‘The Substance’ Is Officially an Academy Award Winner

Director Coralie Fargeat’s body horror movie The Substance was nominated for five Oscars at the Academy Awards last night, a rare feat for the horror genre that was cause for celebration no matter which statues (if any) the film ended up taking home. The bad news? The Substance didn’t end up winning Best Picture. The good news? It didn’t go home empty handed.

The Substance is now officially an Oscar winner, with the film winning one of the five awards it was nominated for. The Demi Moore-starring horror movie, which explores the horrors of aging in the entertainment industry, won the Oscar for Best Makeup & Hairstyling.

Pierre-Olivier Persin, Stéphanie Guillon, and Marilyne Scarselli are the artists honored with the award, with The Substance beating out A Different Man, Emilia Pérez, Nosferatu and Wicked in the category. It’s the first Academy Award won by a movie distributed by Mubi.

Pierre-Olivier Persin gave the acceptance speech for The Substance‘s win, which you can watch below. He thanked Coralie Fargeat for her “love for makeup and practical effects.”

The “Best Makeup” category has its roots in the horror genre. As Luiz H.C. recently explained, “The Academy Award for Best Makeup was originally conceived as a mea culpa of sorts directed at the artists who worked on David Lynch’s The Elephant Man, but An American Werewolf in London became the very first recipient of the then-new statuette.”

The Substance had also been nominated for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress and Best Picture, with Anora ultimately winning all four of those gold statues.

The Substance is now available to watch at home, streaming exclusively on distributor Mubi’s streaming service. If you’re not a subscriber, you can rent or purchase the film on all major digital outlets, and it was also recently released on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD.