By Luca Filigenzi Local News Editor

On Sunday night, the 97th Academy Awards officially aired on ABC, with Conan O’Brien serving as the host. 

Though a rough crowd sometimes left O’Brien in awkward pauses, he consistently remained his charming, humorous self serving as an infinitely better host than Jimmy Kimmel. 

The evening began with a monologue in O’Brien’s standard comedic style, followed by a “Wicked” song performed by Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. Guest appearances for the night featured a dancing Deadpool and the sand-worm from “Dune” playing several instruments.

This first award, Best Supporting Actor, was won by Kieran Culkin, which was not too much of a surprise as he already won the Screen Actors Guild Award (SAG) and Golden Globe for his role in “A Real Pain.” His acceptance speech was an ode to his wife and their children and was a little off-putting at times, but was overall very sweet. 

The highlight of the whole night was Zoe Saldaña’s acceptance speech when winning Best Supporting Actress. Her emotional dedication to her Dominican heritage, her family and specifically her grandmother made me almost glad “Emilia Pérez” got nominated. 

As a big horror fan, I was excited for “Nosferatu” to take home an award, but after it had lost both Best Costume Design and Best Makeup and Hairstyling, it reminded me of a simple truth: horror films don’t really ever win Oscars. 

My favorite presenters were probably Andrew Garfield and Goldie Hawn.  In the little time they had together, they showed some amazing chemistry, and I love it when older and younger actors/actresses who would normally never meet come together.

The night was not entirely suspenseful though, such as in Best Costume Design. While this was standard with every Best Picture winner getting a montage, the academy certainly seemed to favor “Wicked” (Especially with it performing a song medley at the beginning). Which to a certain degree I get, “Wicked” is definitely the most watched film of all the ones consistently nominated.

The second half of the show had a bit less excitement. Nonetheless it had fun moments. Some common predictions turned out to be right, with Adrien Brody taking home Best Actor and “Anora” winning Best Picture. However, Demi Moore was the favorite to win Best Actress, so her loss to Mikey Madison was certainly the biggest surprise of the night.

The end of the night saw “Anora” taking home the most wins with five, and “The Brutalist” just behind with three. I think most people had the idea that a handful of films would dominate the awards. Films like “A Complete Unknown” and “Conclave” were surprisingly unsuccessful, however, with 16 nominations and only one win between the two.

While some of the winners were predictable, the genuine and humble attitude given by most of the winners dulled my disappointment. Despite the occasional upset, the show was definitely worth the watch.