Conan O’Brien’s Brilliantly Emceed Oscars 2025 Was the Best Ceremony in Years

A heaviness bore down on Oscar season this year, as huge swaths of Los Angeles lay in charred ruin and ever more boggling, alarming news came rolling out of Washington every day. What value do the Academy Awards have at a time like this?

Well, providing amiable diversion is one merit. This year’s host, Conan O’Brien, highlighted that in ways both witty and somber. His silliness and enthusiasm throughout the show was a refreshing change from the wry, over-it stylings of Jimmy Kimmel’s past two emceeing jobs. O’Brien was edged and a little fearless, too, addressing the controversy surrounding Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón head on. He ribbed each film in a way just shy of actually critical—making jokes about the length of The Brutalist, the inherent strangeness of Wicked’s premise, the occasionally nonsensical plotting of Dune: Part II. It was signature Conan stuff, barbed and witty but not mean.

O’Brien also evinced the producers’ willingness to pad out the ceremony with conventional Oscar pomp and circumstance, performing a surprise musical number about not wanting to waste the audience’s time. (The joke being that, of course, this song was doing exactly that.) There was a merry looseness to O’Brien’s opener, but also a satisfying assuredness of position. He’s a much more theatrical performer than Kimmel, and what are the large, ridiculous Oscars if not theatrical?

The whole production leaned into that grand drama. The set was a nicely burnished series of edged curves and lines—perhaps sometimes badly evoking Tony Stark’s skyscraper offices, but striking and eye-catching where it counted. There was a sultry James Bond tribute and a gold-washed Quincy Jones homage that felt straight out of an Oscars broadcast 30 years ago, in the best way.  Nick Offerman lent the appropriate gravitas to his announcer gig, his deep baritone always ringed with a wrinkle of humor.

As O’Brien mentioned in the solemn part of his monologue, the Oscars are not just about rewarding wealthy, attractive movie stars. They also give a platform to often unheralded craftspeople. That spirit was felt this year, even if only two categories got the celebrity-tribute moment typically reserved for the acting awards. I also appreciated that even if each best picture nominee wasn’t going to get its own presenters like in days of aged, there were at least audio clips of the filmmakers talking about their work in each film’s nomination package. When there were presenters, the banter written for them was much more clever than it has been in recent years. I especially enjoyed June Squibb’s joke that she was being played by Bill Skarsgård under a heap of special-effects makeup. It was genuinely witty and pertly delivered by the 95-year-old sensation.

The choice of presenters was engaging and often thoughtful. It was great to see some unexpected legends—Darryl Hannah, Mick Jagger, Mark Hamill—mixed in with younger folks who have something to promote. (Though in Squibb’s case, she and co-presenter Scarlett Johansson were sort of kicking off the promo campaign for the upcoming film they made together.) And some stars got to show off talents many people didn’t know they had, like Margaret Qualley’s dancing and Ben Stiller’s stage climbing.

Though there were lots of embellishments in this confidently structured show, it moved along nicely. The tension of so many uncertain races, in a variety of categories, certainly helped that momentum. But the broadcast’s agreeable rhythm was also a credit to O’Brien’s witty interstitial bits (including the sharp gesture of having LA firefighters deliver jokes) and the show’s tasteful tweaks in each category presentation. Special kudos for having the orchestra play selections from each nominated score. That said, it was a shame when that orchestra started using play-off music about halfway through the show. Only best actor winner Adrien Brody, rambling on at great (and a tad self-serious) length could combat it.