Why Demi Moore Losing The Best Actress Oscar To Mikey Madison Is So Ironic After The Substance

The Oscars 2025 delivered a late ceremony surprise with Demi Moore losing Best Actress to Mikey Madison, and there’s an extra layer of irony thanks to The Substance. Moore and Madison were locked in a competitive race for months to win the top prize for a female performer at the 97th Academy Awards. After winning at the Golden Globes, Critics Choice, and SAG, it appeared all but certain that Moore would be one of the Oscars 2025 winners for The Substance and complete her career comeback. Academy voters delivered a different result, though.

Mikey Madison won Best Actress at the Oscars 2025 for her starring role in Anora, the Best Picture winner. It’s disappointing for Moore, who contemplated retirement before getting the role in The Substance. She delivered the best performance of her career, signaling to Hollywood that she is still an actress who should be taken seriously and remain in demand. This was an opportunity for her to be awarded the highest honor she could in her field. Losing any Oscar hurts, but there’s an ironic twist in this case because of The Substance.

Demi Moore Losing To Mikey Madison At The Oscars 2025 Is Like The Substance’s Story

The Young Star Steals Demi Moore’s Glory

Although not intentional, there is an ironic parallel between Demi Moore’s Oscar loss to Mikey Madison and her arc as Elisabeth Sparkle in The Substance. The movie follows Moore’s character as she is pushed aside by the entertainment industry. This leads Elisabeth to use The Substance to create a younger, more perfect version of herself, known as Sue (Margaret Qualley). The Substance shows the chaos that ensues as Elisabeth and Sue fight for their individuality and control, and there is an increasing disinterest in respecting the balance.

It all culminates with Sue and Elisabeth fighting after Sue replaces Elisabeth as the host of a television program that leans further into Sue’s beauty as Elisabeth becomes more disfigured. In this way, The Substance shows the newer, younger, rising star come out of nowhere – or literally from inside Elisabeth – to steal the glory of an older, more established star. The Oscars 2025’s Best Actress race between Madison and Moore wasn’t as gruesome as Elisabeth and Sue’s showdown, but the result was the same. Moore is defeated as a younger star gets recognition.

Why Mikey Madison Won Best Actress Over Demi Moore

Anora’s Status Gave Madison The Advantage

Mikey Madison’s win over Demi Moore was certainly one of the Oscars 2025’s biggest surprises, but it was not a complete shock. Madison was the early favorite to win Best Actress after Anora debuted at the Cannes Film Festival and won several awards. Only after Demi Moore won at the Golden Globes did the race shift away from her. While Moore continued to rack up wins, Madison got a strong end to the season with a BAFTA win, which showed she was not completely out of the race.

The biggest development was Anora becoming the Best Picture winner after earning frontrunner status. There was a much broader love for the movie than for The Substance. Even if Best Actress had gone the other way, Anora still would have been the biggest winner of the night. Ultimately, Anora won five of the six Oscars it was nominated for. That’s a terrific showing, and the best of any movie this year. That overall appreciation for Anora clearly carried over to Best Actress and played a part in Madison defeating Moore.

A case could also be made that The Substance‘s genre also hurt Moore’s chances. The Oscars rarely honor horror movies, especially when they are body horror movies like The Substance. While Anora is still far from the atypical Academy Award-winning movie, even a sex worker romantic dramedy is more appealing to most than a blood-spraying body horror film.

Mikey Madison’s Oscar Win Isn’t Actually That Common

The Oscars Typically Reward Older Stars

The parallels between The Substance and the Oscars’ Best Actress outcome are notable, but Madison’s win is still surprising for the same reason. Whereas The Substance plays into the commentary that Hollywood is always looking for the newest, youngest stars to replace the older crop of performers (especially with actresses), the Oscars do not typically operate similarly. It is much more common for the Academy to reward established actors who have been around for a long time compared to whoever has recently popped up. That trend was a major point in Demi Moore’s favor.

Instead, Mikey Madison became the ninth youngest person to win Best Actress. She is also the first actress under 30 to win the award since 2017, when Emma Stone won for La La Land. This makes her win a bit of a statistical anomaly, especially considering she’s only the 13th Best Actress winner from the Best Picture Oscar winner. That makes Madison’s win all the more impressive, really, as it’s a rare instance where Hollywood is propping up a young star. She joins Jennifer Lawrence, Brie Larson, and Emma Stone as recent examples of under-30 Best Actress winners.

When looking at Madison’s win through this lens, the irony of Demi Moore’s loss stings a bit more. She was in line to join Michelle Yeoh and Jessica Chastain as recent first time Oscar winners who had a strong career narrative pushing them to victory. Now, the Oscars 2025 loss left Moore to watch a young, new star walk away with the Academy Award she likely believed she was going to win.