What You Might Have Missed At the 2025 Oscars

0:28I'm Chloe Mao. Da-da-da, the Oscars, which is obviously my favorite night of the year. So we're recapping the fashion, the big moments, and what you might have missed from the show last night. And spoiler alert, of course, I wasn't able to watch the show. I know, I was going to say, Toma's favorite night of the year, and yet. Yeah, I know, but I can't, I just, that time difference. I don't even know how you watch it from here. It's quite difficult. Not the easiest thing to watch it from here either, as it turns out. Oh, yeah. Hulu frittered out. Yeah, totally. Wait, wait. I have to introduce you people.

1:02Okay, go ahead. Choma is joining us from London, but I am here in New York in our beautifully renovated new studio, bright and early, with two of our most Oscar-coded colleagues, Vogue's Features Editor Marley Marius and Deputy Editor Taylor Antrim. Hello. Good morning. Good morning. Nice to be here. Hi, gang. All right. So Choma, start with the fashion. What was the first thing you were like, oof, this is what happened at the Oscars? I guess my first impression was that there was this real sense of like, it was very classic. It was very 1950s. There were lots of dresses that specifically referenced a specific moment in couture history.

1:48It was honestly overall quite conservative. and that was my first that was my first impression that the sort of playful moments seem to happen at the afterbodies which they always do but I think it was this year it was a particularly classically Hollywood you know old world red carpet it felt very safe a lot of sequin dresses a lot of bows a lot of bows yeah a lot of strapless you know a lot of hourglass It was like sweetheart neckline hourglass, sort of everyone trying out for like Little Mermaid prom kind of vibe. But this is a bad thing, you think? I mean, it's just not exciting. I mean, there were great moments that spoke to old Hollywood glamour or a sort of more conservative carpet.

2:37Like Elle Fanning was in Sarah Burton for Givenchy's first haute couture look. And it was a reference to his first couture collection, 1952. Yeah. And that I mean, Hannah got a great photo from that original dress worn and it's from the original presentation, Ivy Nicholson modeling it in 52. And that I thought was a really fun and beautiful and elegant take on that. A lot of very traditional glam to very strict updos, especially on younger stars like Margaret Qualley and Elle Fanning had these very tight buns. But yes, agree, Choma. I think it was very safe. And then that made the contrast to that feel even sharper.

3:23Like I thought that men really had a good time and leaned into their own style and feeling themselves. Who are we talking about, Timotei? The buttery yellow suit. Marjorin Dream. Hugely regrettable, I think. Really? Oh, no, we're all a fan. Please say more. I liked it. I liked it. Omar Apollo was a lot of our best dressed. He was wearing straight from the runway Valentino with a face veil and makeup. He had amazing glam, beautiful. I think Boucheron jewels, like a rising phoenix was one of the jewels. He really I love when men sort of lean into that. I also thought even less over, you know, dramatique, like Andrew Garfield was in a brown Gucci tuxedo.

4:12and I thought that looked great. Taylor's shaking his head. And I also thought that it made the drama of the after parties irreverence more striking. Like Julia Fox wearing hair all over her breasts felt like crazy compared to Selena Gomez's great, very tasteful old Hollywood. That contrast was exaggerated by how traditional the red carpet was and then how kooky the after-party red carpet was. But Choma, who else were your best-dressed highlights? I mean, it was traditional, but I imagine she was thinking about the fact that, you know, if she won the Oscar, which Mikey Madison did, you kind of want a look that feels classic, that, you know, you'll be looked back on 10, 20 years later.

5:04I always reference the Lupita dress because I always feel like that had the same sort of classic feel. it was that powder blue kind of um i guess it was disney princess style wasn't it but it was prada and it was just so special and it's some almost like i guess you're thinking about your wedding portrait in the same way right you want a sort of dress that feels like oh you look at it and it doesn't feel over time so much and maybe always casting back to that 1950s kind of golden era of couture is a sort of easy way to mitigate that. I completely agree with Choma that that was like the classic dress to win an Oscar in.

5:47And I just want to say that it was a custom Dior dress based on a 1956 Christian Dior design. And the necklace was this amazing Tiffany necklace from 1900. So it was 100 years older than she is. And yet she still looked beautiful. She still looked like young. She's 25. I know. You know? I mean, I love Cynthia Erivo. I think she went for it. And I thought she looked, actually, she was my best dresser at the after party too. I think she, I loved her in the Westwood, sort of with this trailing white tour. She has fun with fashion and she owns it, which I love. I thought Miley Cyrus was kind of the only wild card.

