The 2025 Awards Season, Explained: Who Won What, From the Oscars to Filmfare
Anora's five-Oscar sweep, The Brutalist's Globes triumph, Conclave's BAFTA upset and Flow's animation history — a complete recap of the 2025 film awards season, with every winner scored and reviewed on Celluloid.
The 2025 awards season ended the way the best ones do — with a genuine story. A $6 million independent film about a Brooklyn sex worker swept the Academy Awards, beating studio musicals and three-and-a-half-hour epics. Here’s how the season unfolded, body by body — every film below is scored and reviewed in the Celluloid awards hub.
Anora runs the table
Sean Baker’s Anora won five Academy Awards — Best Picture, Director, Actress for Mikey Madison, Original Screenplay and Editing — capping a run that began with the Palme d’Or at Cannes and ran through the Independent Spirit Awards’ top three prizes and the Critics’ Choice Best Picture. It is the rare film to unite the festival circuit, the critics and the Academy.
The Brutalist and the acting races
Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist took the Golden Globe for Best Drama plus Director, and Adrien Brody’s second career Oscar for Best Actor. The supporting races were settled early and never wavered: Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain) and Zoe Saldaña (Emilia Pérez) won at virtually every stop — Globes, BAFTA, Critics’ Choice, SAG and the Oscars. Demi Moore’s Globe and SAG wins for The Substance made Mikey Madison’s Best Actress Oscar the season’s biggest upset.
The upsets and the history
Conclave stole the BAFTA Best Film from under the frontrunners — a very British verdict. Emilia Pérez, the season’s most divisive film, still converted four Golden Globes and an Oscar pair. And history was made twice over: Flow, the dialogue-free Latvian indie, became the first independent film to win the Animated Feature Oscar, while I’m Still Here delivered Brazil its first Best International Feature win — with Fernanda Torres taking the Globe for Best Actress in a Drama.
Beyond Hollywood
Awards season doesn’t end at the Dolby Theatre. Our awards hub also tracks the world’s major honours — India’s Filmfare and National Film Awards, Japan’s Academy Prize (where Godzilla Minus One swept), Korea’s Blue Dragons, France’s Césars, Spain’s Goyas and more — because a great film year is never only an American one.
The scoreboard
By total major wins in our catalog: Emilia Pérez (12), Anora (11), The Brutalist (11), A Real Pain (7), The Substance (6). Browse every winner and nominee — filterable by award body, year and genre — on the Celluloid awards hub.
