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    Sean Baker’s Oscars Battle Cry (and Mine): Don’t Abandon the Big Screen

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    The director of the best picture winner, “Anora,” urged viewers to keep seeing films in theaters. Our critic hopes the industry listens, and that Baker keeps his independence.Two minor quakes hit Los Angeles Sunday night, and I like to think that they were cosmically connected. The second earthquake was a small rattler (3.9) centered in the San Fernando Valley, just north of where the first quake hit inside the Dolby Theater when “Anora” won best picture. A pleasurable romp about an exotic dancer who runs off with the son of a Russian oligarch, “Anora” is the latest of several movies that its writer-director, Sean Baker, has made on sex industry workers. The first one that Baker did on the same topic was “Starlet,” a wistful, charming 2012 drama set in the Valley, long the center of the pornography industry.It was gratifying to see Baker win for “Anora,” which is the kind of scrappy, low-budget, independent movie that has been making the Oscars more interesting for, well, decades. Each victory for “Anora” also underscored the industry’s existential problems, in part brought about by large companies, including the remaining legacy studios, that have embraced expensive franchises and sequels to the exclusion of art. In the past 10 years or so, some of the best picture winners — the ones that stir up excitement and headlines, and help justify the continued existence of the Academy Awards — have been low-budget features that, like “Anora,” were bankrolled for $20 million or far less, including “Moonlight” and “Parasite.”There’s a romantic and comforting underdog narrative that accompanies the success of these movies, though as Baker recently pointed out at the Independent Spirit Awards, the economics of indie filmmaking are unsustainable. During the Oscars, Baker again turned the awards circuit into a bully pulpit on behalf of the movies, urging viewers to see films in theaters. “This is my battle cry,” Baker said as he held his best director award. “Filmmakers, keep making films for the big screen.” At that point, the show cut to a wider shot that encompassed the award presenter Quentin Tarantino, another big-screen advocate. I wish they had cut to Ted Sarandos, the chief executive of Netflix, who recently told CBS News that he doesn’t “think it’s sacrilege for someone to watch a great movie on their phone.”The Academy Awards of course reflect what Academy voters like, but they also reveal what kind of story the voters want to tell about themselves. That story on Sunday was somewhat melancholic; among other things, one of the giants of cinema — Gene Hackman — recently died. But the entire industry feels bruised partly because of the lingering trauma of the conflagrations that roared through Los Angeles County in January. The show referenced the fires repeatedly, most movingly when the host Conan O’Brien introduced a group of firefighting personnel who were rightly cheered by the audience. Along with the pandemic and the 2023 labor strikes, it’s been a very rough interlude with no end in sight. Never mind that the worst issue remains the creative timorousness of the industry’s power brokers.As to the show itself, as a piece of television it was, well, fine; I didn’t yell at my set once, though I rolled my eyes during the two lengthy musical numbers that were effectively advertisements for those money-printing behemoths “Wicked” and James Bond. O’Brien was innocuous enough to get the job done, tossing out jokes that landed and others that didn’t, with very little overt reference to the reality that has filled headlines since President Trump was sworn in. The actress Daryl Hannah gave a shout-out to Ukraine before handing the best editing award to Baker, his second Oscar of the night (following best original screenplay). “I guess Americans are excited to see somebody finally stand up to a powerful Russian,” O’Brien said later, earning startled oohs from the audience as well as applause.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Where to Stream the 2025 Oscar Winners, From ‘Anora’ to ‘Flow’

