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A photo of actor and director Sean Penn along with his girlfriend, Valeria Nicov, has gone viral, which claimed that the duo attended the Oscars held on Sunday, March 2, 2025. In the photo, both of them were seen on the red carpet, dressed up in black.
A lot of users assumed that Penn was at the event with Valeria. It is unclear how the speculations began. One user shared the photo and tweeted:
"Sean Penn's girlfriend. I’ll just leave this here. #Oscars #Oscars2025."
Another one reacted to the viral photo and commented on X (formerly known as Twitter).
"Sean Penn’s girlfriend looks like @charlottelawr‘s twin that went to space #Oscars ."
The rumors, however, were not true. Sean Penn and Valeria did not attend the Oscars. The photo was not even clicked at the March 2 event.
The photo that had gone viral was actually from the red carpet at the 21st Marrakech International Film Festival in Morocco, on November 30, 2024. The actor reportedly received a career achievement award at the film festival held last year.
He attended the event with his partner, Nicov, and posed with her for the photo that has resurfaced recently, making netizens assume that it was clicked on Oscars on Sunday. This event was also the time that the couple made their red carpet debut and officially appeared publicly for the first time.
According to a People report from December 2024, the linkup between Sean and Valeria first happened in September 2024. The two were seen together in Madrid then, as per reports by Page Six.
As for the Marrakech Film Festival, to pay Sean a tribute, the event further screened a reel highlighting scenes from several of his movies. The movies included Mystic River, I Am Sam, and 21 Grams. His 2008 movie, Milk, was also screened by the film festival.
Sean Penn criticized the Oscars at the Marrakech International Film Festival
The actor made headlines last year in November not only for receiving an award at the Marrakech Film festival but also because of his remarks about the Oscars. According to Sean, he would get excited about the Oscars only when the movies he valued received nominations.
Sean Penn further accused the Oscars of "limiting different cultural expressions."
"The Academy have exercised really extraordinary cowardice when it comes to being part of the bigger world of expression, and in fact, have largely been part of limiting the imagination and very limiting of different cultural expressions," the actor stated.
The remarks were made by the actor during a press conference where he criticized the Oscars for not recognizing Donald Trump's biopic The Apprentice starring Sebastian Stan. Stan, however, has received a nomination at the 97th Oscars under the category Actor in a lead role for The Apprentice.
During the conversation, he stated that he would be interested when movies like Sean Baker's The Florida Project, Walter Salles' I'm Still Here, and Jacques Audiard's Emilia Perez got recognition.
As for the latest set of rumors, it could be concluded that Sean was not present at the Academy Awards on Sunday.
