The 97th Academy Awards celebrated excellence in animation and visual effects, with Flow winning Best Animated Feature and Dune: Part Two securing the award for Best Visual Effects. The event took place on March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood and was broadcast live across multiple platforms.

Oscars for Best Animation Category

Winner: Flow (Gints Zilbalodis, Matīss Kaža, Ron Dyens, Gregory Zalcman)

Nominees:

  • Inside Out 2 (Kelsey Mann, Mark Nielsen)
  • Memoir of a Snail (Adam Elliot, Liz Kearney)
  • Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (Nick Park, Merlin Crossingham, Richard Beek)
  • The Wild Robot (Chris Sanders, Jeff Hermann)

Oscars for VFX Category

Winner: Dune: Part Two (Paul Lambert, Stephen James, Rhys Salcombe, Gerd Nefzer)



Nominees:

  • Alien: Romulus
  • Better Man
  • Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
  • Wicked

Best Animated Short Film

Winner: In the Shadow of the Cypress (Shirin Sohani, Hossein Molayemi)

Other Notable Winners

  • In the Documentary Feature Film category, No Other Land won, while nominees included Black Box Diaries, Porcelain War, Soundtrack to a Coup d’État, and Sugarcane. The Documentary Short Film winner was The Only Girl in the Orchestra, with nominees Death by Numbers, I Am Ready, Warden, Incident, and Instruments of a Beating Heart.
  • For International Feature Film, I’m Still Here (Brazil) took the award, competing against The Girl with the Needle (Denmark), Emilia Pérez (France), The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Germany), and Flow (Latvia).
  • Best Picture went to Anora, with nominees including The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Dune: Part Two, Emilia Pérez, I’m Still Here, Nickel Boys, The Substance, and Wicked.
  • In acting categories, Adrien Brody (The Brutalist) won Actor in a Leading Role, and Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain) won Actor in a Supporting Role. Mikey Madison (Anora) secured Actress in a Leading Role, while Zoe Saldana (Emilia Pérez) won Actress in a Supporting Role.
  • Other notable wins included The Brutalist for Cinematography, Wicked for Costume Design, and Anora for Directing (Sean Baker). The Substance won Makeup and Hairstyle, and Dune: Part Two took home Best Sound.
  • For Music (Original Score), The Brutalist triumphed, while El Mal from Emilia Pérez won Music (Original Song). Wicked took Production Design, and Conclave won Writing (Adapted Screenplay), with Anora securing Writing (Original Screenplay).

The night reaffirmed the impact of 3D animation and VFX in modern filmmaking, with Flow continuing its festival success and Dune: Part Two pushing the boundaries of cinematic visuals.