Oscars backstage: Six highlights from the Academy Awards winners room

Independent film Anora dominated this year's ceremony, taking home five awards in total - which meant a lot of time in the winners room for director Sean Baker.

The film, which is about a sex worker who has a whirlwind ill-fated romance with the spoilt son of a Russian oligarch, won best picture, Baker won best director, and 25-year-old star Mikey Madison scooped the award for best actress.

Here are all the best moments from this year's winners room.

Zoe Saldana addresses Emilia Perez controversy

Coming off the back of her win for best supporting actress, Emilia Perez star Zoe Saldana was quizzed by a Mexican journalist over backlash the film has received in the country.

The actress apologised to Mexicans offended by the way the film portrayed the country, adding: "That was never our intention, we came from a place of love and I will stand by that.

"We were not making a film about a country, we were making a film about four women. These women could have been Russian, could have been from Israel, from Gaza.

"And these women are very universal women, who are struggling every day trying to survive systemic oppression, and I will stand by that."

The actress finished by saying that she would always welcome a conversation to open up with her "Mexican brothers and sisters" over "how Emilia could have been done better".

Anora director calls for decriminalisation of sex work

Anora director Sean Baker said his last four films had covered the topic of sex work, with his latest being the culmination of his work.

Asked what his message is to those who criticise sex workers, he said: "I have been pretty outspoken about my stance on sex work.

"It is our oldest profession, yet it has an incredibly unfair stigma attached to it, and what I have been trying to do with my films is chip away at that very unfair stigma.

"Personally I think it should be decriminalised and through my work through humanising my characters... it will help do that."

Adrien Brody honoured his grandparents in The Brutalist

Taking one of the big three awards of the night, Adrien Brody told the winners room that appearing in The Brutalist gave him the opportunity to be a part of something with "importance".

The actor, who has Jewish family, said he was able to honour his grandparents in the film - which focuses on a Hungarian-Jewish architect who escapes the Holocaust and rebuilds his life in the US.

"My grandparent's struggles and their loss and their resilience paved a way for my own good fortune, and I had an opportunity to honour them in this film," he said.

Mikey Madison's new dogs will help keep her feet on the ground

Still high off her win for best actress, Anora's Mikey Madison said she "never thought anything like this would happen in her lifetime".

"I dreamed of being an actress that could be in a film like Anora. [It is a] huge honour, one that will sink in later down the line," she said.

Quizzed on what she thinks the future holds for her, the actress said she was unsure of her long-term plans, but tonight, she will go back to being a dog parent.

"I will go home to my new puppies and probably clean up their mess, and it will bring me right back down to Earth," she said.

Kieran Culkin 'very glad' he was talked into doing A Real Pain

Grabbing the first award of the night was Kieran Culkin, for his role in Jesse Eisenberg's A Real Pain.

It has become widely known over this awards season that the actor almost didn't take part in the film at all, due to the schedule taking him away from his children.

But having snapped up a BAFTA, SAG award, Golden Globe, Critics' Choice award and now the Oscar, he said he was "very glad" that he was talked into doing the film.

"I am not fully inside my body right now, I am trying my best to be present right now," Culkin told the winners room.

"Firstly, saying no to the movie, it wasn't for any creative reason... it was being taken away from my kids for almost a month. Then I got talked into it, and I am very glad that I was."

A 'Wizard Of Oz moment' for Wicked's costume designer

Paul Tazewell told the winners room that becoming the first black man to win the Oscar for best costume design, for blockbuster smash Wicked, is the "pinnacle" of his 35-year career.

"The whole way through [my career] there was never a black male designer that I could follow, that I could see as inspiration," he said. "To realise that that's actually me, it becomes a Wizard Of Oz moment."

Asked what advice he would give to his younger self, Tazewell added: "I would say hold on tight, it will all be fine. The world is going to be wonderful."

-SKY NEWS