Oscar Nominations 2025

The 2025 Oscar nominations were announced this morning for movies released in calendar year 2024, and "Emilia Pérez" led the field with 13 nominations, including best picture, best international film, director (Jacques Audiard), actress (Karla Sofía Gascón), supporting actress (Zoe Saldaña), original screenplay and a load of production nominations. That the movie's been all over Netflix for the past months is absolutely a factor, and I think you can argue that the various strategies of release timing (or lack thereof) played a bigger part than usual in this year's line-up. The Academy Awards are only partly about perceived quality, of course; the larger narrative surrounding a movie or a performance as it functions in the popular culture – and when that narrative is at the forefront of Academy voters' brains – are, to my mind, much more critical in who gets a nod and who doesn't.

So you could argue that Sean Baker's "Anora," which was all anyone was talking about last fall, had run its course – it got six nominations, and big ones (picture, director, actress, original screenplay, editing and, yay, Yura Borisov for supporting actor), but there's a sense that its moment has passed. By contrast, the film that is to me the best picture of 2024, RaMell Ross's "Nickel Boys," was released so late in the day that I don't think a lot of voters had gotten around to watching it. It was nominated for two Oscars, best picture and adapted screenplay, but not for Jomo Fray's gorgeous, groundbreaking cinematography, which seems ridiculous. (Or maybe it was too groundbreaking for the old guard of the Academy's cinematography branch; remember that each category's nominations are voted on only by members of that branch except for best picture, which everyone gets to nominate, with the awards themselves voted in by the entire membership.)

What got released in the sweet spot in terms of the voters' attention? "The Brutalist," "Wicked," "Conclave" and "A Complete Unknown," with 10, 10, 8 and 8 nominations respectively, including most of the major ones. They're each a different kind of Oscar animal, the first an epic drama, the second a glitzy Broadway import, the third a pop-drama crowd-pleaser and the fourth a traditional Hollywood biopic that has shocked everyone by being better than expected.

Who will win? Don't ask me, it's too early in the game. For what it's worth, it's interesting that "Emilia Pérez" is one of those cases of a perceived critical favorite that many critics don't actually like. (It averages a decent 71 out of 100 over at Metacritic, with the individual reviews spread evenly across the full spectrum from Love It to Hate It.) But Gascón is a juggernaut in the lead, and AMPAS got to make history with the first transgender acting nominee. (Or openly transgender; as my colleague and Sundance roommate Sam Adams remarked this morning, "We will never know if Art Carney secretly identified as a woman.") And how many Mexican drug cartel trans musicals directed by a Frenchman do you get in this life anyway?

Other snubs? The actual best performance by an actress in a lead role did not get nominated: Marianne Jean-Baptiste in Mike Leigh's "Hard Truths." Nor did one of the year's best scores, the one Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross composed for "Challengers." Surprises? It's nice to see the magical Latvian movie "Flow" in both the animated and international categories and to see Brazil's heartbreaking and inspiring "I'm Still Here" nominated for best picture, best international film and best actress (Fernanda Torres). You could argue that Demi Moore beat out Pamela Anderson ("The Last Showgirl") in the Comeback category, and I wish I could be a fly on the wall of more old-school Oscar voters when they finally get a look at "The Substance." But, generally speaking, these are reasonable enough nominations in a reasonable enough movie year.

(Not that anyone is asking, but they should really have an Oscar category for best music supervision so that the nostalgic Tropicalia playlist of "I'm Still Here" could have been nominated. And I hold out vain hope that Best Foley Artist will someday be a thing. For now, here's the full list of 2025 Oscar nominees.)