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      Most of the awarded films, including the winner of best picture, can be watched at home. Here’s a guide to catch up.In a resounding win for American independent film, “Anora,” Sean Baker’s rambunctious comedy-drama about the marriage between a Brighton Beach sex worker and the son of a Russian oligarch, won five Oscars, including one for its lead actress, Mikey Madison, and a record-tying four for Baker, who took home statuettes for picture, director, editing and his original screenplay.“Anora” and most of the other winners are available to rent on major platforms or subscription services, and the three winning shorts are only a click away, too, though the full Oscar shorts programs are still circulating in theaters across the country. The only films currently only available in theaters are the best international feature winner “I’m Still Here” and the documentary feature winner “No Other Land,” an Israeli-Palestinian co-production that’s finding its way to art houses around the United States without official distribution.‘Anora’The writer, director and editor Sean Baker narrates a sequence from his comedy featuring Mikey Madison and Mark Eydelshteyn.NeonWon for: Best picture, director, actress, original screenplay, editing.How to watch: Rent it on Amazon, Apple TV+, Fandango at Home, Google Play and YouTube.The writer-director Sean Baker’s rambunctious film concerns the whirlwind romance between a sex worker from Brighton Beach and the son of a Russian oligarch. It somehow channels both the madcap energy of classic screwball and the unfiltered emotion of John Cassavetes. Much of that liveliness is owed to Mikey Madison’s firecracker of a performance as Ani, a stripper whose time with a handsome young party animal, Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), at first seems like a “Pretty Woman” fantasy. But a quickie marriage draws attention from Ivan’s minders in the states and his parents abroad. Ani’s fight for their relationship, which turns literal at times, is alternately slapstick and touching.‘The Brutalist’The director Brady Corbet narrates a sequence from his film, starring Adrien Brody. The movie is nominated for 10 Academy Awards.Lol Crawley/A24Won for: Best actor, cinematography, score.How to watch: Buy it on Amazon, Apple TV and Fandango at Home.Just as the unity of form and function is the goal of any great architect, Brady Corbet’s epic about the architectural vision of a Hungarian-Jewish Holocaust survivor goes pointedly against the grain, from its 215-minute running time (with an intermission in theaters) to its use of VistaVision, a large-format process that hadn’t been used for a feature since 1961. As László Toth (Adrien Brody) emigrates to Philadelphia after the war and eventually finds work for a temperamental industrialist (Guy Pearce) with big plans for a community center, “The Brutalist” grows into a grand statement on the tension between art and commerce, and the compromise that often comes as a result. On that front, Corbet himself has unquestionably triumphed.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘No Other Land,’ Whose Politics Deterred Distributors, Wins Best Documentary

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      Accepting the Oscar for best documentary feature on Sunday night, two filmmakers behind “No Other Land,” which chronicles Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes in the southern West Bank, called on the world to work to help halt the “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians, free the remaining Israeli hostages captured in “the crime of Oct. 7” and chart a more equitable path forward for Palestinians.“When I look at Basel, I see my brother,” said Yuval Abraham, an Israeli journalist and one of the filmmakers, referring to his fellow director, the Palestinian activist Basel Adra, who had just spoken. “But we are unequal. We live in a regime where I am free under civilian law and Basel is under military laws, that destroy lives, that he cannot control.”Adra said that their film “reflects the harsh reality we have been enduring for decades and still resist, as we call on the world to take serious actions to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people.”The selection of “No Other Land” for best documentary feature represented a landmark and a rebuke. Despite a string of honors and rave reviews, no distributor would pick up this film in the United States, making it nearly impossible for American filmgoers to see it in theaters or to stream it. This shortcoming made “No Other Land” part of a broader trend in recent years in which topical documentaries have struggled to secure distribution.The film is often brutal, featuring disturbing images of razed houses, crying children, bereft mothers and even on-camera shootings. (Israel’s Supreme Court ruled the government has the right to clear the area depicted in the film.) And it entered a perennially supercharged political climate at an especially sensitive moment, debuting within months of Hamas’s attack on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel’s response in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza.The politics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are especially prominent in Hollywood. Last year, the entertainment executive Ari Emanuel, who is Jewish, drew boos after criticizing Israel’s conservative prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, while accepting an award from a major Jewish group in Los Angeles.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Trump and Politics Were Largely Absent From the Oscars

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      Washington was an entire country away.At the Academy Awards on Sunday, there were relatively few references to politics. The most direct commentary on President Trump and the upheaval in the capital was an oblique reference by the host of the telecast, Conan O’Brien.“You know, ‘Anora’ is having a good night,” Mr. O’Brien said, referring to the Oscar-winning film about a sex worker’s short-lived romance with the son of a Russian oligarch. One of the movie’s emotional high points is when its working-class protagonist, played by Mikey Madison, dresses down the powerful family.“I guess Americans are excited to see somebody finally stand up to a powerful Russian,” Mr. O’Brien said.The comment was the closest he got to uttering the name of Mr. Trump, whose administration has been dealing with the fallout from his public blowup in the Oval Office with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. The dispute involved Mr. Trump scolding Mr. Zelensky for his harsh words for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.Aside from alluding to the country’s “divisive politics,” Mr. O’Brien also kept Washington at arm’s length during his opening monologue, in which he kept the focus on Hollywood.Daryl Hannah was more direct as she presented the best editing category. “Slava Ukraine,” she said, before moving on to the award at hand.In accepting the award for best supporting actress, Zoe Saldaña hinted at the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. “I am a proud child of immigrant parents with dreams and dignity and hardworking hands,” she said.The most political moment of the telecast, by far, was the award for best documentary feature, which went to “No Other Land,” an exploration of the Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes in the southern West Bank.During his acceptance speech, Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist and one of the filmmakers, called “on the world to take serious actions to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people.”Yuval Abraham, an Israeli journalist who directed the film with Adra, said he believed there was a political solution to the conflict that includes national rights “for both of our people.” “And I have to say, as I am here, the foreign policy in this country is helping to block this path,” he said.The Oscars were the latest awards ceremony this year to largely steer clear from politics. Presenters and winners at the Golden Globes avoided the subject, while a few artists alluded to politics onstage during the Grammys.A reference to the president during the Oscars was perhaps most likely in the best actor category, in which Sebastian Stan was nominated for his portrayal of Mr. Trump in “The Apprentice.” Instead, the award went to Adrien Brody for “The Brutalist.” More

