Anora took home the top honor at the 2025 Oscars, winning Best Picture.
The final Academy Award of the night went to Anora during the Sunday, March 2, ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, bringing the film’s total wins up to five — including Leading Actress (Mikey Madison) and Best Director (Sean Baker).
“I want to thank the Academy for recognizing a truly independent film,” Baker, 54, gushed in his acceptance speech. “This film was made on the blood, sweat and tears of incredible indie artists and long live independent film! Yeah, OK, thank you.”
Ten films competed in the category, with The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Dune: Part Two, Emilia Pérez, I’m Still Here, Nickel Boys, The Substance and Wicked rounding out the list of nominees.
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Ahead of the Oscars, voters spread the love among several films throughout awards season. At the 2025 Golden Globe Awards in January, Emilia Pérez — which lost some of its momentum after controversial past tweets from actress Karla Sofía Gascón resurfaced later that month — defeated A Real Pain, Anora, Challengers, The Substance and Wicked to take home Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.
Elsewhere during the Golden Globes, The Brutalist overcame A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Dune: Part Two, Nickel Boys and September 5 to win Best Motion Picture – Drama.
In February, Conclave beat out A Complete Unknown, Anora, Emilia Pérez and Wicked for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture at the 2025 Screen Actors Guild Awards.
That same month, Conclave earned Best Film at the 2025 British Academy Film Awards over Anora, The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown and Emilia Pérez, while Anora was a surprise winner of Best Picture at the 2025 Critics Choice Awards over A Complete Unknown, The Brutalist, Conclave, Dune: Part Two, Emilia Pérez, Nickel Boys, Sing Sing, The Substance and Wicked.
Best Picture Oscar Winners From the Past 30 Years
Since the Academy Awards’ 1929 inception, some of the most iconic movies in cinema history have received Best Picture, including Casablanca in 1944, West Side Story in 1962, The Sound of Music in 1966, The Godfather in 1973, Rocky in 1977, Driving Miss Daisy in 1990, The Silence of the Lambs in 1992, Forrest Gump in 1995, Titanic in 1998 and Chicago in 2003.
In the past decade, the award went to Birdman in 2015, Spotlight in 2016, Moonlight in 2017, The Shape of Water in 2018, Green Book in 2019, Parasite in 2020, Nomadland in 2021, CODA in 2022, Everything Everywhere All at Once in 2023 and Oppenheimer in 2024. History was made on multiple occasions when Moonlight became the first film with an entirely Black cast to achieve the accolade, Parasite became the first foreign-language film to win the category and CODA became the first film with a predominantly Deaf cast to earn the award.
