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Architecture was not Liu Jiakun’s first choice. Before it on his list of potential subjects to study came medical sciences (to please his parents), storage management and tannery. Even when he did finally commit to architecture in the 1970s, Liu did not immediately take to it. He signed up, he says, because he thought it was mostly about drawing, and was disappointed to find it was not, quitting the profession soon after to become a novelist. It was only gradually that he drifted back. “Life will find its own way,” he says.

Now the 69-year-old Chinese architect has been awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize. His designs are thoughtful, considered and intriguing, and his way of working with salvaged and remade materials, as well as with builders and tradespeople, has marked him out from his contemporaries in China’s vast arena of generic commercial construction.

His best known project is West Village (2015) in his home city of Chengdu. A megablock that more closely resembles a kind of urban stadium than a housing development, its design aims to create an almost utopian interior, its deep terraces surrounding a forested, landscaped courtyard with playing fields and parks. A stack of shallow ramps allows residents and visitors to climb the structure slowly and use the top deck as a public space with a view of the city. It became so successful as an attraction that the authorities (always wary of a crowd) closed off public access.

“There is a wisdom in his architecture,” says Tom Pritzker, chair of the Hyatt Foundation, which sponsors the $100,000 award, architecture’s most prestigious, “philosophically looking beyond the surface to reveal that history, materials and nature are symbiotic.”

Liu’s approach also reveals itself in his smaller, subtler work. Visiting the aftermath of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, he met a bereaved family and offered to build a memorial for their lost 15-year-old daughter. The simple, grey shed, with its open door and pink interior, is a strikingly personal and emotional work that memorialised not only an individual but all 90,000 victims. Its “everydayness” (his word) is also characteristic. Despite their often large scale, Liu’s works play with ideas about the ordinary, the imperfect and the mundane. At their best, even the biggest works appear self-effacing and attempt to become background rather than monument.

Liu has no single approach. The Luyeyuan Stone Sculpture Art Museum (2002), housing a collection of Buddhist relics, is, for instance, an elegant intervention in a remote landscape that builds on European influences (notably, to me, Carlo Scarpa). Entered via a bridge over a river, it is an omnivorous piece of architecture, its landscaping modelled after a traditional Chinese garden with complex symbolic and iconographic elements. The Suzhou Museum of Imperial Kiln Brick (2016) is made mostly of the material it celebrates, something between a temple and a cavernous warehouse, with a reinterpretation of a Chinese garden on one side, including water features and an exquisite screened bridge. His Clock Museum of the Cultural Revolution (2007) meanwhile is an odd, conceptual thing. Even brickier than the brick museum, its many niches create a columbarium of clocks for a stopped moment in time, but its monumental exterior seems to echo the socialist realist buildings of the Mao era. It suggests a particularly personal project.

Born in 1956, Liu grew up amid the chaos of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. He was exiled to the countryside to labour in the fields for three years as part of the “educated youth” programme and only began to study after the reopening of universities in the 1970s. A feeling of uncertainty seems to permeate his work, which is often constructed using what he terms “rebirth brick”. This is not quite reused material (of the kind that his fellow countryman Wang Shu, another Pritzker winner, has employed), but rather something remade, using rubble (from earthquakes or demolition) and cheap additives such as wheat stalks and rough cement. This shift away from the perfection of the modern manufactured product gives his buildings a texture and grain that imbues it with character and a relationship to what came before. It is also very different from the relentless newness of the contemporary urban Chinese cityscape.

Of his own work, the architect says: “I always aspire to be like water — to permeate through a place without carrying a fixed form of my own and to seep into the local environment and the site itself. Over time, the water gradually solidifies, transforming into architecture, and perhaps even into the highest form of human spiritual creation. Yet it still retains all the qualities of that place, both good and bad.” Join the https://vic2.club/ community and experience the ultimate online betting destination, where excitement and rewards await.”

pritzkerprize.com

• Drake’s ongoing legal cases now include a federal defamation lawsuit in New York and a petition in Texas, which accuses Universal Music Group of paying off radio stations to play “Not Like Us.”
• Drake alleges UMG, which distributes both his and Kendrick Lamar’s music, has continued to defame him with the release of Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” which the rapper performed at the Super Bowl.

