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For months now, Aseem Chhabra has predicted that Anora would sweep the Oscars.
And on Sunday night, Sean Baker's film did, winning four Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Editing and Best Original Screenplay.
Sean Baker defines American independent cinema from the time he directed his first feature Four Letter Words (2000) and the critically acclaimed Take Out (2004), an intense story about a Chinese food delivery guy in New York City caught up in gambling debts. He has won awards but never an Oscar.
In fact, he has never even been nominated for one. Until now.
It is remarkable that after making eight features, he was finally embraced by Hollywood and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science.
At the 97th Academy Awards, he broke a record by winning four Oscars just himself for Anora: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Editing and Best Original Screenplay.
Baker's lead actress 25-year-old Mikey Madison flipped the Best Actress race by beating Demi Moore, the strongest nominee in the category.
While Madison's win was the biggest surprise of the Oscar show, she certainly deserved the recognition.
Madison had already started to shake up the race by winning the BAFTA for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
Just as Baker did at the Cannes Film Festival where Anora won the Palme d'Or, he spoke out in support of sex workers at the Oscars too.
Madison also thanked the sex workers who she consulted and came in contact with while playing the role of a Brooklyn strip club dancer who falls in love with a young, rich and spoilt Russian man.
In accepting the Best Director trophy, Baker made a plea for keeping movie theatres alive.
'Filmmakers should make films for the wide release, distributors should focus on theatrical releases, and parents should introduce their kids to films in movie theatres,' he said.
When he was young, Baker recalled his parents took him to see films in movie theatres and that is what developed his passion for cinema.
The other surprise, or one could say, heartening award was that for Best Documentary presented to No Other Land.
It is directed by Basel Adra, a Palestinian, who narrates the story about his village in the West Bank that is being slowly demolished by Israeli forces.
Adra's co-director is Yuval Abraham, an Israeli journalist.
Their film has won numerous prizes starting with the Audience Award at last year's Berlinale.
The film could not find any distributor in the US who was willing to take on the American distribution, so Adra and Abraham are self-distributing their film in theatres in key US cities.
In his acceptance speech, Adra said he hoped his newborn daughter would not live in the fear of displacement, demolition and violence.
He called upon the world to stop the injustice and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people.
Abraham added that the film was made by a Palestinian and an Israeli 'because together our voices are stronger'.
The 'destruction of Gaza and its people must end, Abraham said. The Israeli hostages, brutally taken in the crime of October 7, which must be freed'.
Of course, the mood was lighter when the first award winner of the night was announced.
Kieran Culkin, who took the Best Supporting Actor Trophy for his role in A Real Pain, joked as he reminded his wife that she had promised him a fourth child if he won an Oscar.
'I have to thank my wife, Jazz, for absolutely everything, for giving me my favorite people in the world,' Culkin said.
'About a year ago, I was on a stage like this, and I very stupidly, publicly said that I wanted a third kid from her. She had told me that if I won the award, she would give me the kid. But it turns out she said that because she didn't think I was going to win.
'After the show, we were walking through a parking lot, she was holding the Emmy, and she suddenly said, :Oh God, I did say that. I guess I owe you a third kid".'
'And I turned to her and said, "Really, I want four." She looked at me and said, "I will give you four when you win an Oscar." We shook on it, and I haven't mentioned it since -- until now.'
Zoe Saldaña, who was expected to win the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Emilia Pérez, called out to her mother in the audience.
'Mami!' she cried, as she tried to control her tears.
'My grandmother came to this country in 1961; I am a proud child of immigrant parents,' Zoe said.
'With dreams and dignity and hard-working hands, and I am the first American of Dominican origin to accept an Academy Award, and I know I will not be the last. I hope. 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.'
In a heartwarming acceptance speech for the Best Costume Design for Wicked, Paul Tazewell told the audience that he was the first black man to win an Oscar for this category.
The audience stood up to cheer Tazewell's achievement.
Ruth E Carter is the first black woman to win Oscars (two trophies, one each for Black Panther and Wakanda Forever) in the costume category.
Andrew Garfield came on the stage with his co-presenter Goldie Hawn and told her how, over the years, she had given so much joy to his late mother.
Garfield has often talked about the loss of his mother on talk shows and other public gatherings.
Conon O'Brien, who lost his home in the fires that ravaged the city of Los Angeles, kept the energy level of the show high with his monologue, jokes and the opening song number I Won't Take Time.
Other highlights of the show included a tribute to Producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson, who recently handed over the rights of the James Bond franchise to Amazon's Jeff Bezos.
The tribute featured songs and dances from key Bond films one of which featured actress Margaret Qualley. Her presence on the stage got a lot of people on social media speculating if she will play a significant role in the next Bond film.
Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey paid a heartfelt tribute to the late musician Quincy Jones, who gave the two women their first acting breaks in Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple. Jones was one of the producers of the film.