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      What to Watch For at the Oscars: ‘Emilia Pérez,’ Cynthia Erivo and More

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      From the most competitive races to the lasting controversies, here’s a guide to becoming an instant expert.The Best Picture Race Looks Wide OpenRalph Fiennes in “Conclave,” which is a top contender for the best picture Oscar. Its biggest competition: “Anora.”Focus FeaturesWhen the Ralph Fiennes-led papal thriller “Conclave” secured the highest honor at the 31st Screen Actors Guild Awards last weekend, it seemed like a strong indicator that it would prevail in the best picture category at the Academy Awards on Sunday night. After all, the last three winners of SAG’s top prize — “Oppenheimer,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “CODA” — all won the best picture statuette at the Oscars.But it isn’t exactly that clear cut.Those past three films had essentially swept their awards season, and aside from the SAG Awards, “Conclave” has won only one other best picture title, at the BAFTAs in February.“Anora,” the comedy-drama about a stripper (played by Mikey Madison) whose modern fairy-tale romance implodes, had several of the other early big wins this season, including two major industry prizes — from the Directors Guild of America and the Producers Guild of America — that almost always signal a best-picture Oscar up ahead.Also, Edward Berger, the director of “Conclave,” was not nominated for a best directing Oscar. Only six films in the history of the Oscars have won best picture without a best directing nomination, most recently “CODA” in 2022.Scandals Plague ‘Emilia Pérez’Karla Sofía Gascón in “Emilia Pèrez.” She is up for a best actress Oscar, but her chances of winning may have been derailed by recent scandals.Shanna Besson/NetflixJust a few weeks ago, “Emilia Pérez” was on top of the world. The Spanish-language musical out of France had earned 13 Oscar nominations, the most of any film this year (and nearly the most ever), and its lead, Karla Sofía Gascón, made history as the first openly transgender actress to be nominated for an Academy Award, in the best actress category no less.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      A Guide to the Documentary Oscar Nominees

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      A quick guide to the nominated films and why you should watch them.Since the best documentary feature category was first established at the Oscars in 1942, the nominees have been like a snapshot of the year: wars and social concerns, heroes and headlines. This year is no exception. On paper, each of the five nominees look as if they’re ripped from the headlines, chosen for some metric like “urgency” or “timeliness.”But these are no ordinary documentaries. In the past decade, the Academy has gotten much better about nominating nonfiction films that stretch and push at their boundaries, challenging audiences in how they convey their subject matter. Most opt to confront world events through intensely personal stories, and all of them carefully show why their individual stories have far-reaching implications.So, as the 2025 Oscars are upon us, here’s a quick guide to the nominated films and why you should watch them.With “Black Box Diaries” (streaming on Paramount+ with Showtime), the director Shitori Ito takes a courageously personal approach to her biting critique of the handling of sexual assault cases in Japan. In 2017, Ito held a news conference to announce allegations that a prominent Japanese journalist had raped her. In the documentary, she chronicles the fallout of that accusation. The film is both intimate and enraging. As Manohla Dargis wrote in her review, it’s “a tense and tangled crime story, one in which Ito is at once the victim, lead investigator, dogged prosecutor and crusading reporter.”My colleagues and I have written about “No Other Land” (in select theaters) a lot during the past year. It’s probably the most acclaimed documentary of the year, centering on the lives of families who have witnessed their homes, in the occupied West Bank region of Masafer Yatta, be demolished over and over again. Despite its obviously timely story and a directorial team of two Palestinian and two Israeli filmmakers, it hasn’t been able to secure a distribution deal in the United States, which is why it isn’t available to stream here. If you can see it in a theater, don’t overlook how well it’s made, mixing home video archives, journalistic footage and conversations between the filmmakers to powerful effect.“Porcelain War” (in select theaters) has picked up a raft of awards from guilds and critics this season. It, too, looks through the lens of the personal to tell an urgent story — this one about the war in Ukraine. The film centers on Slava Leontyev, who directed the film with Brendan Bellomo, and who is a ceramist as well as a member of a Ukrainian special forces unit. Art and warfare blend in the film, which melds GoPro footage from the battlefield with looks at Leontyev’s work, finally landing on a hopeful note about the value of beauty in darkness.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Oscars 2025 Predictions: Who Will Win Best Picture, Actor and Actress?