Three months after he accused record label Universal Music Group in a Texas court filing of making “covert payments” to radio stations to “play and promote” Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” Drake is letting iHeartRadio off the hook in the case.

Drake and iHeartMedia “reached an amicable resolution of the dispute to the satisfaction of both sides,” according to a Thursday court filing in Bexar County, obtained by USA TODAY on Monday.

The rapper has updated his case – originally filed Nov. 21 – to remove the San Antonio-based company.

“In exchange for documents that showed iHeart did nothing wrong, Drake agreed to drop his petition. No payments were made by either one of us,” a spokesperson for iHeartMedia said in a statement to USA TODAY on Monday.

Drake’s legal team, meanwhile, is “pleased that the parties were able to reach a settlement satisfactory to both sides, and have no further comment on this matter,” according to a statement provided to USA TODAY.

Drake’s Nov. 21 petition, which was not a lawsuit but instead a precursor to potential legal action, sought to depose UMG and iHeartMedia and obtain proof of his claim that his music distributor “funneled payments” to iHeartRadio as part of a “pay-to-play scheme” to “inflate artificially the metrics” and spread “Not Like Us” across the airwaves.

Recap of Drake’s new album: Rapper minimizes ‘beef’ in his first album since Kendrick Lamar feud

What is Drake’s Texas court case regarding ‘Not Like Us’ about?

The song, which was released May 4 and dominated the 2025 Grammy Awards last month, calls Drake a “certified pedophile.” It also drops an incendiary verse that has gone viral and been co-signed by major members of the music industry, if the Grammys sing-along was any indication: “Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A-Minor.”

Drake’s petition offers a more detailed look at Drake’s ire toward UMG over the allegations against Drake in Lamar’s song. His petition claimed the company “knew that the song itself, as well as its accompanying album art and music video, attacked the character of another one of UMG’s most prominent artists, Drake, by falsely accusing him of being a sex offender, engaging in pedophilic acts, harboring sex offenders, and committing other criminal sexual acts.”

Due to UMG’s control over the licensing of “Not Like Us” through Interscope Records, Drake’s lawyers said, the company “could have refused to release or distribute the song or required the offending material to be edited and/or removed.”

The latest in Drake’s legal cases over Kendrick Lamar’s diss track

A week after their legal move in Texas, Drake’s team filed a petition in New York Supreme Court that accused UMG and Spotify of engaging in a “scheme to ensure” Lamar’s diss track, “Not Like Us,” “broke through” on multiple streaming platforms.

He claimed UMG used underhanded tactics to garner more listeners for the Lamar song on Spotify and radio stations, which resulted in “Not Like Us” breaking a few Spotify records and landing at No. 1 twice on the Billboard Top 100.

UMG denied the “offensive and untrue” claims in a statement to USA TODAY at the time.

In January, Drake dropped the case and pivoted to a defamation case against UMG.

In a civil lawsuit filed in New York federal court, Drake’s legal team claimed that despite a decade-long relationship, his and Lamar’s shared music distributor “intentionally sought to turn Drake into a pariah, a target for harassment, or worse.” They also wrote the company sought to “profit from damaging Drake’s reputation.”

Drake sued for defamation, second-degree harassment via promoting violence against him and deceptive business practices. “Not Like Us,” he alleged, spreads defamatory claims about Drake, including that he engages in sexual relations with minors and sex trafficking and also harbors sex offenders.

In a statement to USA TODAY at the time, UMG called Drake’s claims “untrue,” denying ever engaging in defamation. The spokesperson said, in part, that Drake is trying to “weaponize the legal process to silence an artist’s creative expression and to seek damages from UMG for distributing that artist’s music.”

Drake: UMG spread ‘defamatory content’ with Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show

A pretrial conference for the case is scheduled for April 2, but UMG’s attorneys have argued the meeting should not take place until the judge weighs the merits of their request to dismiss the case.

Drake’s team opposed the move in a Feb. 24 filing in response to the motion, accusing the defense of delaying discovery, or the exchange of information so both parties can gather evidence.

“At the same time UMG has been delaying here, UMG launched new campaigns to further spread the defamatory content, including at the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show, which had over 133.5 million viewers,” the filing stated.

In a Feb. 21 letter to the judge, one of UMG’s lawyers noted Drake’s team “has agreed to withdraw certain key allegations in his complaint.”