Best Picture

Anora (Alex Coco, Samantha Quan and Sean Baker, Producers)
The Brutalist (Nominees to be determined)
A Complete Unknown (Fred Berger, James Mangold and Alex Heineman, Producers)
Conclave (Tessa Ross, Juliette Howell and Michael A. Jackman, Producers)
Dune: Part Two (Mary Parent, Cale Boyter, Tanya Lapointe and Denis Villeneuve, Producers)
Emilia Pérez (Nominees to be determined)
I’m Still Here (Nominees to be determined)
Nickel Boys (Nominees to be determined)
The Substance (Nominees to be determined)
Wicked (Marc Platt, Producer)

Directing

Jacques Audiard, Emilia Pérez
Sean Baker, Anora
Brady Corbet, The Brutalist
Coralie Fargeat, The Substance
James Mangold, A Complete Unknown

Actor in a Leading Role

Adrien Brody, The Brutalist
Timothée Chalamet, A Complete Unknown
Colman Domingo, Sing Sing
Ralph Fiennes, Conclave
Sebastian Stan, The Apprentice

Actress in a Leading Role

Cynthia Erivo, Wicked
Karla Sofía Gascón, Emilia Pérez
Mikey Madison, Anora
Demi Moore, The Substance
Fernanda Torres, I’m Still Here

Actor in a Supporting Role

Yura Borisov, Anora
Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain
Edward Norton, A Complete Unknown
Guy Pearce, The Brutalist
Jeremy Strong, The Apprentice

Actress in a Supporting Role

Monica Barbaro, A Complete Unknown
Ariana Grande, Wicked
Felicity Jones, The Brutalist
Isabella Rossellini, Conclave
Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Pérez

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

A Complete Unknown (Screenplay by James Mangold and Jay Cocks)
Conclave (Screenplay by Peter Straughan)
Emilia Pérez (Screenplay by Jacques Audiard; In collaboration with Thomas Bidegain, Léa Mysius and Nicolas Livecchi)
Nickel Boys (Screenplay by RaMell Ross & Joslyn Barnes)
Sing Sing (Screenplay by Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar; Story by Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Clarence Maclin, John “Divine G” Whitfield)

Writing (Original Screenplay)

Anora (Written by Sean Baker)
The Brutalist (Written by Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold)
A Real Pain (Written by Jesse Eisenberg)
September 5 (Written by Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum; Co-Written by Alex David)
The Substance (Written by Coralie Fargeat)

Animated Feature Film

Flow (Nominees to be determined)
Inside Out 2 (Kelsey Mann and Mark Nielsen)
Memoir of a Snail (Adam Elliot and Liz Kearney)
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (Nominees to be determined)
The Wild Robot (Chris Sanders and Jeff Hermann)

Animated Short Film

Beautiful Men (Nicolas Keppens and Brecht Van Elslande)
In the Shadow of the Cypress (Shirin Sohani and Hossein Molayemi)
Magic Candies (Daisuke Nishio and Takashi Washio)
Wander to Wonder (Nina Gantz and Stienette Bosklopper)
Yuck! (Loïc Espuche and Juliette Marquet)

Cinematography

The Brutalist (Lol Crawley)
Dune: Part Two (Greig Fraser)
Emilia Pérez (Paul Guilhaume)
Maria (Ed Lachman)
Nosferatu (Jarin Blaschke)

Costume Design

A Complete Unknown (Arianne Phillips)
Conclave (Lisy Christl)
Gladiator II (Janty Yates and Dave Crossman)
Nosferatu (Linda Muir)
Wicked (Paul Tazewell)

Film Editing

Anora (Sean Baker)
The Brutalist (David Jancso)
Conclave (Nick Emerson)
Emilia Pérez (Juliette Welfling)
Wicked (Myron Kerstein)

Makeup and Hairstyling

A Different Man (Mike Marino, David Presto and Crystal Jurado)
Emilia Pérez (Julia Floch Carbonel, Emmanuel Janvier and Jean-Christophe Spadaccini)
Nosferatu (David White, Traci Loader and Suzanne Stokes-Munton)
The Substance (Pierre-Olivier Persin, Stéphanie Guillon and Marilyne Scarselli)
Wicked (Frances Hannon, Laura Blount and Sarah Nuth)

