From the interesting choices in music performances to the eventual winners bucking what has been a fairly predictable awards season.

The show managed to create an equal amount of dissent and praise across all social media and TV outlets, more about that later. It has certainly been an odd year to be sure, not just in the movie world — with the devastating California fires uppermost in the presenters and nominees’ minds, there was plenty of reflection during the ceremony. Politics also played into things, but not as much as I thought it would.

This year, the spotlight was definitely on the curious selection of nominated films, especially as it consisted of mostly small budgeted, independent productions and all the five nominated directors were first time nominees — which has not happened since 1997.

Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo kicked the night off with their powerful song medley tribute to “Wizard of Oz,” then, first time host Conan O’Brien brought the laughter with his usual comedy style as the winners began to be chosen.

PHOTO PROVIDED The biggest winners of the night, pictured from left, were Adrien Brody, Mikey Madison, Zoe Saldana and Kieran Culkin.

Kieran Culkin took the first acting win of the night for his brutally honest supporting performance in “A Real Pain,” as did Zoe Saldana, for her surprisingly versatile supporting role in “Emilia Perez.” These two wins were as expected, they had already swept most of the major awards leading up to Oscar, whereas the leading performance nominees were not so assured.

One highlight of the evening for me was a brilliant musical tribute to the late, legendary music producer, Quincy Jones.

In contrast, a “James Bond” tribute, with singers Lisa, from the girl group Blackpink, Grammy winning rapper Doja Cat, and British born singer, Raye, whilst promising much, kind of fell short for me with what I thought were weaker than expected vocals.

The “In Memoriam” section was extra sad for me, as there were some truly stellar losses within the movie world. Gene Hackman, who died just a week before the show, was a true giant among actors, regarded by many in the industry as one of the greatest movie actors ever. The twice Oscar winner (“The French Connection,” 1971 and “Unforgiven,” 1992) was given a moving tribute by the academy.

Other huge losses last year were, Quincy Jones, as already mentioned, legendary director, David Lynch, and the equally legendary horror director and producer, Roger Corman. Actors, Dame Maggie Smith, Donald Sutherland, Teri Garr, Kris Kristofferson, Dabney Coleman, Joan Plowright, Gena Rowlands, Louis Gossett, Jr., John Amos, Shelley Duvall, Shannon Doherty and Michelle Trachtenburg, all honored for their unique and diverse contributions to cinema.

By far the biggest surprise of the night was “Anora” taking top honors. Winning Best Picture, Best Director-Sean Baker, Best Actress-Mikey Madison, Best Original Screenplay-Sean Baker and Best Editing, again, Sean Baker, it took the most awards with five and incidentally gained a new record for Sean Baker as he personally took home four awards, he also won as Best Picture Producer, a first for Oscar.

Most of this Awards season has seen “The Brutalist” and Adrien Brody, in “The Brutalist,” for Best Picture and Best Actor respectively, winning all the majors running up to Oscar and Adrien Brody ended up being the only one who has maintained that run.

Also, the biggest surprise, I think, was Mikey Madison beating out the Oscar favorite, Demi Moore to win the Best Actress trophy. Moore had been a winner all season, her first time as an Oscar nominee garnered her a lot of emotional support, as well as voting support. It certainly was a surprise when Madison took the win, however, she had also received much praise for her gritty, strong, yet incredibly vulnerable performance.

Naturally there were dissenting voices, as with any awards ceremony, there were many disappointments. Many were wondering how a small, personal movie like “Anora” could have won over such movies as “The Brutalist,” or “Wicked,” or “Conclave.”

The truth is no one can really say for sure why this happens. With almost 10,000 voting members of The Academy, all peers, many knowing the nominees closely, there will always be friendship voting, politically correct voting, radical voting, anger voting — all emotions covered for sure. But one thing, for me, that always stands out with Oscar, no matter who wins or loses, they will never get it right in everyone’s eyes, they will simply sort out the best groups — technical, artistic and administrative — all thrown together in a once-a-year pot and churned out for all to see.

I personally found the show to be slickly produced, and I really feel that most of the winners were good choices. There were, of course, several disappointing wins for me too, but that is for another discussion.

This will be remembered as a good acting year, if nothing else, and that for me says enough. Especially as there have been some notoriously bad years — again, a discussion for another time.

Here are the winners:

— Best Picture: “Anora”

— Best Director: Sean Baker, “Anora”

— Best Actor: Adrien Brody, “The Brutalist”

— Best Actress: Mikey Madison, “Anora”

— Best Supporting Actor: Kieran Culkin, “A Real Pain”

— Best Supporting Actress: Zoe Saldana, “Emilia Perez”

— Best Original Screenplay: Sean Baker, “Anora”

— Best Adapted Screenplay: Peter Straughan, “Conclave”

— Best Animated Picture: “Flow”

— Best International Picture: “I’m Still Here”

— Best Music Score: Danial Blumberg, “The Brutalist”

— Best Original Song: ‘El Mal,’ “Emilia Perez”

— Best Sound: “Dune: Part Two”

— Best Production Design: “Wicked”

— Best Cinematography: “The Brutalist”

— Best Costume Design: “Wicked”

— Best Make-up and Hair: “The Substance”

— Best Film Editing: “Anora”

— Best Visual Effects: “Dune: Part Two”

— Best Documentary Feature: “No Other Land”

— Best Documentary Short: “The Only Girl in the Orchestra”

— Best Short Film (Live Action): “I’m not a Robot”

— Best Animated Short: “In The Shadow of the Cypress”