Kieran Culkin accepts the Best Actor In A Supporting Role award for “A Real Pain.” Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Welcome to the 2025 Oscars! We’ll be live-blogging through the night, commentating on all things Jewish (and Jew-ish) about Hollywood’s biggest night.
Your primary panelists: PJ Grisar and Mira Fox, Forward culture writers and sharp-eyed observers of the ins and outs of Hollywood trends; Talya Zax, opinion editor with many strong opinions about the cinema; and Sam Shepherd, our culture intern. But who knows who else might drop in?
We’ll be keeping an eye on some of the most Jewish moments of the night. Most of interest is The Brutalist starring Adrien Brody, which is up for Best Picture and Brody competing for Best Actor. Then there’s A Complete Unknown, with everyone’s favorite Hollywood star of the moment, Timothee Chalamet. And we can’t forget Kieran Culkin’s show-stealing turn in A Real Pain, about a pair of cousins visiting the Majdanek concentration camp, can’t be forgotten.
A notably undramatic red carpet
Mira Fox: During the previews, just caught Jesse Eisenberg, who wrote and directed A Real Pain, complaining — jovially! — about the fact that he keeps accepting awards on behalf of Kieran Culkin. “It feels really great to get an award but it’s always been for Kieran,” he said on the red carpet at the Critics’ Choice Awards, a quote ABC’s coverage decided to highlight.
PJ Grisar: Something I’m not seeing a lot of — pins, either the ArtistsForCeasefire pins or yellow ribbons to raise awareness of hostages (the latter are missing even from Israeli actors Gal Gadot and Mark Ivanir). It’s possible there was a memo that went around warning against it. In the case of the ceasefire pins, it could be a success for efforts by a group called The Brigade, formed after Oct. 7 by Hollywood people who support Israel. They called the pin an “emblem of Jewish bloodshed” in a recent statement.
Sam Shepherd: I think I just spotted a silver hostage pin on Gal Gadot’s husband Jaron Varsano? But none on Gal Gadot, although that long, red dress is outstanding.
PJ: If the color is silver how do we know what it’s for? The pin is just like a ribbon?
Sam: Just saw another one. Oh, wait. It might be Dennis Quaid wearing a cross. Definitely not a Jewish symbol!
Talya Zax: Rachel Sennot just grievously misidentified as Rachel Zegler! Get your Rachels who are regularly mistaken for being Jewish, but are not actually Jewish, correct!
PJ: Scarlett Johansson elected to wear a blue velvet dress, but not the “F Kanye” shirt of her deepfake avatar. What’s everyone’s snack situation? I’m trying to exercise self control and not eat an entire bag of maple chex mix I got from a maple tree farm.
What a ‘Wicked’ way to start the ceremony
Mira: I’m going in for some boxed mac and cheese with broccoli…not very glamorous.
Talya: I’m making gnocchi with vegan sausage and peas. (Thanks NYT Cooking!) And my friend whose sisters are both at the ceremony as seat fillers is watching with me, so we’re both happily envisioning them sobbing to Ariana Grande’s “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”
Sam: I’m eating with a crowd today. We have four different types of popcorn among us — chocolate strawberry, Himalayan salt, white cheddar and kettle corn. All of them are kosher!
PJ: “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” was penned by Jewish songwriters Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg. Whatever happened to Jewish guys named Yip?
Sam: I tried to recreate this “Defying Gravity” riff in my Bar Mitzvah portion when I was 13. I don’t think I did it quite as well as Cynthia, though.
Talya: Here’s the problem: Why should I care about the ceremony after this Wizard of Oz-Wiz-Wicked medley? Nothing will be as good as it and I will spend the next three hours feeling resentful. Mira, what does the Talmud say about setting expectations too high?
Mira: I’m too busy watching Conan O’Brien climb out of Demi Moore’s back to look into that, sorry.
And here’s your host…
PJ: I am hoping for an appearance of Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog, frequent collaborator of Conan and brainchild of Robert Smigel, who based the accent on his Jewish Russian grandparents. (Also Paul Rudd pranking Conan with a clip from Mac and Me.)
Mira: I do like that Conan called out the Jewish movies in his opening monologue as mean things he was called on the red carpet (“a real pain”). Comedy: a proud Jewish lineage! Even when it’s the Holocaust.
Sam: Conan mentioned the length of The Brutalist in his monologue. I watched The Brutalist in AMC Lincoln Square on Christmas Eve. I started at 10:30AM and it was dark by the time I exited the theatre!
PJ: Jeff Bezos being hauled out in an Amazon box — reminiscent of how Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai was smuggled out of the gates of Jerusalem in a coffin… or not. I noticed that Guy Pearce was wearing a dove pin that said “Free Palestine,” perhaps a compromise given he wore the ceasefire pin in the past.
Mira: Both Timmy Chalamet and Adam Sandler getting big focused roasts in the monologue, and I love to see the Jews get their moment, but Sandler’s moment went on too long. (I’m sorry: I never found him funny.)
PJ: Adam Sandler — appearing schlubby in gym shorts — and Conan are neighbors. Both of their homes were damaged in the L.A. fires.
Sam: I’m in a crowd of Jewish twenty-somethings and when Sandler hugged Chalamet they all cheered “Jew on Jew!”
The crowning of Kieran Culkin
Mira: I’m glad to see Culkin, as expected, take home the first award of the night: Best Supporting Actor. A Real Pain was the least didactic Holocaust movie I’ve ever seen, a blessing to the genre. And he gets bleeped for the entire first sentence of his speech, a profanity-filled compliment to his onscreen brother in Succession, Jeremy Strong, nominated tonight for his role as Roy Cohn in The Apprentice.
Talya: Culkin, who is not Jewish, plays a very specific Jewish role in A Real Pain, and he’s playing another one tonight: Overly profane relative who you expect to say something outrageous. “I should thank my mom and Steve for trying to raise me” — he delivers.
PJ: Culkin is putting very funny public pressure on his wife to be fruitful and multiply now that he has his Oscar.
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