6:30Yeah, it's true. Of the women. I thought she kind of looked rock and roll. I thought she looked great. It wasn't my kind of look, but she looked fab. I mean, it was McQueen. She looked fab. Yeah. Her little gloves. Her little, like, you know, mesh driver gloves. Yeah, it was like dark romance. You want a bit of like dark romance. And it was so like, it was kind of a way to do red carpet that was, it sort of had a rock and roll, a little bit more of a dark edge, which I liked. It definitely stood out. And she was with her cute boyfriend that everyone was all a flutter about. Has so much hair. Yeah, I mean, going to the Oscars, that's like a hard launch, isn't it?

7:10Indeed. Where do you guys come down on Ariana Grande? I liked Ariana. The Schiaparelli couture. I thought that was a great ending for her. Me too. I thought they both really been playful with their fashion. I think they've been really committed to it, and I thought Ariana looked great. I mean, I wonder how they're going to do it next season. Can you imagine that we have to do this all over again? Honestly. Part two guys Part two There'll be a way To weave it in That's different I'm here for it Yeah the Wicked Crew Really came out Michelle Yeoh In The Balenciaga The Balenciaga Was one of my best dressed And she always has Incredible jewels Jeff Goldblum too Oh yes Like fun Oh my god Did you see the New York Post In an article About how they had A picture of him Sitting in his seat Waiting for the ceremony To start checking out The photos of himself From the red carpet image conscious king and his wife was like uh-huh uh-huh

8:12Choma were there any other vintage or vintage inspired moments that you loved I'd have to say I now I'm thinking about the after party because some of my favorite I thought Kendall Jenner she wore a vintage a true vintage peach not vintage inspired a sort of Thierry Mugler very high neck um very another sort of like darkly romantic take on the naked dress like full sleeves high neck just like just like so much drama and I really loved it and I think you always want a supermodel moment at the at the Oscars I I know Anok Yoi went in Marnie which I thought was very cool like to see Marnie on the runway and Marnie had such a great their show was seemed to be one of the best of the season in Milan and had everyone talking.

8:57So Anok to me is like, you know, the supermodel of now and so cool to see her at the Oscars. But to me, as far as vintage goes, I thought Kendall's was one of my favorite. I also thought that Kaya looked pretty good too. I mean, she always looks pretty stunning. Oh yeah, that was vintage Valentino. I like that. Yeah, I love that too. And that kind of had a sort of softer 1970s glamour, which I think a lot of movie stars sort of neglect that era. And I think Valentino's kind of owns that space. But I'd love to see more of that. I just think the 70s was such a glamorous moment. Two of my best dress were Emma Stone in this very understated Vuitton sort of 1920s mermaids sequin slip dress with little finger waves in her sort of short pixie hair.

9:49Yeah, the hair was so nice. The hair was so good. And to me, I really like when people understand the assignment of the difference between a nominee and a presenter. It's like Emma won last year. She was there to present Best Actress. It wasn't her night. She was also there as a producer of A Real Pain. But it was very much like I'm an adult and I don't have to be the star of this situation. Rafi Cassidy I thought looked adorable. I love her. Taylor, who are your best-dressed men? Were you inspired by the brooches? Well, I want to hear you talk about Adrian Brody's brooch. Okay, so Adrian Brody is on the red carpet.

10:29He has this enormous brooch on. And suddenly we get these frantic slacks from our colleague Sam Sussman. OMG, OMG, Halle Berry just kissed Adrian Brody. We're like, what? In what context? And then we get the video and they really... Well, there's a story here, right? Well, I know. I'm waiting for you to tell it. Oh, okay. I'm leading up for you. What is the story here? 22 years ago or whenever he won for The Pianist, right? Or I guess it was the year after. Help me out, Marlee. No, I think it was the year that he came up and accepted the award. Okay, yes. That's right. The award was presented by Halle Berry, and he came up and received the award.

11:06He was the youngest male actor at the time to win the award. And then I guess he planted a big kiss on Halle Berry afterwards and said something like, you won't get that in a gift bag or something like that. Really? Really struggles in the rewatch, I have to say. So she said that she's been, like, planning payback for 22 years and finally got him on the right carpet. But there was also a line. So it wasn't surprising to him? No, that's the problem. There was also a line slipped into the news coverage that she said. And Georgina was fine with it. So clearly this is all, you know. It might have been that she was fine with it after.