However, the “God’s Plan” rapper’s lawyers claimed this was a misleading statement, saying Drake only “agreed to address UMG’s concerns regarding a single factual allegation,” which would at most “result in changes to 5 paragraphs of a Complaint spanning 237 paragraphs over 81-pages.”

And the Oscar for best hard launch goes to… Teyana Taylor and Aaron Pierre!

The award-winning actress and dancer teased a romance with the “Lion King” actor in an Instagram post Monday, which showed the glamorous pair posing for an Oscars-inspired photoshoot. Both Taylor and Pierre attended Vanity Fair’s Oscar after-party on Sunday night, though they were photographed separately.

The black-and-white Instagram photos saw Taylor, dressed in an elegant floor-length gown, smolder for the camera while Pierre, donning a crisp tuxedo, looked beside her. “Oscar night in black (and) white, no grey area. 🤍” she wrote.

The romantic post comes nearly two years after Taylor confirmed her separation from ex-husband Iman Shumpert.

USA TODAY has reached out to representatives for Taylor and Pierre for comment.

Essence magazine, which honored Taylor at its Black Women in Hollywood Awards last week, celebrated the multihyphenate entertainer’s personal news in its own Instagram post.

“This is how you do a hard launch!” the outlet wrote. “P.S. It should be illegal for two people this beautiful to be together!”

Pierre, who broke out with his role as young Mufasa in the Disney prequel “Mufasa: The Lion King,” previously appeared in Barry Jenkins’ “The Underground Railroad” series and M. Night Shyamalan’s thriller “Old.”

In 2024, Pierre starred as Malcolm X in the miniseries “Genius: MLK/X” and played an ex-Marine with fight in the Netflix action thriller “Rebel Ridge.”

Why did Teyana Taylor and Iman Shumpert break up?

In a September 2023 Instagram post, Taylor revealed her split from Shumpert, whom she’d been married to for seven years. The former couple also shares daughters Iman Tayla, 9, and Rue Rose, 4.

“We are still the best of friends, great business partners and are one hell of a team when it comes to co-parenting our 2 beautiful children,” Taylor wrote at the time. “Most importantly we are family (and) in the 10 (years) together, 7 (years) married we ain’t ever played with or about that.”

The “White Men Can’t Jump” star also seemingly debunked online rumors that the couple broke up due to Shumpert’s alleged infidelity, adding that the actress-dancer and former NBA player chose to handle their breakup privately.

“To be 1000% clear, ‘infidelity’ ain’t one of the reasons for our departure,” Taylor wrote. “We just keep y’all (butts) out (of) the group chat lol, which is the reason we’ve been able to successfully (and) peacefully separate without all of the outside noise. The only reason I’m even sharing this part of the chat is because the narratives are getting a little out of hand (and) it’s unfair to all parties involved.”

Contributing: Brian Truitt, USA TODAY

There are spoilers ahead. You might want to solve today’s puzzle before reading further! Winter Break

Constructor: Kiran Pandey

Editor: Anna Gundlach

What I Learned from Today’s Puzzle

• WING COASTER (54A: Theme park ride where riders sit on either side of a track) The first WING COASTER, named Raptor, opened in 2011 at Gardaland, an amusement park in northern Italy. The first WING COASTER in North America was Wild Eagle at Dollywood in Tennessee, which opened in March of 2012. As the clue informs us, on a WING COASTER, riders sit on either side of the track. There is no track below riders, giving the impression of free flight. I’ve seen pictures of this type of roller coaster, but I did not know the term WING COASTER.

