Actress Zoe Saldana was moved to tears after winning her first Oscar for Netflix’s Emilia Perez, delivering an emotional speech.
The 46-year-old actress beat out Monica Barbaro (A Complete Unknown), Ariana Grande (Wicked), Felicity Jones (The Brutalist) and Isabella Rossellini (Conclave) for Best Supporting Actress for playing Rita in the film.
She was driven to tears even on her way up to the stage, accepting the award from last year’s Best Supporting Actress winner – DaVine Joy Randolph from The Holdovers.
While she was clearly stunned to win, the tearful actress managed to thank many who helped her along this journey.
However, many noticed that one person she didn’t thank was her controversial co-star, Karla Sofia Gascon, who is also up for Best Actress.
Still, the snub wasn’t terribly surprising, since Saldana didn’t thank Gascon after winning a Critics Choice Award last month.
Actress Zoe Saldana was moved to tears after winning her first Oscar for Netflix ‘s Emilia Perez, delivering an emotional speech.
However, many noticed that one person she didn’t thank was her controversial co-star, Karla Sofia Gascon, who is also up for Best Actress
Still, the snub wasn’t terribly surprising, since Saldana didn’t thank Gascon after winning a Critics Choice Award last month .
Saldana first thanked her mother, Asalia, adding, ‘Mami! My mom is here! My whole family is here.’
She added, ‘I am floored by this honor, thank you to the academy, for recognizing the quiet heroism and the power in a woman like Rita, and talking about powerful women, my fellow nominees, the love and community that you have offered me is a true gift, and I will pay it forward, thank you so much.’
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She then thanked her director, stating, ‘Jacques, you are a beloved character in my life. Thank you for taking the interest, thank you for being so curious about these women to tell this story.’
Saldana added she is ‘sharing this award’ with her cast and crew of Emilia Perez, while also thanking Netflix’s Ted Sarandos and other executives.
She also thanked her, ‘kick a** team at CAA, my amazing managers and the lawyers and the powerful ladies at the lead company, thank you for always, always answering my emails late night.’
‘To my mom, my dad, my sisters, everything brave, outrageous and good that I’ve ever done in my life is because of you. Thank you so much. And to my husband, with that beautiful hair, you’re just — the biggest honor of my life is being your partner. You hung the moon and our beautiful perfect sons, they fill our skies every night with stars,’ she added.
‘My grandmother came to this country in 1961 — I am a proud child of immigrant parents. With dreams and dignity and hard-working hands, and I am the first American on Dominican origin to accept an Academy Award, and I know I will not be the last,’ she added.
‘The fact that I’m getting an award for a role where I got to sing and speak in Spanish, my grandmother, if she were here, she would be so delighted, this is for my grandmother. Thank you so much. Thank you,’ Saldana concluded.
Saldana first thanked her mother, Asalia, adding, ‘Mami! My mom is here! My whole family is here’
She added, ‘I am floored by this honor, thank you to the academy, for recognizing the quiet heroism and the power in a woman like Rita, and talking about powerful women, my fellow nominees, the love and community that you have offered me is a true gift, and I will pay it forward, thank you so much’
‘To my mom, my dad, my sisters, everything brave, outrageous and good that I’ve ever done in my life is because of you. Thank you so much. And to my husband, with that beautiful hair, you’re just — the biggest honor of my life is being your partner. You hung the moon and our beautiful perfect sons, they fill our skies every night with stars,’ she added
Oscar winners 2025 full list – see who received honors for this year’s Academy Awards
Best Picture
Anora – WINNER
The Brutalist
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
I’m Still Here
Nickel Boys
The Substance
Wicked
Anora was the biggest winner of the night as Mikey Madison earned Best Actress
Best Director
Jacques Audiard — Emilia Pérez
Sean Baker — Anora – WINNER
Brady Corbet — The Brutalist
Coralie Fargeat — The Substance
James Mangold — A Complete Unknown
Actress in a Leading Role
Cynthia Erivo — Wicked
Karla Sofía Gascón — Emilia Pérez
Mikey Madison — Anora – WINNER
Demi Moore — The Substance
Fernanda Torres — I’m Still Here
Actor in a Leading Role
Adrien Brody — The Brutalist – WINNER
Timothée Chalamet — A Complete Unknown
Colman Domingo — Sing Sing
Ralph Fiennes — Conclave
Sebastian Stan — The Apprentice
Actress in a Supporting Role
Monica Barbaro — A Complete Unknown
Ariana Grande — Wicked
Felicity Jones — The Brutalist