11:42Got her sign off right after. Like, was that a good deal? How'd that go? Anyway, that was fun. Right carpet moment. All right. Other highlights people want to point out? I think Anora winning is like Hollywood showing that it knows like a fun movie when it sees one, you know? I was thinking about this. I was like, what made Anora like so popular with this crowd? Because it's like kind of in some ways not a traditional Oscar movie the way that like The Brutalist is. Or like A Complete Unknown is. Every peer of my mother who's an Oscar voter definitely did not. I'm just so confused. No one did not see it or vote for it.

12:15It didn't do well in the box office at all, right? Well, OK, so I see it also as part of this, like, you know, the revenge of independent movies or whatever, because, like, you know, from Moonlight to Parasite to Everywhere All at Once, like this like string of like smaller independent movies has been winning the Oscars, which on one hand you could say is like the, you know, the opera-fication of movies. Like we're only going to reward these tiny little niche movies that some people in New York and Los Angeles have seen. Like once upon a time, we used to give it to huge, big budget. They're not like operas.

12:46They are like opera. Movie is becoming like opera. I'm sorry, because Amelia Perez was an opera. Okay. I'm really confused. I'm really confused. So it's also like movies you can only see in theaters. That's the other thing that seems to be being rewarded by these small, you know. I guess Oppenheimer would be the counterexample, like a big, big budget studio movie that won last year. Yeah. But on the other hand, Anora is like Pretty Woman. You know, it's like a genuinely enjoyable watch. The other thing that I thought was a feel-good moment about Anora winning is Sean Baker. He wrote that movie.

13:18He directed it. He edited it. He cast it. Do you know that that is the most Oscars one person has ever won in a night since Walt Disney? I totally do. Stop it. So crazy. Fun fact. And Walt's was for multiple films. I mean, I thought it was good, but I mean, was it that good? That was kind of my feeling. I was like, this is fun. This is sort of a romp. And then once it sort of like fell away during awards season, when Demi was winning everything, I was kind of like, okay. And then it came roaring back with a vengeance to the weekend of like the DJs and the PJs. It was a really fascinating like late set of PJs.

13:52Like all of a sudden it was Sean Bigger everywhere, Mikey Madison winning everything. And then we're like, okay, we have a race. It was a surprise race. And then Conclave wins the BAFTA. So, I mean, people were like Oscars is such a boring season this year. And I think the argument for that is that all the movies are good, not great. Like name like a truly great movie from this year. I think you'd be hard pressed. But, like, on the other hand, there were so many, like, twists and turns to this, like, epic award season that they managed to, like, cook up some surprises last night, which I was delighted by.

14:20Yeah.

14:24Okay, we are going to take a quick break. And when we come back, our favorite winners and snubs.

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15:18I want to talk about because Lila Ramsey does a great job of finding the best photos from inside the Oscars and people sort of gossiping and giggling and talking to each other. And I thought that I loved seeing all the couples together. Kylie Jenner never walks the red carpet with Timmy, but she was wearing this sort of odd, like, caged custom Mew Mew dress. And they were, you know, snuggling. And Benny Blanco and Selena Gomez, I'm extremely here for. Oh, they're so cute. They're so charming. Yeah. And she was showing off her engagement ring. I thought they were a very cute, cuddly couple. Yes.

15:58I thought she was the best thing about Amelia Perez. and you know I'm a fan of Zoe Saldana what did you guys think of Zoe Saldana? you haven't mentioned her tonight she wasn't good I thought her after party look was more I mean of the Santa Ron looks that really got my attention I have to say it was a very cheeky Zoe Kravitz she looks incredible there was some frantic googling of Zoe Saldana's husband after she won the award oh yeah no everyone joined in everyone joined in this mysterious Italian with a long hair and they have like four kids three kids yeah I've been on her Instagram so I've they're also really cute they're so adorable they're such a sweet family never heard this man speak though haven't really sought that out to be honest no I'm not really trying no but they seem to have been together for a long time nowhere can you find him speak I'm like I'm like not into that anyway actually what do we think of Karen Culkin's speech tell me about it what was it i didn't i didn't catch it he actually landed the story quite well yeah um but he told a story about how after i guess it was the emmys he won the emmys and he sort of put his wife um uh whose name is jazz on the spot about like having more kids and they have two he wants he said three a year ago and she said you know talk to me when you win an oscar basically like if you win an oscar i'll give you four right but they have two so from the oscar They have a lot of work to do.