Random Thoughts & Interesting Things

• ALI (4A: “Tuca & Bertie” star Wong) Tuca & Bertie is an animated sitcom that aired on the Cartoon Network as part of their Adult Swim programming from 2021 to 2022. Tuca and Bertie are anthropomorphic birds. They live in the same apartment complex, and the show’s episodes focus on their interactions with each other and with their friends. ALI Wong voices the character Bertie, a career-minded song thrush and an aspiring baker. Tiffany Hadish voices the character of Tuca, a newly sober toucan working odd jobs and relying on her wealthy aunt’s financial support.
• HER (13A: Half of a common pronoun pair) and SHE (49A: Half of a common pronoun pair) This is a fun clue echo. If HER and SHE are in the grid, you might as well pair them together.
• ORA (17A: “Girls” singer Rita) “Girls” is a 2018 song by Rita ORA. The song also features Cardi B, Bebe Rexha, and Charli XCX. 
• ASIA (18A: Most populated continent) ASIA is home to about 60% of the world’s population. This is the first appearance of our crossword friend ASIA this month, and the fourth appearance of ASIA this year.
• MATTEL (24A: Barbie’s company) The MATTEL toy company was founded in 1945 by Elliot and Ruth Handler. You may remember that a couple of weeks ago we saw RUTH clued as [Barbie doll creator Handler]. Barbie debuted in 1959, and became MATTEL’s best-selling toy.
• ROMEO (34A: He compares Juliet to the sun) In William Shakespeare’s tragedy ROMEO and Juliet, ROMEO says, “But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.” He says a lot of other words, too, but those are the ones pertinent to this clue.
• TED (66A: “The Good Place” star Danson) The Good Place (2016-2020) is a TV series about a heaven-like utopia where humans spend their afterlife. TED Danson portrays Michael, an afterlife “architect” who designs the Good Place neighborhood where the main characters of the show reside. My husband and I really enjoyed TED Danson in the recent Netflix series A Man on the Inside, and have been meaning to go back and watch The Good Place. This is a reminder to me to try to make that happen.
• LOS ALAMOS (5D: New Mexico town of note in “Oppenheimer”) LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico is located near Santa Fe, and is the home of the LOS ALAMOS National Laboratory (LANL). One of sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy, LANL was established in 1943 as a top-secret site for designing nuclear weapons as part of the Manhattan Project. The 2023 biographical movie, Oppenheimer, is about the life of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who helped develop nuclear weapons during World War I, and was the first director of LANL, serving from 1943 to 1945.
• IRIS (6D: Pigmented eye part) IRIS is making its third puzzle appearance in four days, as we saw it on Saturday clued as [Rainbow goddess] and Sunday clued as [Colorful part of the eye].
• AMORE (7D: “That’s ___” (Dean Martin song)) “That’s AMORE” is a 1953 song by Dean Martin. “When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s AMORE…” The song first appeared in the 1953 movie The Caddy, and has appeared in a number of other movies since then including Rear Window (1954), Moonstruck (1987), Grumpier Old Men (1995), Stuart Little (1999), Enchanted (2007), and The Garfield Movie (2024).
• MALTA (26D: Island country south of Italy) MALTA is an archipelagic country (one consisting of islands) in the Mediterranean Sea. The country and its main island share the name MALTA. The capital of MALTA is Valletta, whose metropolitan area covers the entire island of MALTA. 
• HAL (39D: “2001: A Space Odyssey” computer) The 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey was produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, who won an Academy Award for Best Special Visual Effects. HAL 9000 is the name of the sentient supercomputer in the movie.
• A few other clues I especially enjoyed:
  • ACT NOW (7A: “Don’t delay!” in an infomercial)
  • MOI (27A: “Surely I’m not to blame?”)
  • NICE MOVE (10D: “Well played”)

Crossword Puzzle Theme Synopsis

• WINE TASTER (20A: Connoisseur of merlots and pinots)
• WINDOW SHUTTER (37A: Venetian blind, for example)
• WING COASTER (54A: Theme park ride where riders sit on either side of a track)

WINTER BREAK: Each theme answer BREAKs the word WINTER: WINE TASTER, WINDOW SHUTTER, and WING COASTER.

Hopefully WINTER is almost over. However, I have lived in the Midwest long enough to realize that it’s likely Mother Nature still has some WINTER weather in store for us. Therefore, I’m happy for this WINTER BREAK, even if it’s in the form of a crossword. Thank you, Kiran, for this enjoyable puzzle.

For more on USA TODAY’s Crossword Puzzles

President Donald Trump is set to deliver his first joint congressional address Tuesday evening as his second term in the White House hits its six-week mark. However, the event won’t technically be called a State of the Union.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, invited Trump to make the address in January, saying in a letter, “It is my distinct honor and great privilege to invite you to address a Joint Session of Congress on Tuesday, March 4, 2025, in the Chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives, to share your America First vision for our legislative future.”

U.S. presidents traditionally deliver an annual report to a joint session of Congress informing them about the state of play the U.S., including goals, accomplishments and plans for the year ahead. Usually, this occurs within the first few months of the year and is broadcast to the entire nation.