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      The best picture race has been full of twists and turns. The best actress race is closely contested. Our expert predicts which films and artists will get trophies on Sunday.Best PictureMark Eydelshteyn and Mikey Madison in “Anora.”Neon✓ “Anora”“The Brutalist”“A Complete Unknown”“Conclave”“Dune: Part Two”“Emilia Pérez”“I’m Still Here”“Nickel Boys”“The Substance”“Wicked”After a few years where the best picture winner was practically ordained from the start of the season, at least this race has given us some twists and turns.First, there was the saga of “Emilia Pérez,” which led the field with a near-record 13 nominations but collapsed in controversy after the unearthing of disparaging tweets by its star, Karla Sofía Gascón. Then “Anora,” a front-runner that was utterly shut out at January’s Golden Globes, scored top prizes from the producers, directors and writers guilds.Those wins usually presage a best picture victory, especially because the producers guild uses a preferential ballot similar to the Academy’s. But in the late going, another contender began to surge as “Conclave” took the top prize at the Screen Actors Guild Awards (where “Anora” was once again shut out) as well as best film honors at the BAFTAs, the British equivalent to the Oscars.One thing gives me pause, though: If “Conclave” had the sort of across-the-board Academy support that a best picture winner can usually count on, it shouldn’t have missed out on slam-dunk Oscar nominations for directing and cinematography. “Anora” earned all the nominations it needed to, and its guild spread is hard to argue with, so that’s the film I project will win.Best DirectorJacques Audiard, “Emilia Pérez”✓ Sean Baker, “Anora”Brady Corbet, “The Brutalist”Coralie Fargeat, “The Substance”James Mangold, “A Complete Unknown”Baker picked up the DGA trophy but has strong competition from Corbet, who won best director at the BAFTAs. Still, I suspect the Academy will embrace “Anora” in both of the top categories. It helps that Baker has turned every acceptance speech he’s made this season into an upbeat rallying cry for theatrical independent filmmaking.Best ActorAdrien Brody in “The Brutalist.”Lol Crawley/A24✓ Adrien Brody, “The Brutalist”Timothée Chalamet, “A Complete Unknown”Colman Domingo, “Sing Sing”Ralph Fiennes, “Conclave”Sebastian Stan, “The Apprentice”Brody has been collecting prizes all season, though his reign was halted last weekend when Chalamet scored a last-minute SAG win. But Chalamet faces headwinds from an Academy that remains stubbornly resistant to recognizing young men: No one under 30 has ever won the best actor Oscar except for Brody himself, who notched his win for “The Pianist” at age 29. Come Sunday, he’ll add a second Oscar to the mantel.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      “No Other Land” Is the Oscar-Nominated Film That No Studio Will Touch

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      “No Other Land,” about the destruction of a village in the occupied West Bank, is one of the year’s most acclaimed films. Still, U.S. studios are unwilling to distribute it.No documentary this season has been more talked about or acclaimed than “No Other Land,” which chronicles the besieged community of Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank as Israeli forces demolish residents’ homes and expel families from the land they have lived in for generations, claiming the area is needed for a military training ground.Directed by the Palestinian filmmakers Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal alongside the Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, “No Other Land” has received critical acclaim and collected many honors on the festival circuit. After winning the best documentary award at its Berlin International Film Festival premiere last February, the film also earned the same prize at the Gotham Awards and from major critics’ groups in New York and Los Angeles. Just weeks ago, it received an Oscar nomination.Still, no American studio has been willing to pick up this hot-button film, even though distributors typically spend this time of year eagerly boasting about their Oscar-nomination tallies.“I still think it’s possible, but we’ll have to see,” Abraham told me last week. “It’s clear that there are political reasons at play here that are affecting it. I’m hoping that at a certain point the demand for the film will become so clear and indisputable that there will be a distributor with the kind of courage to take it on and show it to the audience.”In the meantime, the directors have embarked on a self-distribution plan that has put “No Other Land” into 23 U.S. theaters; on the back of strong box office, it will continue to roll out into additional cities over the coming weeks.Adra and Abraham are not just part of the film’s directing team, but its two primary subjects. The 28-year-old Adra was raised in Masafer Yatta and has been documenting the forced expulsion since he was a teenager. Over the course of the film, he builds a strong but tense bond with Abraham, who lives in Jerusalem but travels frequently to Masafer Yatta to write about the situation there for an Israeli audience.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More