Oscars 2025: Anora's Mikey Madison Just Received A Major Best Actress Boost, But Don't Count On Her Beating Demi Moore Yet
This year’s Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role is now very much a two-horse race, after Mikey Madison beat pre-ceremony favorite Demi Moore to win her first BAFTA yesterday. Madison won her first major acting prize of this awards season for her titular role in Sean Baker’s black comedy-drama Anora. This victory backed up the Oscars momentum that Madison has been building in recent weeks, following Moore’s wins at the Golden Globes and the Critics’ Choice Awards for her performance as Elisabeth Sparkle in The Substance.
Madison is still very much behind Moore in the running for the Best Actress Oscar, with the bookies retaining their odds-on evaluation of the latter’s chances. Moore has been the favorite for lead actress awards all season, with her late-career comeback and her role’s timely scrutinization of anti-aging cosmetics and body dysmorphia combining to make her the obvious candidate for film industry insiders. Yet Madison has been gaining ground ever since Anora became the frontrunner for Best Picture at the Oscars, with positive buzz around her performance now going into overdrive following her BAFTAs victory.
Mikey Madison’s Performance In Anora Won Her The BAFTA For Best Actress
She Brought Her Character To Life And Highlighted The Exploitation She Faces
In Anora, Madison plays Ani Mikheeva, a stripper who marries the son of a Russian oligarch at a Green Card wedding in Las Vegas. Her performance is full of color, with humor and farce often juxtaposed directly with pathos and violence. She acts beyond her relative inexperience to shed light on the exploitation and suffering faced by sex workers in the United States and beyond. While Sean Baker’s script draws the painful ironies out of Anora’s premise, it’s Madison who fills the character with heart and humanity.
The power of the actor’s performance as Ani was backed up by her acceptance speech at the BAFTAs
The power of the actor’s performance as Ani was backed up by her acceptance speech at the BAFTAs, in which she championed the cause of sex workers. "I see you. You deserve respect, and human decency,” Madison said, speaking directly to the sex-worker community. “I will always be a friend and an ally, and I implore others to do the same." Given the recent history of filmmakers with a cause making waves at the Academy Awards, Madison’s speech won’t have done her or Anora’s Oscars chances any harm.
Madison Now Has All The Momentum To Overtake Demi Moore In The Oscars Race
But Moore Is Still The Frontrunner For Now
Although Demi Moore still has the odds on her side and plenty of early-season success to fall back on, it feels as though the momentum in the Oscars race for Best Actress is swinging in Mikey Madison’s favor. If Madison does bring home the golden statuette this year, she’ll do so before her 26th birthday, becoming the ninth youngest Best Actress winner in the Academy’s history, and the youngest since Jennifer Lawrence in 2012.
Demi Moore Winning Best Actress Would Achieve This Oscars First For The Substance
Demi Moore is favorite to win 2025's Best Actress Oscar, for her role in The Substance. If she wins, it'll be a historic moment for a niche subgenre.
On the other hand, Moore is still considered more likely to win the award season’s biggest prize, not least because the Academy loves a good comeback story. Moore’s last leading role of any note came in the mid-1990s, and she’s suffered a succession of commercial and critical failures and false starts ever since.
10 Most Recent Winners Of Best Actress At The BAFTAs & Oscars | ||
|---|---|---|
Year | BAFTA | Oscar |
2016 | Brie Larson (Room) | Brie Larson (Room) |
2017 | Emma Stone (La La Land) | Emma Stone (La La Land) |
2018 | Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) | Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) |
2019 | Olivia Colman (The Favorite) | Olivia Colman (The Favorite) |
2020 | Renée Zellweger (Judy) | Renée Zellweger (Judy) |
2021 | Frances McDormand (Nomadland) | Frances McDormand (Nomadland) |
2022 | Joanna Scanlan (After Love) | Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye) |
2023 | Cate Blanchett (Tár) | Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once) |
2024 | Emma Stone (Poor Things) | Emma Stone (Poor Things) |
2025 | Mikey Madison (Anora) | TBC |
Moore's Oscars victory for The Substance would represent a career turnaround bigger than Brendan Fraser’s, Matthew McConaughey’s and Mickey Rourke’s put together. Whether it comes to pass or Madison wins for Anora, the Academy will have a worthy Best Actress.
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