2025 Oscars telecast review: A well-paced ceremony paid tribute to cinema and Los Angeles

The 2025 Oscar telecast had a high bar to clear after last year’s show, which featured an all-time great Oscar moment with Ryan Gosling belting out “I’m Just Ken” from Barbie, which not only blew the roof off the Dolby Theater but also broke Emma Stone’s dress. 

This year’s event, while never reaching those same heights, wasted no time giving audiences the same level of star power. Wicked nominees Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo opened the show with a gorgeous medley of inspiring numbers: Grande singing “Over the Rainbow” decked in gorgeous ruby slipper red, and Erivo an excerpt of “Home,” originally made famous by Diana Ross in the film version of The Wiz. The pairing closed out their performance with the inescapable “Defying Gravity,” which as expected brought the crowd to its feet.

It was a jubilant opening, preceded by an homage to films set in Los Angeles in recognition of the devastation caused by recent wildfires, and followed by a mostly stellar opening monologue by host Conan O’Brien. As far as Oscar openings go, it was a triumph.

Any awards show with such a strong opening faces the challenge of maintaining that quality throughout. But a few misfires aside, the 2025 Oscars telecast mostly succeeded on that level, thanks in no small part to some especially moving moments and O’Brien’s steady excellence as host.

It didn’t hurt that this was quite simply a beautiful show to look at. The staging was simple and elegant, but technology allowed the set to transform, taking on different moods with simple changes in color and lighting. The result was classy yet modern: old-school Hollywood glamour enhanced with modern technological flourishes.

There was a shakeup in the planned “Fab Five” format, where five individual film artists recognize the work of each of the nominees in a category. The format previously had been limited to the acting races, but perhaps as a consequence of Emilia Pérez Best Actress nominee Karla Sofía Gascón's lengthy social media scandal, just two categories got the "Fab Five" treatment: Best Costume Design and Best Cinematography.

For a while it seemed like the acting categories were going to get the “Fab One,” with the previous year’s winner saying a few words about each of this year's nominees before announcing the winner. But this apparently only applied to the supporting categories presented by Robert Downey Jr. and Da'Vine Joy Randolph. The lead awards went the more traditional route of showing clips of each nominated performance. It seemed strange not to present all four acting races the same way, and it drew attention to the elephant in the room.

Of course, any show that runs just shy of four hours is going to have low points. For instance, did the music of James Bond need a song-and-dance tribute just 12 years after the last time the Oscars paid tribute to the cinematic super spy? We were treated to a medley of Bond songs by singers Lisa, Doja Cat, and Raye, whose renditions were serviceable at best. Perhaps the decision to omit the Best Original Song performances was unwise. And no disrespect to Quincy Jones, but there had to be a better way to honor the legendary producer and musician than just to have Queen Latifah perform “Ease On Down the Road,” yet another selection from The Wiz.

All the while, the ceremony had to walk a fine line. With political unrest, world conflict, and devastating wildfires all looming in the background, this year’s Oscars needed to be entertaining yet reverent. And for the most part, it was successful. Perhaps no moment encapsulated this more than O'Brien paying tribute to Los Angeles area firefighters and giving them the chance to lob some barbs at the celebs in the audience. It was a moment of levity balanced with true emotion on a night that needed exactly that.