You could feel it in the air: On the morning of Jan. 23, movie enthusiasts of all kinds — film buffs, Letterboxd users, media studies students and anyone with a passion for cinema — eagerly tuned in for what felt like the Super Bowl for AMC Stubs members: the announcement of the 2025 Academy Award nominations.
The Academy Awards, or Oscars, which will take place March 2, aims to recognize the best and brightest of cinema each year. The award show will be celebrating its 97th anniversary this time around, and with this almost century-spanning history comes ups and downs, hits and misses, grand moments and even grander snubs. Iconic pop culture moments often unfold at the Oscars, from the infamous “La La Land” vs. “Moonlight” Best Picture mix-up in 2017 to the more recent Will Smith slap. After all, it’s only fitting that a ceremony celebrating cinema would deliver its own dose of drama.
This year’s ceremony is already looking to live up to its predecessors’ storied legacy, with some nominations causing surprise, shock and even outrage in certain social media circles. Of course, there’s still plenty to celebrate when it comes to the time, talent and dedication that go into bringing these projects to life. This article will be a general breakdown, an overview of some of the biggest names, moments or misses from the 2025 nominations.
To begin, there were some expected, but notable, outcomes. “The Brutalist,” a three-and-a-half-hour long biopic filled to the brim with wide-scoping cinematic imagery and starring former Best Actor Oscar winner Adrien Brody, was nominated for Best Picture, along with other major recent releases such as “A Complete Unknown” and “Conclave.” The leading men in each of these movies — Adrien Brody, Timothee Chalamet and Ralph Fiennes, respectively — were also nominated for Best Leading Actor. The Best Actress category, however, was more of a toss-up and showcased a diverse range of performances, from Cynthia Erivo earning recognition for her powerhouse portrayal of Elphaba in “Wicked” to Mikey Madison — a rumored front-runner — receiving well-deserved praise for her role in Sean Baker’s “Anora.” Other expected nominations include “The Wild Robot” and “Flow” for Best Animated Feature Film and a diverse pool for Best Costume Design, such as Victorian gowns from “Nosferatu,” Roman garb from “Gladiator II” and fantastical frocks from “Wicked.”
As for some pleasant surprises: Sebastian Stan was nominated for Best Actor for his performance as Donald Trump in “The Apprentice,” even after the film faced limited release due to Trump’s legal team issuing a cease and desist over the project. The independent Brazilian film “I’m Still Here,” which tells the moving story of a mother’s fight for justice under a dictatorship, was given a surprising, but well-deserved, nod with nominations in Best Picture, Best Leading Actress and Best International Feature. Finally, the often overlooked genre of horror made its mark, with the gory, dark comedy “The Substance” being nominated five times.
Despite these unexpected hits, the nominations still featured major snubs. One of the major oversights was Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers” and “Queer” being nominated for a total of zero Oscars. With the amount of buzz both these films generated, it seems almost unbelievable that they were overlooked. “Challengers” excelled at both score and editing and could have very likely been awarded for both. Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two” seemed to suffer the curse of recency bias, as it didn’t receive any actor or actress nominees nor adapted screenplay nor score, despite receiving major buzz when it was released much earlier in the year.
Now, for the elephant in the room: “Emilia Perez.”
“Emilia Perez” is a French foreign film revolving around a Mexican cartel leader transitioning to be a woman. It received 13 nominations at this year’s Oscars, falling one short of the record for most nominations for a single film. “Emilia Perez,” in my opinion — and the opinion of many others, according to its Letterboxd ranking of 2.3 stars — is not a good movie. Is it an ambitious movie? Sure. The themes it deals with are bold, exciting and should absolutely be discussed on the big screen. However, these themes are not handled well, as the film has received backlash from both the transgender and Mexican communities. Furthermore, the film fails on almost every level: as a story, the plot is not interesting or cohesive; as a musical, the songs are not groundbreaking, catchy or even melodic; and as a film, it is poorly edited and directed. The acting is, admittedly, very well done, but it fails to live up to its 13 nominations.
Despite this “Emilia Perez” shaped setback, the awards season is shaping up to be an exciting time. For the full list of nominees, see the Academy Awards website. As the actual awards day gets closer, the Guide will be releasing our 2025 Oscar picks and predictions, so stay tuned!
