2025 Oscars Nominations: The Good, The Bad, The Huh?
Normally I don't do snubs, but Marianne Jean-Baptiste was snubbed
Earlier this morning, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced their nominations for the 2025 Oscars ceremony. Netflix’s Emilia Perez led with 13 nominations, followed by The Brutalist and Wicked with 10 nominations a piece.
Emilia Perez got nods in most places it was expected to including— Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, and many more. Earning the most nominations won’t always mean a guaranteed Best Picture win, but it doesn’t hurt.
Having won the biggest honor at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, Sean Baker’s Anora was predestined to be a big Oscars contender. The love story of a young escort and her Russian husband received six nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actor.
A very good bellwether for what eventually will win Best Picture is the Achievement in Film Editing award. For 33 consecutive years from 1981 to 2013, every Best Picture had also been nominated for the Film Editing Oscar. In the last four years, only once has Best Picture gone to a movie not included in Best Editing (2021’s CODA). By that understanding, the five movies in Best Editing must be the front-runners for the Best Picture award. Those five films are— Anora, The Brutalist, Conclave, Emilia Perez, and Wicked.
The ceremony takes place on Sunday, March 2, with Conan O’Brien hosting.
Oscar nominees by the numbers (from Letterboxd):
The Good:
A weird movie like The Substance did incredibly well with 5 nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Makeup & Hair Styling, and Best Original Screenplay. It certainly won’t be everyone’s favorite movie (I’ve talked to some horror film lovers who don’t care for it), but horror is rarely accepted at the Oscars. With how The Substance performed and the four nominations for Nosferatu, there’s plenty to celebrate for the horror genre.
One of the biggest surprises included the multiple nominations for Brazil’s International entry, I’m Still Here. Featuring a terrific performance from Oscar-nominated actress Fernanda Torres, I’m Still Here was nominated for Best International Film, Best Actress, and most surprisingly Best Picture. Given the ten movies competing in Best Picture, it will likely be the least-seen film, but I caught up with it during the screener season and agree it’s a fantastic feature.
Flow was recognized not only in Animated Feature (where it is expected to win) but also in Best International Feature. There were many strong international movies this year that could’ve taken that spot, so it says a lot about the quality of Flow that it was featured in both categories. I believe the last time an animated feature was both animated and international was when Flee was nominated a few years ago.
The Bad:
Given the amount of nominations that movies like Emilia Perez, The Brutalist, Wicked, and A Complete Unknown received, there wasn’t a lot of opportunity for smaller films to get recognized this year.
One of the best soundtracks of the year, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Challengers, did not get nominated for Best Original Score. The soundtrack has certainly been playing on my Spotify plenty throughout 2024 and should’ve been among the five nominees included. Director Luca Guadagnino, who had two movies come out in 2024 (Challengers and Queer) had both movies completely blanked.
While Emilia Perez is likely my least favorite nominee for Best Picture, there’s no denying the Academy’s love for it. Should it have received 13 nominations? I’m not so sure.
Marianne Jean-Baptiste gave one of the best performances of the year in Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths. Ultimately I don’t think enough people took the time to see it, and it’s an absolute travesty that her layered and complex work wasn’t recognized with a nomination.
Huh?:
Better Man, the Robbie Williams monkey movie that is failing at the box office, managed to get a Best Visual Effects nomination.
One of the most unique things about Nickle Boys is its use of cinematography. Even if I didn’t love it, that movie not getting its dues in that category is weird.
According to critic Mark Harris, Timothee Chalamet becomes the first man to score two Best Actor nominations before turning 30 since James Dean.
Full list of nominations:
Best Picture
Anora
The Brutalist
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
I'm Still Here
Nickel Boys
The Substance
Wicked
Best Director
Sean Baker, Anora
Brady Corbet, The Brutalist
James Mangold, A Complete Unknown
Jacques Audiard, Emilia Pérez
Coralie Fargeat, The Substance
Best Actor
Adrien Brody, The Brutalist
Timothée Chalamet, A Complete Unknown
Colman Domingo, Sing Sing
Ralph Fiennes, Conclave
Sebastian Stan, The Apprentice
Best Actress
Cynthia Erivo, Wicked
Karla Sofía Gascón, Emilia Pérez
Mikey Madison, Anora
Demi Moore, The Substance
Fernanda Torres, I'm Still Here
Best Supporting Actor
Yura Borisov, Anora
Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain
Edward Norton, A Complete Unknown
Guy Pearce, The Brutalist
Jeremy Strong, The Apprentice
Best Supporting Actress
Monica Barbaro, A Complete Unknown
Ariana Grande, Wicked
Felicity Jones, The Brutalist
Isabella Rossellini, Conclave
Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Pérez
Best Adapted Screenplay
James Mangold and Jay Cocks, A Complete Unknown
Peter Straughan, Conclave
Jacques Audiard (in collaboration with Thomas Bidegain, Léa Mysius, and Nicolas Livecchi), Emilia Pérez
RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes, Nickel Boys
Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar; Story by Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Clarence Maclin, and John "Divine G" Whitfield, Sing Sing
Best Original Screenplay
Sean Baker, Anora
Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold, The Brutalist
Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain
Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum, and Alex David, September 5
Coralie Fargeat, The Substance
Best Animated Feature
Flow
Inside Out 2
Memoir of a Snail
The Wild Robot
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
Best Documentary Feature
Black Box Diaries
No Other Land
Porcelain War
Soundtrack to a Coup D'Etat
Sugarcane
Best International Feature
I'm Still Here
The Girl With the Needle
Emilia Pérez
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Flow
Best Film Editing
Anora
The Brutalist
Conclave
Emilia Pérez
Wicked
Best Cinematography
The Brutalist
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
Maria
Nosferatu
Best Production Design
The Brutalist
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Nosferatu
Wicked
Best Costume Design
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Gladiator II
Nosferatu
Wicked
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
A Different Man
Emilia Pérez
Nosferatu
The Substance
Wicked
Best Original Song
"El Mal," Emilia Pérez (Music by Clément Ducol and Camille; Lyric by Clément Ducol, Camille and Jacques Audiard)
"The Journey," The Six Triple Eight (Music and lyric by Diane Warren)
"Like a Bird," Sing Sing (Music and Lyric by Abraham Alexander and Adrian Quesada)
"Mi Camino," Emilia Pérez (Music and lyric by Camille and Clément Ducol)
"Never Too Late," Elton John: Never Too Late (Music and lyric by Elton John, Brandi Carlile, Andrew Watt, and Bernie Taupin)
Best Original Score
The Brutalist
Conclave
Emilia Pérez
Wicked
The Wild Robot
Best Sound
A Complete Unknown
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
Wicked
The Wild Robot
Best Visual Effects
Alien: Romulus
Better Man
Dune: Part Two
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Wicked
Best Live-Action Short
A Lien
Anuja
I'm Not a Robot
The Last Ranger
The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent
Best Animated Short
Beautiful Men
In the Shadow of the Cypress
Magic Candies
Wander to Wonder
Yuck!
Best Documentary Short
Death by Numbers
I am Ready, Warden
Incident
Instruments of a Beating Heart
The Only Girl in the Orchestra