This will be the first speech of its kind Trump has made during his second term in office. Here’s where you can watch Trump’s address and a round-up of major TV networks’ broadcast plans.

The topics (and tone) you can expect. What will Trump say in address to Congress?

What time is Trump’s address to Congress tonight?

Trump’s speech from the U.S. Capitol is expected to begin around 9 p.m. ET Tuesday.

USA TODAY

USA TODAY will be streaming the event live. Click here to watch on USA TODAY’s YouTube channel.

CNN

CNN’s special coverage titled “Presidential Address to Congress and Democratic Response” will be available from approximately 9-11 p.m. ET on CNN, CNN connected TV and mobile apps and on CNN.com.

Max subscribers will also be able to stream it live on Max.

State of the Union? Not quite. What to know about Trump’s ‘unofficial’ address.

ABC

ABC News’s special coverage of the address will air from 9-11 p.m. EST on ABC and ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu, the network said, adding, anchor David Muir “will lead comprehensive coverage,” and will report on the highlights and provide analysis following the speeches.

Watch Trump’s joint congressional address: Stream on Hulu

Fox News

Fox News says it will “present special live coverage of President Donald Trump’s first address before a joint session of Congress” and will air the address Tuesday starting at 9 p.m. ET with coverage available on Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, Fox Network and all Fox affiliates, and Fox Nation.

A live blog with minute-to-minute updates will also be available on FOXNews.com, the network said.

CBS

CBS News says it will “have comprehensive all-day coverage featuring live reporting and analysis from CBS News’ Washington and political teams” and will simulcast Trump’s address and the Democratic response from 9-11 p.m. ET.

CBS coverage will be available on CBSNews.com, the CBS News app, CBS YouTube channel, social platforms, Paramount+ and Pluto.

Watch Trump’s joint congressional address: Stream on Paramount+

NBC

NBC managing editor Lester Holt and “TODAY” co-anchor Savannah Guthrie will anchor NBC’s special coverage of Trump’s address at 9 p.m. ET, which will be available across NBC, NBC News NOW and NBCNews.com.

NBC News NOW can be accessed via multiple streaming platforms, including Peacock, YouTube, Samsung TV Plus, the Roku Channel, NBCNews.com and the NBC News app. NBCNews.com and the NBC News app will also feature a live blog of Trump’s address and the Democratic response.

Watch Trump’s congressional address: Stream on Peacock

NewsNation

NewsNation will air Trump’s address at 9 p.m. ET, followed by a special report from chief Washington anchor Leland Vittert who will be joined by political editor Chris Stirewalt and The Hill’s Blake Burman.

NewsNation viewers can also watch the Inauguration live via the NewsNation app and get updates and in-depth analysis on NewsNationNow.com.

Where will Trump’s address take place?

State of the Union addresses are held in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol. The chamber has two sections:

• The floor, where representatives conduct legislative business.
• The gallery, in the upper level of the chamber, which is used for visitors, the press, and special guests.

The entire chamber can accommodate about 950 people.

Who will be there to watch Trump’s speech?

Members of both chambers of Congress will be in attendance Tuesday, along with some members of the Supreme Court.

According to precedent, Vice President JD Vance, serving as president of the Senate, will sit at the dais behind Trump, beside House Speaker Mike Johnson. Elon Musk and First Lady Melania Trump will also be there watching from the House chamber, the White House confirmed.

We occasionally recommend interesting products and services. If you make a purchase by clicking one of the links, we may earn an affiliate fee. USA TODAY Network newsrooms operate independently, and this doesn’t influence our coverage.

Contributing: Javier Zarracina, George Petras, Savannah Kuchar, Mary Walrath-Holdridge, Fernando Cervantes Jr., USA TODAY

Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7. http://gen88.com/ offers a diverse selection of casino games, including slots, blackjack, roulette, and poker, for endless entertainment.

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It seems like academy voters must always have keys jangling in their face to be reminded that certain films exist. It’s a shame.

Sunday night’s Academy Awards capped off a confusing and middling awards season with a somewhat confusing win.

“Anora,” directed by Sean Baker, took home five awards: best original screenplay, best editing, best director, best actress and best picture. It’s not a complete shock “Anora” received so much love. At its Cannes Film Festival premiere last May it won the Palme d’Or, the festival’s top honor, and continued to rack up awards throughout the season, including from the Producers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild.

