Image source, Getty Images

Pavel Talankin had never been outside Russia before he went into exile in summer 2024, leaving his home in the Ural mountains for his own safety after he quietly stood up to President Vladimir Putin's war machine.

In less than two years, Pasha, as he's known, transformed from an events coordinator and videographer at a primary school in Karabash, one of the most polluted places on earth, to an Oscar winner.

His film, Mr Nobody Against Putin, just won the award for documentary feature.

The BBC documentary charts the story of what happened after Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and how Pasha was reluctantly drawn into Putin's propaganda machine.

His role at the school was to film student music videos, performances and graduation ceremonies.

He realised it made him "a kind of monitor of the teachers, to make them understand, 'Look, I'm here, I've got a camera, I'm filming, so you will say everything you are supposed to say, you will speak as instructed, you will use the material provided by the government'."

He rebelled, at great risk to himself, deciding to become a filmmaking whistleblower.

Now, his story is being heard around the world.

Read more here.

Category: Cinematography

• Sinners
• Frankenstein
• One Battle After Another
• Marty Supreme
• Train Dreams

Image source, Reuters

Helen Bushby
Culture reporter

Tonight is all about the votes from the Academy, external, whose membership is "limited to film artists working in the production of theatrically-released motion pictures".

It has 19 branches, representing the crafts ranging from actors to writers.

Winning an Oscar means you are automatically considered for membership, but for anyone else, membership is via sponsorship, not application.

"Candidates must be sponsored by two Academy members from the branch to which the candidate seeks admission," the academy's website states.

Category up: Film editing

• One Battle After Another
• Sinners
• Marty Supreme
• F1
• Sentimental Value

Emma Saunders
Culture reporter

It's a second Oscar win for Brit Gareth John and his colleagues.

The film was the biggest box office hit on the best picture list so it's a popular blockbuster choice.

It's highly unlikely to win best picture, which it's also nominated for, but many will be pleased to see a more commercial film recognised. It stars Brad Pitt as racing driver Sonny Hayes - who comes back to the track after a 30-year break to save his former teammate's struggling team from going under.

Helen Bushby
Culture reporter

Image source, WarnerBros

Our penultimate best picture nominee is Sinners, which has already taken home two awards this evening.

The vampire horror film smashed through the record for the most Oscar nominations received by a single film, when it was nominated for 16 of Hollywood's most coveted honours earlier this year.

Directed, written and produced by Black Panther and Creed director Ryan Coogler, it beat the previous record total of 14 nominations, for All About Eve in 1951, 1998's Titanic and La La Land in 2018.

The film stars Michael B Jordan as twins Smoke and Stack, who return to their hometown in the Jim Crow south of Mississippi in the 1930s, where they find themselves defending their juke joint from vampires.

British actors Wunmi Mosaku and Delroy Lindo recently spoke to BBC News about the film, with Lindo saying: "This is not a vampire film per se. The vampires are a conduit for a much larger story."

Mosaku added: "If you look at it as the horrors of humanity, then it's completely justified. It's about cultural appropriation... it's a profound film."

Emma Saunders
Culture reporter

Image source, Mubi

We are into the last handful of tonight's best picture nominees, with Sentimental Value.

Joachim Trier’s intense and thoughtful Norwegian family drama is a study of transgenerational trauma which puts the father-daughter relationship at its heart.

Stellan Skarsgård plays a veteran egotistical film director (Gustav), the father of two grown-up daughters, played by Renate Reinsve (Nora) and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas (Agnes).

Gustav has been estranged from their late mother since they were little, and his relationship with the pair has been strained ever since.

The complex dynamic between Gustav and Nora is further complicated by the fact she is a successful stage actress and her father wants her to star in his comeback film.

It's a meditative and moving watch about love and grief, and the bond between siblings. The film has nine Oscar nominations and picked up the best film not in the English language award at the Baftas last month. It's the first time a Norwegian film has been nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards.

Check out this very sweet video, external of the cast and crew reacting to their Oscar nominations when they were announced in January.

