The 2025 Oscars, the most uncertain in recent years, were also the most independent, widely distributed, most fun (great job by Conan O'Brien), and surprisingly, given the declared anti-Trump agenda of most nominated films, the least political. Or so it seemed until directors Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham appeared on stage. But that was the exception. It was clear that the priority was different. And it wasn't Karla Sofía Gascón.
Hollywood rewarded many things in this way. And all good things. First, the entire career of a filmmaker who since Prince Of Broadway (2008) has dedicated a lifetime to looking where light is generally lacking. This was the case in Starlet (2012), Tangerine (2015), The Florida Project (2017), Red Rocket (2021), and now in Anora. Anora, if you will, is a familiar tale: Cinderella. One binge leads to another, one party to the next, and so on until a wild wedding in Las Vegas between a sex worker (Mickey Madison) and a wealthy heir of the Russian mafia (Mark Eydelshteyn). Then reality sets in, with the boy's parents ready to put an end to the fairy tale. It's Cinderella, but upside down. Indeed, Anora is simply a tale that exposes, both literally and figuratively, its own condition as a tale before the viewer's eyes. The strategy is to reverse the clichés that, in their own way, depict the most conformist part of the gaze, the American dream, we could say. It's not a fairy tale but its flip side, the darkness that gives it meaning. And it's not a comedy either, but what comes next, which can be very harmful. What remains is not only brilliant, fun, disconsolate, and always energetic, but also very sad and very beautiful. All at once. The opposite of the stories we've always known with a conclusion and a moral turns out to be a dazzling narrative that tells itself at the right moment to tell all of us. Just like that.
Triumph of Independent Cinema
But beyond the number of statuettes won, what remained from the 97th Oscars ceremony was the Academy's commitment to recognizing as its own that other part of the industry that has always been defined negatively, as indie. Indie as independent, indie as untamed, indie as, why not, Indian. No one like Baker represents the cinema that does not heed studios, algorithms, streaming platform dictates, or trends. Anorais the latest example of a filmography determined to build its own world without any dictate other than the will to create and believe. Baker's latest film is not that of an occasional sniper, but of a stubborn sniper who, when he had no money, shot with his mobile phone camera (Tangerine was filmed that way). And from there to the Palme d'Or first and the Oscar later.
Furthermore, kudos to the gala host Conan O'Brien. A show consisting of presenting 23 awards is, by definition, an anti-show. That's how it has been year after year, and while this year's wasn't entirely different, it did manage to be different in part. We'll settle for that. Each of his interventions, from the delirious and brilliant opening monologue emerging from La Sustancia'sbody to the equally witty conversation with the Los Angeles firefighters, to Adam Sandler's craziness, each of his interventions, at the very least, lifted spirits.
It wasn't the most political gala, as we mentioned, but it had its emotional and political moment. And that was when No Other Land was highlighted as the documentary of the year. With its two directors --Palestinian Basel Adra and Jewish Yuval Abraham-- the great moment of the night unfolded. The film --which is also a cry for help and a hopeful song-- is told with precision, emotion, and a sense of truth that exposes the harassment of the former's family in Cisjordan by the government and the latter's fellow citizens. "There is a different path, a solution without ethnic supremacy. This country's foreign policy [referring to the United States] blocks this path," said Yuval, summarizing the essence of it all in that sentence. Until this moment, there was barely a mention of Ukraine by Daryl Hannah, a Palestine pin on Guy Pearce's lapel, and not a single mention from the stage or on the red carpet of the president who has never stopped criticizing the Academy and its people since time immemorial. It wasn't the most political gala; that was left for the films' own arguments, but it was the most uncertain, widely distributed, independent, and, thanks to the poignant beauty of Anora, even the most beautiful.
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