Kieran Culkin has beaten Australia’s Guy Pearce to claim a golden Oscar statuette at the 97th Academy Awards.
Culkin, who started acting as a child, received the Best Supporting Actor award for playing one of two cousins who travel to Poland to study their family’s history in A Real Pain.
Pearce was nominated for an Oscar for the first time in his career for his performance in The Brutalist.
Guy Pearce (left) was nominated for an Oscar for the first time for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for The Brutalist, and was up against Kieran Culkin from A Real Pain. Source: AP, SIPA USA / Jae C Hong / Sthanlee B Mirador
He was up against Yura Borisov, from Anora, Edward Norton from A Complete Unknown, and Jeremy Strong, from The Apprentice, besides Culkin.
“I have no idea how I got here,” Culkin said on stage at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
“I’ve been acting all my life. I never felt like this was my trajectory.”
The 97th Academy Awards kicked off in Los Angeles at 11am AEDT on Monday, hosted by comedian Conan O’Brien for the first time.
LA is still recovering from wildfires that devastated neighbourhoods earlier this year, with producers saying the show will celebrate the city’s resilience.
Major wins for Anora and The Brutalist
The coveted Best Picture award went to Anora, beating out nine other films for the top spot of the night.
The film’s star Mikey Madison won Best Actress for her titular performance as Anora, a sex worker who lands in hot water after a love affair with the son of a Russian oligarch.
Anora’s Sean Baker won Best Director, Best Film Editing and Best Original Screenplay, rounding out the film’s five Academy Award wins.
Adrien Brody won the Oscar for Best Actor, for his portrayal of a Hungarian-Jewish Holocaust survivor who immigrates to the United States in The Brutalist.
Adrien Brody has joined an elite group of actors who have won two Oscars. Source: EPA / Caroline Brehman
The Brutalist’s Daniel Blumberg took out Best Original Score, and Lol Crawley won Best Cinematography.
Zoe Saldaña wins supporting actress
Other big wins include Zoe Saldaña who picked up the Oscar for best supporting actress for her role in the noir musical Emilia Perez, overcoming the drama surrounding the film’s lead star, Karla Sofia Gascon.
Flow won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film, beating Australian writer and director Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail, along with other nominated films, including Inside Out 2, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, and The Wild Robot.
No Other Land took out the Best Documentary Feature Film award. Among the nominees in this category was Porcelain War, which was in part produced from an inner-Sydney studio.
The documentary tells the story of a group of Ukrainian artists who stay behind after Russia’s invasion to defend their country.
The artists continue with their passion for creating porcelain figures, which are brought to life through animation.
“These are artists who are using their art as their form of resistance, and their way of preserving their culture,” producer Camilla Mazzaferro said during a question and answer session moderated by film producer Diane Becker.
The documentary was completed in secrecy for a year, out of fears of Russian interference.
Other big wins
Costume design: Wicked — Paul Tazewell
Documentary short film: The Only Girl in the Orchestra
International feature film: I’m Still Here (Brazil)
Makeup and hairstyling: The Substance — Pierre-Olivier Persin, Stéphanie Guillon and Marilyne Scarselli
Music (original song): El Mal from Emilia Pérez; Music by Clément Ducol and Camille; Lyric by Clément Ducol, Camille and Jacques Audiard
Production design: Wicked — Production Design: Nathan Crowley; Set Decoration: Lee Sandales
Short film (animated): In the Shadow of the Cypress
Short film (live action): I’m Not a Robot
Sound: Dune: Part Two — Gareth John, Richard King, Ron Bartlett and Doug Hemphill
Visual effects: Dune: Part Two — Paul Lambert, Stephen James, Rhys Salcombe and Gerd Nefzer
Adapted screenplay: Conclave — Screenplay by Peter Straughan
— With additional reporting by the Australian Associated Press
