A lip reader has weighed in on Demi Moore's reaction after The Substance star missed out on winning Best Actress at the Oscars.
Moore was favoured to win by many prior to last night's (2 March) ceremony, with her role as Elisabeth Sparkle in body horror The Substance receiving universal acclaim and seeing the 62-year-old win a Golden Globe for the role.
However, the bookies were proved wrong as the award ultimately went to 25-year-old Mikey Madison.
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Moore's immediate reaction to the loss was caught on camera, leading many to try and decipher what the actress said after Madison's name was read out.
Watch the moment below:
Lip reader Nicola Hickling has now weighed in on the debate, revealing to MailOnline what she believed Moore said immediately after losing out.
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"Demi says 'nice' but she isn't smiling when she says it. Her body is almost nodding like she had to force herself to say it," she told the outlet.
Fans were also disappointed to see Moore miss out on the chance to take home a Best Actress gong, with many even comparing the decision to The Substance's plot. For those who missed the body horror flick, Moore's character begins taking a black market de-aging substance after being cast out of Hollywood for her age.
"Demi Moore losing Best Actress to a younger, hotter actress is literally what The Substance is about. Crazy," one user commented on social media.
"Demi Moore was absolutely snubbed and you’ll NEVER change my mind. The Oscars just proved square and fair they don’t take older women seriously and they don’t take Horror seriously," a second viewer penned, while a third simply added: "Demi Moore robbed."
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While Moore appeared disappointed to have lost out initially, the actress put her feelings aside and could be seen applauding for Madison as she made her way onto the stage to collect the award.
Madison took home the award for her role in Anora, Sean Baker's romantic comedy film which tells the story Anora Mikheeva, a young stripper who controversially marries the son of a Russian Oligarch.
The actress paid homage to the sex worker community during her acceptance speech, telling the audience: "I also just want to, again, recognise and honour the sex worker community. I will. Yes. I will continue to support and be an ally.
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"All of the incredible people, the women that I've had the privilege of meeting from that community has been one of the highlights of this incredible experience."
Anora was one of the biggest success stories of the night, with the film also scooping up five out of the six awards it was nominated for — including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.
The film featured a mostly Russian cast, with Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, Darya Ekamasova and Aleksei Serebryakov also starring.
The biggest Oscars snubs ever
Citizen Kane loses to How Green Was My Valley (1942)
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Orson Welles’ epic tale of the rise and fall of a media baron topped BFI’s Sight & Sound poll of the best films ever made for 40 years, but this apparently wasn’t enough to win an Academy Award.
The gong instead went to How Green Was My Valley, which it’s fair to say has not stood the test of time to quite the same extent.
To add insult to injury, Welles had a falling out with the Academy prior to the ceremony, and the audience booed every time his name was mentioned.
Citizen Kane was nominated for nine Academy Awards, but only took home the statuette for Best Original Screenplay.
E.T. loses to Gandhi (1983)
Even Richard Attenborough, who ended up winning Best Picture for his biopic Gandhi, thought Steven Spielberg’s E.T. should have won.
He is quoted in Joseph McBride’s Steven Spielberg: A Biography as saying of the moment his win was announced: “I didn’t go to the podium, I went over to Spielberg. He got up, I put my arms round him, and I said, ‘This isn’t right, this should be yours'."
Spielberg’s tale of the bond between a lonely child and a horrifying looking alien remains one of the most beloved films of all time, absolutely dominating the box office following its 1982 release
The Shawshank Redemption loses to Forrest Gump (1995)
While both of these films are pretty much universally adored, The Shawshank Redemption still tops IMDb's 250 highest rated list and is regularly cited as one of the greatest movies of all time.
While in hindsight, the fact the film failed to win any of the seven Oscars it was nominated for is pretty odd, The Shawshank Redemption was a box office bomb, and in the year of its release was massively overshadowed by Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction.
Nevertheless, one fan admitted they were ‘blown away to find out that the movie didn't win a single Academy Award’ on Reddit.
Saving Private Ryan loses to Shakespeare in Love (1999)
In yet another upset for Steven Spielberg, his epic World War Two drama lost out to romcom Shakespeare in Love.
This has since been chalked up to the sinister machinations of Harvey Weinstein, who Den of Geek reports started a ‘whisper campaign’ claiming the only good part of Saving Private Ryan was the first 20 minutes, with the rest being ‘sentimental hokum’.
DreamWorks marketer Terry Press recalls Spielberg telling him ‘I do not want to get down in the mud with Harvey’ when he was urged to fight back amid Weinstein’s bullish campaign tactics.
Brokeback Mountain loses to Crash (2000)
The following year saw another shock Best Picture upset, with the widely reviled Crash triumphing over Brokeback Mountain.
A Reddit user called it ‘truly the greatest robbery of all time’.
Director Ang Lee claimed in a 2024 Deadline interview that support for his tragic gay love story ‘had a ceiling’ amid the Academy of the time.
He even recalls being told to stay in the wings of the stage in-between his Best Director win and the announcement of Best Picture, being told by a stage manager: “Everybody assumes you will win.”
It’s clear this one still hurts for many cinephiles, with one calling Crash’s win ‘absolutely criminal’.
Topics: Celebrity, Oscars, Academy Awards
Brenna Cooper