Isabella Rossellini — Conclave
Zoe Saldaña — Emilia Pérez – WINNER
Zoe Saldana was recognized in the Best Supporting Actress category for Emilia Perez
Actor in a Supporting Role
Yura Borisov — Anora
Kieran Culkin — A Real Pain – WINNER
Edward Norton — A Complete Unknown
Guy Pearce — The Brutalist
Jeremy Strong — The Apprentice
Animated Feature Film
Flow – WINNER
Inside Out 2
Memoir of a Snail
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
The Wild Robot
Cinematography
The Brutalist — Lol Crawley – WINNER
Dune: Part Two — Greig Fraser
Emilia Pérez — Paul Guilhaume
Maria — Ed Lachman
Nosferatu — Jarin Blaschke
Original Screenplay
Anora — Sean Baker – WINNER
The Brutalist — Brady Corbet & Mona Fastvold
A Real Pain — Jesse Eisenberg
September 5 — Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum; co-Written by Alex David
The Substance — Coralie Fargeat
Sean Baker earned three individual honors for Anora in addition to Best Picture
Adapted Screenplay
A Complete Unknown — James Mangold and Jay Cocks
Conclave — Peter Straughan – WINNER
Emilia Pérez — Jacques Audiard with Thomas Bidegain, Léa Mysius and Nicolas Livecchi
Nickel Boys — RaMell Ross & Joslyn Barnes
Sing Sing — Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar; Story by Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Clarence Maclin, John ‘Divine G’ Whitfield
Achievement in Production Design
The Brutalist
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Nosferatu
Wicked – Nathan Crowley and Lee Sandales – WINNER
Achievement in Sound
A Complete Unknown
Dune: Part Two – WINNER
Emilia Pérez
Wicked
The Wild Robot
Dune: Part Two won Best Achievement in Sound as Gareth John, Richard King, and Ron Bartlett are seen left to right
Original Song
El Mal – Emilia Pérez – Clément Ducol, Camille, and Jacques Audiard – WINNER
The Journey – The Six Triple Eight
Like A Bird – Sing Sing
Mi Camino – Emilia Pérez
Never Too Late – Elton John: Never Too Late
Original Score
The Brutalist — Daniel Blumberg – WINNER
Conclave — Volker Bertelmann
Emilia Pérez — Clément Ducol and Camille
Wicked — John Powell and Stephen Schwartz
The Wild Robot — Kris Bowers
Live-Action Short Film
A Lien
Anuja
I’m Not a Robot – WINNER
The Last Ranger
The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent
Animated Short Film
Beautiful Men
In the Shadow of the Cypress – WINNER
Magic Candies
Wander to Wonder
Yuck!
Documentary Feature Film
Black Box Diaries
No Other Land – WINNER
Porcelain War
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Sugarcane
No Other Land took home Documentary Feature Film as Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal, and Yuval Abraham are seen left to right
Documentary Short Film
Death by Numbers
I Am Ready, Warden
Incident
Instruments of a Beating Heart
The Only Girl in the Orchestra – WINNER
International Feature Film
I’m Still Here (Brazil) – WINNER
The Girl With the Needle (Denmark)
Emilia Pérez (France)
The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Germany)
Flow (Latvia)
Makeup and Hairstyling
A Different Man
Emilia Pérez
Nosferatu
The Substance – Pierre Olivier Persin, Stéphanie Guillon, and Marilyne Scarselli – WINNER
Wicked
Achievement in Costume Design
A Complete Unknown — Arianne Phillips
Conclave — Lisy Christl
Gladiator II — Janty Yates and Dave Crossman
Nosferatu — Linda Muir
Wicked — Paul Tazewell – WINNER
Blockbuster Wicked did not come away empty handed as Paul Tazewell became the first Black male winner of Achievement in Costume Design
Achievement in Film Editing
Anora — Sean Baker – WINNER
The Brutalist — David Jancso
Conclave — Nick Emerson
Emilia Pérez — Juliette Welfling
Wicked — Myron Kerstein
Visual Effects
Alien: Romulus
Better Man
Dune: Part Two – WINNER
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Wicked
The snub came after Gascon’s earlier social media messages came to light from 2020 and 2021 that were later deleted.
The posts included comments about Muslims in Spain, adding they would have to teach Arabic at Spanish schools instead of English.
She also tweeted about George Floyd, stating, ‘I really think that very few people ever cared about George Floyd, a drug addict swindler, but his death has served to once again demonstrate that there are people who still consider black people to be monkeys Without rights and consider policemen to be assassins,” she posted. “They’re all wrong.”
Gascon has since deleted the tweets and apologized, with Saldana responding to the controversy in early February.
‘I’m sad. Time and time again, that’s the word because that is the sentiment that has been living in my chest since everything happened,” Saldaña says. “I’m also disappointed. I can’t speak for other people’s actions. All I can attest to is my experience, and never in a million years did I ever believe that we would be here,’ Saldana said.