A refreshingly apolitical Oscars

It is always nice to have a personal connection to the Oscars, however slight and fleeting it might be; hearing Conclave screenwriter give a shout-out to my daughter’s godfather Simon during his acceptance speech for Best Adapted Screenplay was a deeply pleasurable moment. Yet this joyful touch aside, what had initially looked like one of the most wide-open Academy Awards in history eventually proved to be nothing of the kind.

Indie director Sean Baker’s twisted romantic comedy Anora, about a sex worker who marries an oligarch’s son, had won the Palme d’Or at Cannes last year. After various twists and turns, it asserted its frontrunner status once again, taking four awards for Baker personally: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing. In one of the night’s more notable upsets, its star Mikey Madison triumphed over the more hotly-tipped Demi Moore, resurgent in the acclaimed body horror The Substance.