The 2025 Oscar nominations have arrived after a fairly unpredictable awards season. These are my reactions to the biggest surprises and snubs in the major award categories and anything else that stood out!
BEST PICTURE NOMINEES
- Anora
- The Brutalist
- A Complete Unknown
- Conclave
- Dune: Part Two
- Emilia Pérez
- I’m Still Here
- Nickel Boys
- The Substance
- Wicked
Leading the Oscar race with a total of thirteen nominations is Emilia Pérez directed by Jacques Audiard. Emilia Pérez snagged nominations in most of the major categories including Best Picture, International Feature Film, Adapted Screenplay, Directing (Jacques Audiard), Actress in a Leading Role (Karla Sofía Gascón), and Actress in a Supporting Role (Zoe Saldaña). Emilia Pérez has been one of the top competitors this awards season despite its controversy surrounding Mexican and Transgender cultures. The crime/thriller-musical ended up winning four Golden Globes including Best Film – Musical or Comedy. While the momentum for this movie has been strong, I wouldn’t consider Emilia Pérez a lock in for Best Picture. If I had it my way, Emilia Pérez would be nowhere near the Oscars. I don’t hate the film, but I find it genuinely insane how much praise this film is getting this awards season. For some reason, Hollywood loves this film and I can’t pin point why.
Right behind Emilia Pérez is The Brutalist and Wicked with a total of ten nominations each. For the last few weeks, the top two front runners have been Emilia Perez and The Brutalist. The Brutalist has been nominated for several major awards including Best Picture, Original Screenplay, Directing (Brady Corbet), Actor in a Leading Role (Adrien Brody), and Actor in a Supporting Role (Guy Pierce). The Brutalist took home three awards at the Golden Globes including Best Film – Drama. The Brutalist has received criticism the last couple of days once it was revealed that A.I. technology was used in a couple of scenes. Emilia Pérez has also come under controversy for the same reason, although The Brutalist seems to be getting most of backlash for its use of A.I. How does this affect the Oscar race? It probably won’t, but it’s something to keep in the back of the mind while making predictions.
Tying with The Brutalist for second-most nominations is Wicked. Wicked seemed to suddenly pop in the Oscar race after its record-breaking box-office numbers. The hit musical is nominated for Best Picture as well as Actress in a Leading Role (Cynthia Erivo) and Actress in a Supporting Role (Ariana Grande). Noticeably left out of the conversation is Jon M. Chu for Best Director. While I do find the number of nominations Wicked received to be somewhat surprising, I doubt it will take home any major awards, maybe winning a couple of technical awards.
Slowly creeping its way into the conversation is A Complete Unknown. The Bob Dylan biopic is nominated for a total of eight awards including Best Picture, Director (James Mangold), Actress in a Supporting Role (Monica Barbaro), Actor in a Leading Role (Timothée Chalamet), and Actor in a Supporting Role (Edward Norton). The campaign for this movie has been in full throttle recently with Timothée Chalamet set to host and be the musical guest on SNL, and I think we could see this to start affect the race. It’s clear that Timothée Chalamet and Adrien Brody are the front runners for Actor in a Leading Role, and while Brody won the Golden Globe, it’s very possible we see a different outcome at the Oscars.
Left out of the Best Picture category was one of my favorite films 2024, Sing Sing which is nominated for three awards including Actor in a Leading Role (Coleman Domingo), Adapted Screenplay, and Original Song. Sing Sing deserves a lot more recognition than it’s getting and I can’t help but think it’s because of it’s poor distribution strategy.
By far the most disappointing snub in my opinion is A Real Pain not getting nominated for Best Picture. I thought for sure this was a lock in (Looking at previous award ceremonies), but the Jesse Eisenberg written drama only received two nominations including Original Screenplay, and Actor in a Supporting Role, which Kieran Culkin is sure to take home his first Oscar win.
Taking the extra Best Picture spot is probably the biggest surprise of the nominees which is the Brazilian film, I’m Still Here. I’m Still Here is also nominated for International Feature Film as well as Actress in a supporting Role (Fernanda Torres).
One of my favorite surprises from the nomination ceremony was Flow getting nominated for International Feature Film. While Flow has almost zero chance at beating Emilia Pérez, I think it’s safe to say that it’s a lock in to win Animated Feature Film.
One of the biggest snubs that has the internet in an uproar is that Denis Villeneuve was not nominated in Directing for Dune: Part Two. Despite getting a Best Picture nomination, Dune: Part Two has been slogging through this awards season. Earlier in the year, Dune: Part Two seemed like a clear front runner in the race, with critics calling it one of the best films of the decade. The reason for its lost in momentum is most likely due to its early release date back in March. While I’m not the biggest fan of Dune: Part Two myself, it’s a shame that a film of this scale is not being recognized for more major awards. Denis Villeneuve absolutely deserves to be nominated for Directing, and I believe if the film released this fall, these nominations would look very different.
Another Director who seems to be having a very unlucky year in the awards race is Luca Guadagnino. Guadagnino had TWO films released in 2024, Challengers starring Zendaya and Queer starring Daniel Craig, both of which have recieved ZERO nominations at this years Oscars. Earlier in the year Zendaya seemed like an obvious pick for Actress in a Leading Role and just a few weeks ago both Zendaya and Daniel Craig received Golden Globe nominations. Another huge snub is Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s score for Challengers which just WON the Golden Globe.
While I wouldn’t say I’m shocked by most of these nominations, this has been a very unpredictable and up in the air awards season and at this point anything can win. The 97th Annual Oscars Ceremony will be held on Sunday, March 2nd at 7:00pm EST. For the complete list of Oscar nominations click here!