Oscar Nominations 2025
January 23, 2025
“Emilia Pérez,” a musical about a drug kingpin who undergoes gender affirming surgery, topped the 2025 Oscar nominations with 13 nods. It was followed closely behind by “The Brutalist,” a historical epic the examines the immigrant experience, and “Wicked,” the hit screen version of a long-running Broadway sensation, which both nabbed 10 nominations. “Conclave,” a thriller about the election of a new pope, and “A Complete Unknown,” a look at Bob Dylan’s early, freewheelin’ years, each had eight nominations. All five of those films are up for best picture, the ceremony’s top prize, alongside indies like “Anora,” “Nickel Boys,” and “I’m Still Here,” as well as the body horror film, “The Substance,” and “Dune: Part Two,” one of the rare studio blockbusters to garner Oscar attention.
The Academy Awards nominations were unveiled Thursday after voting had been extended twice because of the wildfires that have devastated Los Angeles, resulting in the deaths of at least 28 people and catastrophic property damage. This week, the Oscars announced that its March telecast will “acknowledge those who fought so bravely against the wildfires.”
Timothée Chalamet, who has proved his box office drawing power with “Dune” and “Wonka,” was nominated for best actor for his chameleonic performance as Dylan in “A Complete Unknown.” He will face off against “The Brutalist” star Adrien Brody, who became the youngest best actor winner in history at 29 for 2003’s “The Pianist.” Other best actor nominees include Colman Domingo (“Sing Sing”), Ralph Fiennes (“Conclave”), and Sebastian Stan (“The Apprentice”). Stan’s recognition came after “The Apprentice,” a Donald Trump biopic in which he plays the real estate mogul, struggled to get distribution — companies were concerned about getting on the bad side of the 47th president. His co-star Jeremy Strong, who plays Trump mentor Roy Cohn, was also nominated for best supporting actor.
Demi Moore, who had been one of Hollywood’s brightest stars in the 1990s, continued her career comeback, capturing a best actress nomination for “The Substance,” a subversive horror film that examines the movie industry’s sexism and ageism. Her fellow best actress contender, “Emilia Pérez” star Karla Sofía Gascón, made history as the first openly transgender actor nominated for an Oscar. Mikey Madison (“Anora”), Fernanda Torres (“I’m Still Here”) and Cynthia Erivo (“Wicked”) rounded out the list of best actress nominees.
Strong’s “Succession” co-star Kieran Culkin was also nominated for best supporting actor for his work as a young man whose wisecracks mask his emotional turmoil in “A Real Pain.” He is widely considered to be the frontrunner after earning several critics prizes and a Golden Globe. Culkin and Strong will vie for the prize against Edward Norton (“A Complete Unknown”), Yura Borisov (“Anora”) and Guy Pearce (“The Brutalist”).
Zoe Saldaña, best known for headlining blockbusters like “Avatar,” got to show her singing-and-dancing side as an idealistic lawyer in “Emilia Pérez.” She was rewarded with a best supporting actress nomination. Her competition includes Ariana Grande (“Wicked”), Felicity Jones (“The Brutalist”), Monica Barbaro (“A Complete Unknown”) and Isabella Rossellini (“Conclave”). Rossellini’s mother, Ingrid Bergman, won the third of her Oscars in the best supporting actress category for 1974’s “Murder on the Orient Express.”
Brady Corbet, who struggled for nearly a decade to bring “The Brutalist” to the screen after financing for the project collapsed several times, was nominated for best director. His competition includes French auteurs Jacques Audiard (“Emilia Pérez”) and Coralie Fargeat (“The Substance”), as well as arthouse maverick Sean Baker (“Anora”) and studio mainstay James Mangold (“A Complete Unknown”). Every one of those filmmakers was nominated in multiple categories, having performed several different roles on the movies they made. Baker, for instance, is also nominated for editing, producing and penning the screenplay, while Audiard was recognized for writing a song his film, as well as co-writing its script.
Universal, which owns indie label Focus, dominated the nominations with 25 nods, the bulk of which came for “Wicked” and “Conclave.” Netflix, which released “Emilia Pérez,” scored 16 nominations, while A24, a plucky indie distributor known for embracing risky fare such as”The Brutalist,” a three-hour meditation on art and commerce, had 14 nominations.
There were several notable snubs and surprises. Denzel Washington, once seen as a lock for his villainous performance in “Gladiator II,” was overlooked, as was Margaret Qualley, who earned raves for playing Moore’s younger doppelgänger in “The Substance.” And Edward Berger, who gave “Conclave” its propulsive energy, and Jon M. Chu, who designed “Wicked’s” electrifying musical sequences, were shut out of the best director race, while “A Real Pain” failed to capture a best picture nomination despite earning some of the year’s best reviews.
The Oscars were first handed out nearly a century ago as a way to promote the movie business. In the ensuing 97 years, the film industry has undergone tectonic shifts — introducing sound and color (revolutions that changed the business forever), as well as 3D and Smell-O-Vision and 4DX (gambits that had less of an impact) — but few have been more significant than the rise of streaming platforms like Netflix.
These services have fundamentally altered the way movies are seen and experienced, and the theatrical part of the film business has often struggled to keep up. At the same time, COVID and a series of labor strikes in 2023 has left Hollywood with fewer movies to screen in cinemas. The impact of those disruptions can be tracked empirically, as the box office has failed to fully rebound from the pandemic. Domestic ticket sales in 2024 topped out at $8.7 billion, down more than 3.3% from 2023 (when revenues hit $9.04 billion) and down 23.5% from 2019 (when revenues reached $11.3 billion in the last pre-COVID period). And the stalled recovery has come as studios and streamers have enacted a series of cutbacks and shed jobs. Many of these companies — from Warner Bros. Discovery to Paramount Global — have sold themselves as the business has engaged in a period of frenzied consolidation that shows no signs of stopping.
The natural disasters that Los Angeles is still experiencing, as well as the corporate upheaval the business is stumbling through, means that the Academy Awards may feel less celebratory than usual. It will fall to Conan O’Brien, a former late night talk show staple turned podcasting mogul, to try to lift spirits as he embarks on his first stint as Oscars host. The show that O’Brien presides over will be held at the Dolby Theatre on March 2, with the Oscars airing, as it long has, on ABC. For the first time, it will also be available to stream live on Hulu, a concession to the shifting ways that audiences are watching movies and shows.
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
