Madison, Brody, Saldana, Culkin: In the press room with this year's Academy Award winners

Photo Collage by Izzy Betz, Features/Entertainment Editor

The Academy Awards is always the most exciting night in Hollywood. A-list actors and creatives gather in the Dolby Theater to watch the culmination of the awards season — the final presentation of the best of the best in our industry. 

This season has been very up-in-the-air when it came to the acting categories, a tight race in both the lead and supporting nominees. The Panther had the opportunity to sit in the second row of the press room for the 97th Academy Awards and see, just a few feet away, who took home the shiny golden Oscar in each category at the end of the night.

Kieran Culkin winner of Best Actor in a Supporting Role at the live ABC Telecast of the 97th Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 2, 2025. Photo credit Richard Harbaugh ©A.M.P.A.S.

The night's first award was not at all unexpected from the outlets in the press room. Kieran Culkin, the winner of the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in “A Real Pain,” swept this awards season — winning at the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG) and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards (BAFTAs). This is Culkin’s first Oscar nomination and win. 

Culkin spoke to us about how this role felt utterly different from anything else he had worked on before.

“The script was incredibly tight that I didn’t want to rehearse it or talk about it or anything,” Culkin said. “I just felt like it was the first time I ever read something and went, ‘I fully understand this guy, I don’t even want to read it again.’ I wanna show up on the day and go, ‘What scene are we doing? Oh yes, this one.’”

He continued, pointing to his head: “The words got in here really quickly because they were so well-written.” 

The Best Supporting Actress category was stacked with new and old talent, like Monica Barbaro for “A Complete Unknown,” Ariana Grande for “Wicked,”

Felicity Jones for “The Brutalist” and Isabella Rossellini for “Conclave.” The award went to Zoe Saldaña for her role in “Emilia Pérez;” Saldaña also won at the Golden Globes and SAG Awards.

Zoe Saldaña poses backstage with the Oscar® for Actress in a Supporting Role during the live ABC Telecast of the 97th Oscars® at Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 2, 2025. Photo credit Robert Gladden ©A.M.P.A.S.

A Mexican outlet in the press room mentioned that a lot has been said about “Emilia Pérez,” about trans people and empowering women, but less has been said about Mexico at the heart of the film. The interviewer asked what Saldaña would say about the heart of this movie and how it has been very hurtful to Mexican people.

“I’m very, very sorry that you and so many Mexicans felt offended. That was never our intention. We spoke and we came from a place of love and I will stand by that,” said Saldaña. “I don’t share your opinion. For me, the heart of this movie was not Mexico. We weren’t making a film about a country. We were making a film about four women, and these women could have been Russian, could have been Dominican, could have been Black from Detroit, could have been from Israel, could have been from Gaza.”

Saldaña continued: “These women are still very universal women that are struggling every day at trying to survive systemic oppression. And trying to find their most authentic voices. So I will stand by that, but I’m also always open to sit down with all of my Mexican brothers and sisters, and with love and respect, have a great conversation on how ‘Emilia’ could have been done better. I have no problem. I welcome it.”

Adrien Brody gets his Oscar® engraved at the Governors Ball following the live ABC telecast of the 97th Oscars® at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles, CA, on Sunday, March 2, 2025. Photo credit Heather Swift ©A.M.P.A.S.

The Best Actor award felt like a coin toss. Adrien Brody won both the Golden Globe and BAFTA award for his role as László Tóth in “The Brutalist.” Timothée Chalamet, nominated for his role as Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown,” had an internet viral campaign the last few months and came in at the last moment to win the SAG Award, one of the largest voting bodies in the Academy.

Brody ended up taking the award home and gave a record-breaking five-minute and 31-second acceptance speech. He first was asked in the press room about why he felt like it was a necessary time to mention anti-Semitism and racism in his acceptance speech.

“I think we all know that it’s an important time to recognize that there’s no place for intolerance, and I’m oddly receiving recognition for representing a time in history that we witness unchecked anti-Semitism,” Brody said.

Another outlet then asked him about his roller coaster journey over the last 20 years to return to that Oscar stage.

“It’s been a long journey and a beautiful one,” Brody said. “As you try to navigate creative choices, there are many variables and there’s an enormous amount of talented individuals all vying for the very few great opportunities, and that’s the bottom line.”

Mikey Madison poses with the Oscar® for Actress in a Leading Role during the live ABC Telecast of the 97th Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 2, 2025. Photo credit Al Seib ©A.M.P.A.S.

The final actor to come through the press room was Mikey Madison, winner of the Best Actress award for her role in “Anora.” This award also felt like a coin toss for a lot of the awards season, with predictions pointing towards either Madison or Demi Moore in “The Substance” for the win. If you want to read more about Madison’s journey to this very moment, read our coverage of the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts Master Class with the star from Feb. 17.

Entertainment Weekly asked Madison how this win would influence her career going forward. Madison said that while she has been thinking about her future a lot, she keeps reminding herself to stay as present as possible and continue to work with people who inspire her, play interesting characters and tell stories that are compelling.

“I really don’t know what will happen,” Madison said. “I just know that tonight I’m going to go home to my new puppies and probably, you know, clean up their mess, and it’s going to bring me right down to earth.”

People Magazine asked what Madison would say to the character of Anora if she could talk to her right now.

“I think that making this film gave me confidence as an actor and as a creative,” said Madison. “I think it really inspired me, reinvigorated my love of cinema and reminded me of the kind of work I want to do. I would just say that I’m grateful that I was able to portray you for a short period of time.” 

Madison continued: “There will always be a small part of me that carries around the experience of making the film and the character because it has changed my life in so many ways. Not just because of all of this happening right now but just the experience of being able to work with Sean Baker (the director of ‘Anora’), the experience of learning and meeting incredible people from the sex work community that’s been such a wonderful part of this. And I’ve met so many incredible friends. So I would just say thank you.”

To read more Oscar coverage from The Panther, check out our coverage of the technical awards, as well as a piece covering the night’s acceptance speeches.