Winners of 97th Academy Awards Announced: Latvia Gets Oscar for the First Time
The 97th Academy Awards, the most prestigious film awards in the world, took place in Los Angeles.
The Latvian animated film Flow, directed by Gints Zilbalodis, won in the Best Animated Feature Film category. This is the first time in history that a film from Latvia has been nominated for an Oscar and won.
The team behind Anora, directed by Sean Baker and starring Russian actors, about a romance between a prostitute and the son of a Russian oligarch, won the most awards at this year's film awards.
When the famous actress Daryl Hannah came on stage to present one of the statuettes for this film, she shouted ‘Glory to Ukraine!’ and called Ukrainians the coolest.
Following this, the screenwriter of The Conclave, Peter Straughan, appeared at the ceremony with a yellow and blue foam in support of Ukraine.
Jacques Audiard's film Emilia Perez, about a gender reassignment drug lord, won only two Oscars out of a record 13 nominations despite numerous other awards and the Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize. Zoe Soldana was recognised as the best supporting actress, and the film also won the Oscar for best song.
This year's nominee for the Best Documentary Oscar was the joint US-Ukrainian-Australian film Porcelain War, which tells the story of ceramic artists in Kharkiv at the beginning of the Russian invasion in 2022. However, the Palestinian-Israeli film No Other Land won in this nomination.
Other main awards of the evening:
- Best Actor: Adrien Brody, The Brutalist;
- Best Supporting Actor: Kieran Culkin, In True Grit;
- Best Costumes: Wicked;
- Best Adapted Screenplay: Peter Straughan, The Conclave;
- Best Makeup and Hairstyling: The Substance;
- Best Sound and Visual Effects: Dune: Part Two
- Best Original Score: composer Daniel Blumberg, The Brutalist.
As The Gaze wrote, Emilia Perez recently won the most prestigious award in French cinema - the César Award. French film legend and ceremony host Catherine Deneuve dedicated the event to Ukraine. ‘I declare the 50th César Awards ceremony open and dedicate it to Ukraine,’ said 81-year-old Deneuve, who wore a yellow and blue flag on her lapel.