Helen Bushby
Culture reporter

Swedish composer Ludwig Goransson has won for his soulful soundtrack for Sinners, which blends Delta blues, gospel and Irish folk music.

He references his love of his first guitar, which inspired his career, and Sinners creator, director and producer Ryan Coogler, for making the film.

Emma Saunders
Culture reporter

The producers of Mr Nobody Against Putin gave an impassioned speech when they picked up their gong, criticising censorship in the media ahead of the main subject of the film, Pavel Talankin, taking to the microphone.

The film follows Talankin in his job at a school in Russia. While recording his students, Talankin also documents the Putin administration's propaganda during the war with Ukraine, putting his life at huge risk.

Talankin spoke to the BBC's culture and media editor, Katie Razzall, ahead of tonight's show and said if the film won, his acceptance speech would be written by his former students.

"If we win, it's going to be their speech."

Category: Best sound

• Frankenstein
• Sinners
• F1
• Sirāt
• One Battle after Another

Category: Original score

• Bugonia, Jerskin Fendrix
• Hamnet, Max Richter
• One Battle After Another, Jonny Greenwood
• Frankenstein, Alexandre Desplate
• Sinners, Ludwig Göransson

Helen Bushby
Culture reporter

It's 15 years since comedy hit Bridesmaids was released, and to commemorate this, its cast members Rose Byrne, Kristen Wigg, Melissa McCarthy, Maya Rudolph and Ellie Kemper were on stage as presenters.

Sadly Rebel Wilson was not up there with them.

They made jokes at the expense of stars in the audience including Leonardo DiCaprio.

Jimmy Kimmel, a multi-time Oscar host, also made a joke about censorship, referencing new leadership at broadcaster CBS.

Kimmel was in the headlines earlier this year when a joke led to his late night program on ABC being temporarily suspended.

"As you know there are some countries whose leaders don't support free speech," he said. "I'm not at liberty to say which, let's just leave it at North Korea and CBS."

Helen Bushby
Culture reporter

All the Empty Rooms has won this year's award for best documentary short. For Joshua Seftel and Conall Jones - it's their first Oscar and second nomination.

Their film sees a journalist and a photographer film and memorialise the bedrooms left behind by four children killed in school shootings.

One mother, whose daughter Jackie was killed after a shooting, says "her bedroom has been frozen in time".

"She is more than just a headline, she is our light and our life," she says.

"Gun violence is now the number one cause of death in kids and teens. If people could see their empty rooms we would be a different America."

The award was presented by former Oscars host Jimmy Kimmell, who praised documentary makers, saying creators had risked their lives "making films that could get you killed".

He also had a dig at the recent Melania Trump documentary, Melania, saying they can also show you "walking around the White House trying on shoes".

Category: Documentary feature

• Mr. Nobody Against Putin
• The Alabama Solution
• Come See Me in the Good Light
• Cutting Through Rocks
• The Perfect Neighbor

Category: Documentary short film

• The Devil Is Busy
• Children No More: Were and Are Gone
• Perfectly a Strangeness
• All the Empty Rooms
• Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud

Emma Saunders
Culture reporter

The best visual effects award goes, as expected, to James Cameron's Avatar: Fire and Ash, mirroring its other success during awards season, including a Bafta.

The team pay tribute to everyone working on the film, but the music plays out before they all get to speak.

It's unusual for a film to win in this category if it's not also nominated for best picture, as is the case here.

History was on its side though, as the first two films in the franchise also won this category.

Image source, Getty Images

Actor Pedro Pascal debuted a new look at the Oscars while presenting the production design award tonight.

The Chilean-American star of The Last of Us has notably dropped his signature moustache and beard and is now sporting a clean-shaven face.

We just know the fangirls will have opinions on this tomorrow.

Helen Bushby
Culture reporter

Frankenstein's Tamara Deverell and Shane Vieau have collected their award, thanking friends and family, adding: "Thank you Mary Shelley for the story," referring to the author of the novel Frankenstein, who wrote it in 1818.

They called their win "an honour".

Category up: Visual effects

• F1
• Jurassic World Rebirth
• Sinners
• Avatar: Fire and Ash
• The Lost Bus