanda Torres is all in blackpublished at 22:23 Greenwich Mean Time 2 March
Helen Bushby
Culture reporter
Image source, Getty Images
The star of I'm Still Here, Fernanda Torres, is up for best actress this year and faces some stiff competition, with Demi Moore or Mikey Madison expected to win later on tonight.
Torres, while of course carving her own path, follows in the footsteps of her mother, actress Fernanda Montenegro, who was nominated at the Oscars for best actress nearly 30 years ago.
Torres recently became the first Brazilian actress to win a Golden Globe for best actress in a drama film, saying it felt like "winning the World Cup".
Ariana Grande arrives on red carpetpublished at 22:20 Greenwich Mean Time 2 March
Scarlett Harris
Fashion critic
Image source, Getty Images
Ariana Grande saved the best for last.
She’s nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Glinda the Good Witch in Wicked, and she’s definitely leaned into that in her champagne Schiaparelli gown.
While Zoe Saldaña might be the frontrunner in the category, Ariana wins best dressed of the night (so far).