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Anora's Mikey Madison beat out The Substance's Demi Moore at the Oscars 2025, leading to a range of reactions. Some fans pointed out a glaring similarity with Moore's film, which followed a veteran celebrity losing her successful career to a younger person. The Coralie Fargeat directorial used body horror elements to critique the problematic beauty standards that rob women of opportunities.
Margaret Qualley played Sue, a 20-something woman, who replaces Moore's Elisabeth at her workplace. Sue enters the beauty industry and quickly rises the ladder as Elisabeth struggles with the issues of aging and fading stardom. Their visceral journey seemed close to Madison's Oscar win, to a section of the audience, in the wake of the Oscars 2025 results. They were quick to point out the irony of 25-year-old Madison beating out the Ghost actress, who was poised to win the award.
@krungkrungkrazy mentioned the same irony in their X post:
Fan reactions to Anora's Mikey Madison's Oscars 2025 win against The Substance's Demi Moore
Mikey Madison from Anora won the Best Actress award against Demi Moore from The Substance, leading to an array of reactions. Some of these fans were looking forward to Moore's win, who won the SAG award and the Golden Globe. During her speech, she talked about not being taken seriously as an actress for having starred in more mainstream projects. The Substance allowed her a chance to break the industry's long-held perception of her being a “popcorn actress".
Moore lost the Oscars 2025 Award to Madison, who was previously named the Best Actress at the Film Independent Spirit Awards and the BAFTAs. Some fans saw this incident as a reflection of The Substance's premise.
In line with this, ESPN staff writer Paolo Uggetti shared an X post saying,
"Demi Moore losing to Mikey Madison is basically the plot of the Substance"
Roxy Striar on X echoed Paolo's sentiment.
"Mikey Madison was absolutely amazing but her beating Demi Moore feels like the plot of The Substance #Oscars"
@laracroftbarbie echoed this sentiment as they mentioned how 'life imitates art',
"i'm not pitting women against each other i am a working writer and not a stan in case weirdos read this: mikey winning best actress is such an interesting way to close out the demi moore press cycle for the substance. life imitates art etc."
E. Alex Jung from Vulture and New York Magazine had a similar reaction.
"mikey madison winning is very pro-substance if you think about it"
Even in the Instagram comments about Mikey Madison's acceptance speech, @dangalvanis said, "The Substance's script was always fckng right" while @anakarlalmeida_ said, "the substance explained in live"
Anora scores big at the Oscars 2025, The Substance takes home one award
Anora took home five awards out of the six nominations it received at the Oscars 2025. (A Real Pain's Kieran Culkin beat out Anora's Yuri Borisov). Writer-director Sean Baker became the first person ever to win four Oscars in a single year - for directing, writing, editing, and producing the film. He has also become one of the few directors who has won the top award at the Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Awards.
Baker gave an impassioned speech about the state of independent cinema and urged the distributors for theatrical releases, much like Neon helped him. On the other hand, Madison dedicated her award to the sex-worker community.
"I also just want to again recognize and honor the sex worker community. I will continue to support and be an ally”.
The Substance won one award for Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling, out of five nominations it received. It was up against Anora in the other categories at the Oscars 2025.
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Also read: Oscars 2025: Here's what made Anora the Best Picture winner
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