17:26He was suggesting they go from two to four. That's right. It's twins or bust. I thought it was a little, you know, sort of discomforting. No, I'll agree. I mean, he's so delightful. Love him. But I'm also like, enough. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was a little Kieran goes a long way. So true. Okay. Talk about Conan, Taylor. You were delighted. I thought Conan was great. I think this is the year of professionalism from award show hosts. Indeed. Okay. So this is true. We had Nikki Glaser. Yeah. She killed it at the Golden Rose. I thought you were just going to say like the year of professionalism, period.

18:04Yeah. I'm here for professionalism. I'm here for professionalism in general. No, but Conan, like, he knows what he's doing. Well, duh. He's been doing this for a long time. That's why they picked him. And he really killed it. I thought he was goofy, but like genuinely funny. Yeah. And he was so high energy, which I realize we need in a ceremony that long. Like someone who is excited to be there. Marley was concerned about him blowing out his mic. He was screaming. He was absolutely screaming all night long. I was like, please calm down. But also, this is helpful. We're tired, but he's kind of keeping our heart rates up a little bit.

18:37I love Conan. I'm always charmed by just the extent of Conan's height. During the firefighter tribute. Oh my God. He made these firefighters look like Lilliputians, and we know they're not. Lilliputians. Got it, got it, got it, got it. Left turn vocab. Chris LaGuardia. Hello, God of Us Travels. Oh, there you go. Can I make a humble criticism of the Oscars? Oh, this should be good. Oh, please. No performances or minimal performances next year. Can we talk about the performances? Let's talk about the crisis of Best of a Tell Song. The crisis in that category. Oh, my God. Remember when movies just make a movie and good music?

19:20Remember when, like, I said this last... No, no, not really. You came up with the only good example from the last 25 years. I have a list. Which is when Eminem won for Lose Yourself. Okay, that's the problem. The last 25 years has been a problem. Before that, my God, the bang on this. The bang on this category. Let me read them. I honestly have to come up with a list. Oh, my God, the archivist in Marley Marius comes out. No, honestly, over Slack, she was like, she was like, remember when we made good music, like lose yourself I was like yeah yeah and then I look up the list and I'm like oh no no no no not one good song last dance came from the movie evergreen the way we were take my breath away oh the way we were thank you thank you my heart will go wrong come on I'm like what happened here I was pleased not to have another I'm Ken or whatever that song was performance but we had so many others we had like a we had like a James Bond hour for some reason the James Bond hour was confusing can somebody explain than James Bond?

20:11Good question. Well, there's this big sale of the broccoli family sold the rights to James Bond to Amazon. But I couldn't tell how that was playing because you had the very funny Conan Amazon jokes about the box being dropped off and then stolen, you know? And then there was this, like, you know, tribute to Bond. And so I wondered if they were trying to, like, you know, say, OK, guys, now's the time to memorialize Bond because it won't be good again. Or it also could play as like a free ad for Amazon Bond IP. That's what it felt like to me. And it did not feel entirely successful, although I was like, Ray could do a Bond theme tomorrow.

20:47Like, that's so her vibe. She played cleanup in the worst trio of Bond singers. I know. I mean, love Doja Cat when she's doing the Moo song or whatever, but like not Diamonds Are Forever. Speaking of best song, Emilia Perez won, and it was these three French people, And then they started singing the song. That was a tough moment. The woman's lack was melting down. Choma, people in our Slack chat were losing their minds. There was just an eruption. It was a really unifying moment. Everybody at once was like, this shall not stand. Because it was three French people just standing up there going, Emilia, Emilia.

21:34It was horrifying. Bring back the translator for ODR. Remember that? Oh, my God. I love the translator for ODR. But yeah, Miley Perez, after all of their controversy, they had the most nominations. And they won Best Original Song. Zoe Saldana won. And then what were other huge shockers? Well, the snubs has to be the Dylan movie, first and foremost. Did Complete Unknown get anything? It got nothing. Yeah. And then less of a snub because it wasn't nominated for that much. But Nosferatu got nothing, too. Right. Ugh, the rats. Best animal. I know. Rats of Nosferatu. Liam Hess wrote an exquisite article about the overlooked animals of the Oscars.

