Sean Baker accepts the best original screenplay award for “Anora” — Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Anora, a film about a sex worker’s marriage to the son of a Russian oligarch, picked up the Oscar for best original screenplay for screenwriter Sean Baker Sunday night, marking his first-ever Oscar win.
“I want to thank the sex worker community. They have shared their stories. They have shared their life experiences with me over the years,” he said in accepting the award. “My deepest respect. I share this with you.”
Meanwhile, Conclave screenwriter Peter Straughan nabbed the Oscar for best adapted screenplay, marking his first Oscar win from two nominations. He was previously nominated for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy in 2011.
Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun dive headfirst into a love story between a buoy and a satellite spanning billions of years after the end of human civilization in the new film Love Me.
The project, in theaters Friday, explores themes of identity, love and what it truly means to exist.
Yeun said what drew him to the project was the “real wild and earnest swing that it was.”
Stewart called the film “a cool opportunity to call into question authenticity, because we’re so obsessed with it.”
“It is like a long, big, elaborate acting exercise that kind of results in this acknowledgement of individuality being important, but also the fact that we are so linked,” Stewart continued. “Humans are … we’re all the same.”
Yeun said his satellite “wants to be defined by somebody or something” when he meets Stewart’s buoy — an event he says makes the character eventually “come to terms with the fact that he wouldn’t have ever been defined or exist in this way if it wasn’t for the other person.”
Stewart praised Yeun for being “a muscular actor” to share a scene with in such a thought-provoking film as Love Me.
“He is down,” Stewart said. “Steven’s got this, like, very serious fieriness.”
Love Me also explores one of the biggest technological jumps of recent years: the emergence of AI.
“These things are extensions of us. If anything, the thing that’s difficult … to talk about [when it come to AI] is you’re really kind of talking about a portion of yourself, of ourselves,” Yeun said, with Stewart agreeing that “they’re mirrors” of us.
“Almost like the part that you don’t want to lose control of, which is so scary,” Stewart continued. “When we’re like, ‘Who knows what it could do.’ It’s like … are you talking about yourself right now? Are you scared of the evil within? Because, me too.”
Saturday Night Live celebrated its 50th anniversary with the live SNL50: The Anniversary Special on NBC Sunday night, featuring a mix of live sketches, packaged pieces and lots of celebrities.
The show opened with a performance of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Homeward Bound,” featuring Paul Simon and Sabrina Carpenter, with Simon noting he first performed the tune on SNL in 1976, while Sabrina added she wasn’t alive yet and neither were her parents.
Steve Martin handled the opening monologue, with help from John Mulaney, with the rest of the show featuring new takes on some classic SNL sketches, including the alien abduction sketch “Close Encounter,” featuring Pedro Pascal, Woody Harrelson and Jon Hamm, with Meryl Streep playing Kate McKinnon’s mom.
There was also “Black Jeopardy“, with contestants Leslie Jones, Tracy Morgan and Eddie Murphy impersonating Tracy Morgan right next to him, with Tom Hanks as a MAGA hat-wearing contestant joining in at the end.
Other throwback sketches included “Debbie Downer“, with Drew Barrymore, Ayo Edeberi, and Robert De Niro, a Mulaney-led musical about New York, with appearances by Nathan Lane and Lin-Manuel Miranda, the “Bronx Beat” talk show, with Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph and Mike Myers as Coffee Talk lady Linda Richman, a “Domingo” sketch, that featured Carpenter and Pascal and more.
AdamSandler offered a poignant musical tribute to SNL, introduced by Jack Nicholson, making a rare public appearance, plus there was a “Weekend Update” with current anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che, joined by former “Update“ hosts Seth Meyers and Bill Murray.
There were also musical performances by Miley Cyrus and Brittany Howard, performing “Nothing Compares 2 U,” made famous by Sinead O’Connor, and Lil Wayne and The Roots, with Paul McCartney wrapping the show with “Golden Slumbers,” “Carry the Weight” and “The End.”
The newly announced stars of Avengers: Doomsday are reacting to the jam-packed cast announcement.
Several big names took to social media to celebrate their casting in the star-studded project after Marvel revealed who will appear in the upcoming film — which is now in production — in a livestream on Wednesday.
Alan Cumming, who will be joining the film reprising his Nightcrawler role from X2: X-Men United, shared a video of himself jumping into frame from off-screen and creeping through what appeared to be a hotel lobby. He also shared a photo of his Nightcrawler character.
“Never say never! #AvengersDoomsday,” he captioned the post.
Channing Tatum, who played Gambit in Deadpool & Wolverine, shared a post on Instagram, writing, “It all leads to Doom. #AvengersDoomsday is now in production!”
Black Panther actress Letitia Wright, who plays T’Challa’s sister Shuri, shared her excitement in an Instagram post, writing in the caption, “Unfinished business.”
Wright’s Black Panther co-star Winston Duke, who plays M’Baku, also hyped up the film on his Instagram Story, writing, “Back in the saddle baby!!!”
Simu Liu, who will reprise his character Shang-Chi, kept it short and sweet in his Instagram post, writing, “DOOMSDAY!”
Rebecca Romijn, who starred in several X-Men films as the all-blue Mystique, shared an Instagram photo of her name in the cast announcement, as well as a photo of her character. She wrote in the caption, “She’s back. True. Blue.”
The film’s directors, Joe and Anthony Russo, originally announced the project at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2024, revealing that Robert Downey Jr. would return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Doctor Doom.
