Mikey Madison wins Best Actress for ‘Anora’ over Demi Moore in massive Oscars 2025 upset

An Oscars upset.

Mikey Madison won Best Actress for her role in “Anora” over Demi Moore for “The Substance.”

“This is very surreal. Forgive me, I’m nervous,” Madison, 25, said on stage as she read her speech off a note.

“I grew up in Los Angeles, but Hollywood always felt so far away from me, so to be here, standing in this room today is really incredible,” she said.

“I also want to recognize and honor the sex worker community,” she said. “Yes. I will continue to support and be an ally. 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.”

Madison also recognized her fellow nominees – Moore, Karla Sofia Gascon, Cynthia Erivo and Fernanda Torres — and called her win “a dream come true.”

Madison plays a sex worker in Sean Baker’s 2024 film, which won four other Oscars including Best Director and Best Picture.

Last month, Madison told “Good Morning America” what being nominated in the best actress category meant to her.

“It’s not a competition. We’ve all already won. I think it’s just a celebration from here on out. It’s a celebration of film,” she said of the best actress race. “I don’t think there’s such a thing as best performance, you know? That’s hard for me to wrap my mind around. I think it’s just, I don’t know, recognizing something really special in everybody.”

She also said that her favorite part of her Oscars journey has been getting to know her fellow nominees.

“That’s really important to me, my relationships and friendships with other women,” she said. “That’s been one of the best parts of all of this, is just being able to get to know everyone and witness their talent and kindness in person.”

Heading into the Oscars, Moore, 62, was predicted to win Best Actress for her performance in “The Substance,” which won her a Golden Globe Award and a SAG Award.

Moore’s co-star Dennis Quaid even thought that Moore would take home the win.

“I knew it like my second day working on that movie. I told Demi she’s going to win an Oscar for it,” Quaid, 70, exclusively told The Post last month.

“It’s just an incredible performance. It’s a gargantuan effort. I mean, it took nine months to do that. She was in makeup for like six, eight hours at a time. And the whole movie, what it says — Coralie [Fargeat] as a director, I just love working with her. She reminds me of Stanley Kubrick and Sam Peckinpah put together.”

Moore herself was shocked when she was announced as the winner for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy at the 2025 Golden Globes on Jan. 5.

“I really wasn’t expecting that. I’m just in shock right now. I’ve been doing this a long time, like, over 45 years, and this is the first time I’ve ever won anything as an actor, and I’m just so humbled and so grateful,” Moore said.

The “Ghost” actress also revealed a story about how a Hollywood producer once told her she’d never be more than a “popcorn actress” — in other words, she might star in blockbuster hits, but she’d never win critical acclaim for her work.

“I bought in and I believed that,” Moore admitted. “And that corroded me over time to the point where I thought, a few years ago, that maybe this was it. Maybe I was complete. Maybe I’ve done what I was supposed to do.”

Moore added, “So today, I celebrate this as a marker of my wholeness and of the love that is driving me and for the gift of doing something I love and being reminded that I do belong.”