22:16So good. The turtle in Conclave. There are lots of stuff. All the animals in Flo. It was so good. Oh, shout out to Flo. I love Flo. Flo is getting seen now because it's on Max streaming. Oh, that's how I should watch it. It's like beautiful 90 minutes, like nothing gorgeous. Flo is amazing. Choma, Flo is the animated film where it's only animal sounds. There's no dialogue. I think I'll pass. No, it's so good. My kids were like that too. My kids were like, no dialogue. Thumbs down, dad. But this movie was made with free software anyone can download and has no dialogue and is just genius. So good.

22:53Did you guys feel for Timotei at all? Not to bring it around back to his butter-colored suit. He was all suited up and ready to go. Ready to win. Yeah, he did not win. He's got years to catch up. We'll see him again. He'll win an Oscar. He'll win an Oscar. This is already a second nomination. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, my God. The crazy... If Rafe wins again, we get to call him Ralph. Remember that from Conan? Also, like, when people were, like, talking to anonymous Oscar voters and they were like, we're not voting for Rafe because he won already, but he has, in fact, never won. This is his third nomination.

23:21He's never won. The crisis of competence is what was happening there. Wow. Like, people were like, he got one surely for Schindler's List. No, he didn't. No, he didn't. and they voted for Adrian Brody instead. Who had won for the penis? It's messed up. People don't know what they're talking about. Devastating. These are fake cinephiles. Yeah. Yeah. No, totally. I love the Brutalist and I like Timber and I don't know. Yeah. The speech was a bit much for me. What do we think of his? Yeah, what do we think of the speech? The YouTube video is six minutes long. Okay? It's six minutes long. It is way too long.

23:50Telling the music to pipe down because he's been here before was a lot for me. And what about the gum? I missed that part. Everyone was talking about it. I didn't see it either. He's slowly making his way to the stage. And I mean, thanking everybody along the way. And then when he is breaking free of the crowd and headed to the podium, he remembers that he has gum in his mouth and tosses it to Georgina. Wait, like spits it out? I didn't see the spit out, but that was what I saw. That is insane. Toss something through the air. And I'm told it was gum. What if she hadn't caught it? Oh, my. End up in her hair?

24:26What if it landed in Mikey's hair? I thought the move was to swallow it at that moment. But, you know, I haven't chewed gum in 25 years, so I don't really know. Don't chew gum before your category. Don't chew gum, period. So true. So true. Sorry, what did we think of the speech? It was fine. It was... It was too long. It was fine. Yeah. It's nice how seriously he takes his graft and how seriously he's taken his whole campaign. Like, he had a lot to say. He had a lot to say. Yeah. Well, there was like a sobriety and a seriousness to the evening without it ever being sort of political or in your face, which makes me think of where we started when you guys were talking about the conservatism of the fashion.

25:05I do think that Hollywood is caught in this kind of like play it safe, you know, play by our playbook, like here's what we know to do kind of moment. Which is interesting because the movies are pretty unusual and modern feeling. Like Anora, The Brutalist, The Substance. Like, these are definitely, like, risk-taking movies. But you guys are right that Hollywood does not seem to be in a risk-taking moment. So I'm sort of interested to see sort of what happens from here. Like, what the coming year is going to be like. Okay, so the biggest maybe of the night was Best Actress. Yeah. Set the scene, Taylor.

25:39Well, I cannot set the scene because I was watching on Hulu. Oh, no. Let me just do 10 seconds on the fact that streaming, which is like taking over Hollywood, is apparently on its knees. It can't even figure out how to do a live show. So my Hulu feed cut out right before the envelope was over. What time was that? Do you know? Oh, my God. It was like 1 in the morning. I was so late. So what did you guys think? I missed it. I mean, I saw it on social and on Slack channels. I just I think Demi really ran an exquisite campaign and like kudos to her team because they made that work every step of the way from what she was wearing to I thought the way that she her speech which was it.

26:28Where was her speech about popcorn actress. Golden Globes. Golden Globes. She's given such good speech. She's given such good speeches. It was really felt like oh this could be Demi's moment. Imagine the speech she was going to give last night. Oh, man. But the great thing is that hopefully this like producers will kind of see her in a different way. Producers, directors will kind of like give her different kinds of work than she's been doing. Like I think her career is going to be there. But Taylor, I was interested in your cancel out theory. Yeah, I think I think it's totally plausible that sort of the older voter set was split between Fernanda Torres and Demi Moore.