It doesn’t get any better for an actor than for their entire peers to decide that, of all the performances from the last year, they are the greatest.
Tonight’s Academy Awards will have Timothee Chalamet, Colman Domingo, Demi Moore, Mikey Madison, and a number more all vying to be the next winners of the golden statue.
Kieran Culkin is one of those actors for whom tonight may be the culmination of their career, as the A Real Pain actor won his first Oscar in the Best Supporting Actor category.
Chalamet will be one of those vying for an Oscar (Jeff Kravitz via Getty Images)
As such, Culkin’s life will be sky high, and you’d imagine tonight would be totally carefree.
Rather than being 100 percent free sailing however, Culkin will have to sign a very strict legal agreement due to his Oscar win.
This agreement means that the A Real Pain actor will have incredibly specific rules about what can happen once they’ve been given the award and run off into the sunset.
It entirely revolves around selling an Oscar, and it explains why you never see skint celebs hawking their trophy for cash.
This is all laid out in the ‘regulations’ section of the Oscars’ website, and states that winners are banned from selling their awards unless first meeting a certain criteria.
This section reads: “Award winners must comply with these rules and regulations.
The award can’t be given away (Santi Visalli via Getty Images)
“Award winners shall not sell or otherwise dispose of the Oscar statuette, nor permit it to be sold or disposed of by operation of law, without first offering to sell it to the Academy for the sum of $1.00.”
Basically, if an actor wanted to sell their award, they’d need to first offer it to The Academy for just $1, which is the equivalent of 78p.
The website adds: “This provision shall apply also to the heirs and assigns of Academy Award winners who may acquire a statuette by gift or bequest.”
Ultimately, this also applies to people who may inherit an award from a family member or receive it as a gift.
The rule has been in place for decades and has even led to lawsuits in the past.
Even if Messi the dog from Anatomy of a Scandal had won, he better not try to sell it – or else (Kevin Winter via Getty Images)
After first becoming a strict policy in 1951, The Academy actually sued one man after he auctioned off an Oscar that his uncle, Joseph Wright, had won in 1943.
In 2014, Joseph Tutalo sold the trophy for $79,200 (£62,000).
The Academy later sued Tutalo and the auction house for breach of contract.
Michael Jackson, however, did pay $1.5m (£1.1m) back in 1999 for a Best Picture Oscar, originally awarded to producer David Selznick in 1939 for Gone With the Wind.
So if Culkin – or any of tonight’s other winners, try and stick their Oscar on eBay, the litigious Academy lawyers will be coming for them.
Oscars 2025 results: the nominees and winners announced so far
Best supporting actor
Yura Borisov – Anora
Kieran Culkin – A Real Pain – WINNER
Edward Norton – A Complete Unknown
Guy Pearce – The Brutalist
Jeremy Strong – The Apprentice
Best animated feature
Flow – WINNER
Inside Out 2
Memoir of a Snail
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
The Wild Robot
Best costume design
Wicked
Nosferatu
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Gladiator II
Best original score
The Brutalist
Conclave
Emilia Pérez
Wicked
The Wild Robot
Best make-up and hairstyling
A Different Man
Emilia Pérez
Nosferatu
The Substance
Wicked
Best adapted screenplay
A Complete Unknown – Jay Cocks and James Mangold
Conclave – Peter Straughan
Emilia Pérez – Jacques Audiard
Nickel Boys – RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes
Sing Sing – Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar
Best original screenplay
Anora – Sean Baker
The Brutalist – Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold
A Real Pain – Jesse Eisenberg
September 5 – Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum, Alex David
The Substance – Coralie Fargeat
Best supporting actress
Monica Barbaro – A Complete Unknown
Ariana Grande – Wicked
Felicity Jones – The Brutalist
Isabella Rossellini – Conclave
Zoe Saldaña – Emilia Pérez
Best original song
‘Never Too Late’ – Elton John: Never Too Late
‘El Mal’ – Emilia Pérez
‘Mi Camino’ – Emilia Pérez
‘Like A Bird’ – Sing Sing
‘The Journey’ – The Six Triple Eight
Best international feature
I’m Still Here – Brazil
The Girl with the Needle – Denmark
Emilia Pérez – France
The Seed of the Sacred Fig – Germany
Flow – Latvia
Best film editing
Anora
The Brutalist
Conclave
Emilia Pérez
Wicked
Best production design
Wicked
The Brutalist
Dune: Part Two
Nosferatu
Conclave
Best sound
A Complete Unknown
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
Wicked
The Wild Robot
Best visual effects
Alien: Romulus
Better Man
Dune: Part Two
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Wicked
Best cinematography
The Brutalist
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
Maria
Nosferatu
Best actor
Adrien Brody – The Brutalist
Timothée Chalamet – A Complete Unknown
Colman Domingo – Sing Sing
Ralph Fiennes – Conclave
Sebastian Stan – The Apprentice
Best director
Jacques Audiard – Emilia Pérez
Sean Baker – Anora
Brady Corbet – The Brutalist
Coralie Fargeat – The Substance
James Mangold – A Complete Unknown
Best actress
Cynthia Erivo – Wicked
Karla Sofía Gascón – Emilia Pérez
Mikey Madison – Anora
Demi Moore – The Substance
Fernanda Torres – I’m Still Here
Best picture
Anora
The Brutalist
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
I’m Still Here
Nickel Boys
The Substance
Wicked