Live-Action Short Film

A Lien (Sam Cutler-Kreutz and David Cutler-Kreutz)
Anuja (Adam J. Graves and Suchitra Mattai)
I’m Not a Robot (Victoria Warmerdam and Trent)
The Last Ranger (Cindy Lee and Darwin Shaw)
The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent (Nebojša Slijepčević and Danijel Pek)

Music (Original Score)

The Brutalist (Daniel Blumberg)
Conclave (Volker Bertelmann)
Emilia Pérez (Clément Ducol and Camille)
Wicked (John Powell and Stephen Schwartz)
The Wild Robot (Kris Bowers)

Music (Original Song)

“El Mal” from Emilia Pérez (Music by Clément Ducol and Camille; Lyric by Clément Ducol, Camille and Jacques Audiard)
“The Journey” from The Six Triple Eight (Music and Lyric by Diane Warren)
“Like a Bird” from Sing Sing (Music and Lyric by Abraham Alexander and Adrian Quesada)
“Mi Camino” from Emilia Pérez (Music and Lyric by Camille and Clément Ducol)
“Never Too Late” from Elton John: Never Too Late (Music and Lyric by Elton John, Brandi Carlile, Andrew Watt and Bernie Taupin)

Documentary Feature Film

Black Box Diaries (Shiori Ito, Eric Nyari and Hanna Aqvilin)
No Other Land (Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal and Yuval Abraham)
Porcelain War (Brendan Bellomo, Slava Leontyev, Aniela Sidorska and Paula DuPre’ Pesmen)
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat (Johan Grimonprez, Daan Milius and Rémi Grellety)
Sugarcane (Nominees to be determined)

Documentary Short Film

Death by Numbers (Kim A. Snyder and Janique L. Robillard)
I Am Ready, Warden (Smriti Mundhra and Maya Gnyp)
Incident (Bill Morrison and Jamie Kalven)
Instruments of a Beating Heart (Ema Ryan Yamazaki and Eric Nyari)
The Only Girl in the Orchestra (Molly O’Brien and Lisa Remington)

International Feature Film

I’m Still Here (Brazil)
The Girl With the Needle (Denmark)
Emilia Pérez (France)
The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Germany)
Flow (Latvia)

Production Design

The Brutalist (Production Design: Judy Becker; Set Decoration: Patricia Cuccia)
Conclave (Production Design: Suzie Davies; Set Decoration: Cynthia Sleiter)
Dune: Part Two (Production Design: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Shane Vieau)
Nosferatu (Production Design: Craig Lathrop; Set Decoration: Beatrice Brentnerová)
Wicked (Production Design: Nathan Crowley; Set Decoration: Lee Sandales)

Sound

A Complete Unknown (Tod A. Maitland, Donald Sylvester, Ted Caplan, Paul Massey and David Giammarco)
Dune: Part Two (Gareth John, Richard King, Ron Bartlett and Doug Hemphill)
Emilia Pérez (Erwan Kerzanet, Aymeric Devoldère, Maxence Dussère, Cyril Holtz and Niels Barletta)
Wicked (Simon Hayes, Nancy Nugent Title, Jack Dolman, Andy Nelson and John Marquis)
The Wild Robot (Randy Thom, Brian Chumney, Gary A. Rizzo and Leff Lefferts)

Visual Effects

Alien: Romulus (Eric Barba, Nelson Sepulveda-Fauser, Daniel Macarin and Shane Mahan)
Better Man (Luke Millar, David Clayton, Keith Herft and Peter Stubbs)
Dune: Part Two (Paul Lambert, Stephen James, Rhys Salcombe and Gerd Nefzer)
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (Erik Winquist, Stephen Unterfranz, Paul Story and Rodney Burke)
Wicked (Pablo Helman, Jonathan Fawkner, David Shirk and Paul Corbould)

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