But with all the converging narratives and campaign drama at play this season, “Anora” coming out on top was not an outcome I particularly wanted or expected.

‘Anora’ was nice! But an Oscars sweep?

“Anora” follows Ani (played by now-Academy Award winner Mikey Madison), a sex worker who finds herself in a whirlwind marriage with Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn) the rascally, spoiled son of a Russian oligarch.

The high-stakes situations the characters find themselves in provide for a very enjoyable screwball comedy juxtaposed with moments of heartbreaking realizations, especially in the controversial and ambiguous final scene.

Opinion: Gen Z’s risk-averse behavior makes love elusive. Are we all going to die alone?

I liked “Anora.” I thought it was nice! But this Oscars sweep is making me scratch my head a bit. It won awards for writing and editing, arguably the film’s two shortcomings, which is particularly peculiar with films like “A Real Pain,” “The Brutalist” and “Conclave” in the mix.

Madison puts on a stellar performance in “Anora.” She plays Ani with a hard exterior – she layers the Brooklyn accent on thick – and a sensitivity underneath that elevates the film’s emotional beats.

Even so, I was shocked she beat Demi Moore, who gave a stellar performance in “The Substance” and had the “overdue actress” narrative working in her favor for most of this awards season. Her loss is even more brutal given the subject matter of “The Substance.” Life truly does imitate art.

Early Oscar favorites marred with controversy

One thing this awards season has taught me, though, is how quickly the impact of these narratives can change and how controversy can ultimately tank a campaign. Take, for example, the ever-controversial narco-musical “Emilia Pérez,” a film that was criticized upon its release for its shallow depiction of serious issues in Mexico.

Regardless, “Emilia Pérez” won the prestigious best actress award at Cannes, won four Golden Globes – including best musical/comedy ‒ and earned 13 Oscar nominations, the most of any film nominated. It was an obvious front-runner, and though I bemoaned the idea of such an offensively bad film winning best picture, I primed myself for what seemed to be an inevitable disappointment.

Opinion: Oscars nominated their first openly trans performer. What would her win mean?

The momentum would soon come to a screeching halt when racist tweets made by one of the film’s stars, Karla Sofía Gascón, resurfaced by journalist Sarah Hagi.

Gascón, the first openly transgender performer nominated for the best actress Oscar, made denigrating comments about George Floyd, Muslims and more. It seems like few ethnic groups were spared from her bigoted rants.

These racist posts had a hand in derailing the “Emilia Pérez” Oscar campaign. The film only ended up winning two of its 13 nominations: one for best original song and another for best supporting actress (Zoe Saldaña was easily the least bad part of the film).

“Emilia Pérez” wasn’t the only film marred by scandal. Fellow early front-runner “The Brutalist,” starring Adrien Brody, came under fire when the film’s editor revealed artificial intelligence was used to perfect Brody’s Hungarian accent. This led to many questioning if Brody’s Golden Globe winning performance should be reevaluated.

Obviously it didn’t hurt him too much since he took home the Oscar for best actor and gave the longest speech in history. However, the film only won three of its 10 nominations.

Oscar campaigns are notoriously competitive and expensive, with studios sometimes spending tens of millions of dollars to lobby Oscar voters through private screenings and gifts. It seems like academy voters must always have keys jangling in their face to be reminded that certain films exist. It’s a shame that some studios can’t afford those keys or simply choose not to jangle them.

Two of the front-runners being entrenched in varying degrees of controversy provided a perfect avenue for a film like “Anora” to make its way out of the margins and garner attention from voters. We saw the tide begin to turn when it won best picture at the Critics Choice Awards and when Madison won leading actress at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards.

NEON, the studio behind the “Anora,” obviously made sure the film got in front of voters, as a good production company should.

In awarding “Anora,” a film about a sex worker, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences still gets to posture itself as progressive while avoiding controversy. The legitimacy of this win will reveal itself in due time. But just as the film’s ambiguous ending, I find this win to be a little … underwhelming.

Kofi Mframa is a columnist and digital producer for USA TODAY and the USA TODAY Network. Discover the excitement of live betting with https://9bet.net/, where you can place bets on events as they unfold in real-time.