<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>339546</docID> <postdate>2025-03-03 17:43:34</postdate> <headline>Anora wins best picture as it sweeps Academy Awards</headline> <body><p><img class=" wp-image-339547" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/20250303119785340160-original-1-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="1079" height="717" /></p> <caption>Mikey Madison has won best actress in Anora which also won the Academy Award for best picture. (AP PHOTO)</caption> <p class="wire-column__preview__author"><span class="kicker-line">By <b>Lisa Richwine</b> in Los Angeles</span></p> <p><strong>Anora, the story of a New York sex worker who gets a chance at a new life when she marries a wealthy Russian client on a whim, has won five Academy Awards, including the coveted best picture Oscar.</strong></p> <p>The movie's 25-year-old star, Mikey Madison, was named best actress and the film earned best director for Sean Baker and trophies for original screenplay and editing.</p> <p>Anora was made for $US6 million ($A9.7 million), a tiny sum by Hollywood standards.</p> <p>It emerged as the winner in an unpredictable Oscars race that included papal thriller Conclave, Jewish immigrant story The Brutalist and blockbuster musical Wicked.</p> <p>"If you're trying to make independent films, please keep doing it. We need more. This is proof," said Baker, a director known for making small films about porn stars, transgender prostitutes and other marginalised people.</p> <p>Madison scored an upset over Demi Moore, who had been favoured to win best actress for her role in The Substance.</p> <p>"I grew up in Los Angeles, but Hollywood always felt so far away from me," Madison said on stage.</p> <p>"To be here standing in this room today is really incredible."</p> <p>She said she wanted to "thank and honour the sex worker community", adding, "I will continue to be an ally."</p> <p>Anora, released by independent distributor Neon, has generated $US40 million at global box offices.</p> <p>Wicked, by comparison, has hauled in $US728 million.</p> <p>Adrien Brody claimed his second Oscar, winning best actor for his role as a Jewish immigrant and architect who chases the American dream in The Brutalist.</p> <p>His first win came 20 years ago for The Pianist, when he was 29.</p> <p>"Acting is a very fragile profession," Brody said.</p> <p>"No matter where you are in your career, it can all go away. I think what makes this most special is the awareness of that."</p> <p>Zoe Saldana was named best supporting actress for her role as the fixer for a Mexican drug lord in Emilia Perez, a Spanish-language musical released on Netflix.</p> <p>The movie, which also won best original song for El Mal, was a favourite for best picture earlier this year.</p> <p>Its chances dwindled when offensive social media posts surfaced from star Karla Sofia Gascon.</p> <p>The actor, the first openly transgender person nominated for an acting Oscar, disappeared from the awards circuit but attended Sunday's ceremony.</p> <p>Kieran Culkin received the best supporting actor award for A Real Pain, in which he plays one of two cousins who travel to Poland to study their family's roots, beating Australian Guy Pearce for his role in The Brutalist.</p> <p>Culkin thanked his wife and mother of his two children, Jazz Charton, and said he had recently told her he wanted a total of four kids.</p> <p>Culkin said she joked she would agree if he won an Oscar.</p> <p>"Let's get cracking on those kids!" Culkin said to his wife from the stage.</p> <p>Other Australians nominated included writer and director Adam Elliot and producer Liz Kearney for the animated feature Memoir of a Snail, while cinematographer Greig Fraser was nominated for his work on Dune: Part Two.</p> <p>Winners are chosen by the roughly 11,000 actors, producers, directors and film craftspeople who make up the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences</p> <p>No Other Land, a film showing Palestinian West Bank resistance to Israeli soldiers tearing down their homes and evicting residents to create a military training ground, won the documentary feature film Oscar on Sunday.</p> <p>The prize for best animated feature went to independent film Flow, the first movie from Latvia to win an Oscar.</p> <p>Brazilian movie I'm Still Here received the best international feature award.</p> <p>Nominees Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo opened the Oscars celebration with a Wizard of Oz-themed medley including the show-stopping hit Defying Gravity from their film Wicked.</p> <p>Midway through the show, host Conan O'Brien brought a group of Los Angeles firefighters to the stage and thanked them for their work during the January wildfires.</p> <p>He also invited them to deliver a few jokes.</p> <p>"It's great to be back with Conan," Pasadena Fire Captain Jodi Slicker said.</p> <p>"Usually when he calls, he's stuck in a tree."</p> </body>