The Oscars 2025 | A Triumph for Independent Cinema

For the first time in my long interest in the arts I’ve come out of an awards ceremony in quite good spirits, and I don’t just refer to the 97th Academy Awards there; I am similarly disinterested in the Grammy and Game Awards, as the idea of any governing body ‘deciding’ what projects are superior to others has never quite sat with me. In a just award season, there would be an evenly distributed appreciation for each category (with no immature musical play offs) that would speak to the collaborative nature of the industry, but instances of this ran rife at the Oscars this year, to my disappointment. Their purpose, then, should be more tailored to theatrics and truly celebrating this art form that we all love and in that sense, it delivered! Conan O’Brien was a breath of fresh air as host, Morgan Freeman almost made me cry and the sandworm gag made up for Villeneuve’s snub for Best Director (not really, but I had to feel content with it somehow).

In the days following this iconic ceremony, I’ve come to love four particular wins; some of these were my personal picks to win and the gratification in seeing them succeed still lingers, however some others I have grown to appreciate more for what they represent, such as…

Best Picture - Anora

There was a brief moment of suspense that followed the concluding ‘and the Oscar goes to…’ that expired when the eventual Best Picture winner was graced with its fifth award of the night, and I began to understand what would follow had any of the three favourites won: a screwball comedy-drama highlighting the exploitation of a marginalised community, an American period epic shot in a scarce format, or a daring take on a sector of mankind often trapped in conservative ways. Sean Baker’s Anora, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist and Edward Berger’s Conclave are all superb works of cinema and though I took a particular liking to the longer middle child, I didn’t wait with baited breath for the victor as I have in ceremonies past, as the bookies’ favourite took home the gold. All of such are a Best Picture winner that would inspire confidence within independent filmmakers across the globe, that suggests they have a place in this industry to provide fresh and challenging ideas, and would see reward for it. Of course, there were some studio produced behemoths nominated for Best Picture this year, namely Warner Bros. with Dune: Part Two and Universal with Wicked but neither stood a chance this Sunday past, as the relevance of the studio system begins to strain. I do adore that a film like Anora can take home the grand prize, regardless of its absence from my personal ‘top 4’ of 2024 (I Saw the TV Glow, Nickel Boys, Dune: Part Two and Sing Sing). It is a dazzling Best Picture winner and one that I rejoiced at seeing the sweeping success of - Sean Baker has been involved in the indie filmmaking scene for over two decades and his record breaking success this year in particular was as inspiring as an award show fairytale should be, though perhaps that’s underselling the achievement. This was an earned night for Baker, one that shone a light on all that he can achieve with regard to writing, producing, editing and directing a film all at once. An auteur-driven movie, Anora’s win is one for the indies!

Sound - Gareth John, Richard King, Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill (Dune: Part Two)

Denis Villeneuve understands how to direct an epic blockbuster but his Dune series presents a greater leap in regard to a remarkable sense of immersion. I love a good Sci-Fi franchise but the films based on Herbert’s iconic novel showcase a particular minimalist grandeur - to focus in on one particular aspect of the film that took home a deserved Oscar, Dune: Part Two’s sound design and mixing is as good as I think I’ll ever hear. On a micro level you can look at the thumper, a prop that stays in place but that exudes a personality all of its own; it sucks in air like a vacuum, the underside of the metal cooly presses to the lower half and the inner mechanical extensions are drawn out in precise layers but are confined within just over a second. Extrapolating such detail across nearly 3 hours through planets with varying aesthetics, cultural inspirations and the ever looming expanse of space, you’re left with a cinematic universe that you can truly exist inside of, sensitive to all its sonic beauties.

Adapted Screenplay - Peter Straughan (Conclave)

I’ll admit that I have not read the original novel by Robert Harris but if there was any category I wanted Berger’s film to be awarded for, bar Film Editing, it was Adapted Screenplay; Conclave’s script is delightfully tight and an example of a dying breed of classic procedural dramas. To use this as a means of touching on Nick Emerson’s editing though, the pairing of himself and Peter Straughan work in tandem to process an effortless flow where an actor’s eye or subtle angle will mislead the viewer to the following scene, as opposed to an alternate shot under the same slug line. Conclave is masterful in its execution and a fine example of how harmonic a truly great film must be, as without that closeness in private tattletales, or Bertelmann’s classical compositions to usher in the next hot development, we’re left with a script of twists and turns that’s simply begging the visual language of film to transform. Its progressive take on faith in the modern era, one that does not shun the atheist whilst simultaneously asking questions of the theist's tolerance to adverse change, acts as more a query than an outright shutdown of religion as a whole. Conclave is the perfect example of book to screen done right, because at the very least as an outsider to the source material, I find myself compelled to experience the story on the page.

Best Actor - Adrien Brody (The Brutalist)

In a film that sweeps in movements akin to a resplendent symphony, Adrien Brody truly found his place in The Brutalist as László Tóth settles into Lee Van Buren’s estate, if I was made to pluck one scene from this mile-long acting highlight reel. In the face of the industrialist’s two-faced facade, Brody commands his body in a delicate balancing act, juggling the character’s internal shrinkage with his impassioned detailing of his constructions and the methods behind their splendor. Such a scene encapsulates his performance and the cosmic weight of responsibility for such a role in a nutshell; it is a tour de force of acting that is pitch perfect from beginning to end but by that point in the film’s runtime, its greatness was already bursting; you could grant him the Best Actor award for ‘The Enigma of Arrival’ half of the film alone. The Brutalist runs like clockwork, any film of its ilk would require an actor that can phase just as the narrative does and I could barely comprehend the task at hand in preparing for such a role if the film was the standard 120 minutes, let alone 215.

In terms of who I wanted to win in each category, this is a different story. Nickel Boys was undeniably my favourite Best Picture nominee, a masterpiece of contemporary filmmaking that entirely enamours me for its unique cinematic language and one I’ll certainly be writing a piece on in the future. Similarly, though I do adore Brody, I felt more personally drawn to Colman Domingo’s paradoxically understated, yet overpowering performance in Sing Sing, which he was deservedly nominated for in Best Actor. Other examples include Like a Bird’s snub for Original Song and the shock of Challengers getting left out entirely, but all this to say; finding the beauty in these award shows, for me, is not to receive personal gratification no matter the kick it gives us, but to value the immense effort every single contributor of a film project gives, and seeing it rewarded in front of millions. Even in the categories I had no huge personal interest in like Best Documentary Feature for instance, it was a pleasure to see an intensely political piece like No Other Land succeed in giving a voice to such impassioned creators; my reaction to Yuval Abraham and Basel Adra’s speech would still have been infinitely more positive than if RaMell Ross’ period piece had hypothetically won Best Picture like I’d dreamt of, and that about defines the changing tides of my relationship with the Academy Awards in 2025.

Written By Jack Mortimer | IG: @jackcmortimer | LB: jackcmortimer