SNL star Bowen Yang and Saturday Night’s Rachel Sennott made for a good host pairing at the announcement of the 2025 Oscar nominations, a joke about Best Live-Action Short nominee The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent writing itself in the current climate.
Heading into the nitty gritty and Daniel Craig’s performance in the Luca Guadagnino-directed Queer has earned him plenty of praise whilst the score for the Italian’s other 2024 film, Challengers, was a true hit—yet the pair received a combined grand total of zero Oscar nominations.
In the absence of 007 himself, Adrien Brody (The Brutalist), Timothée Chalamet (A Complete Unknown), Colman Domingo (Sing Sing), Ralph Fiennes (Conclave) and Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice) were nominated for Leading Actor. This quintet are all regulars at various awards bodies so none of them come as a shock, but Craig’s absence was a surprise all the same.
The discussion around Challengers online has regularly been about the electric score, courtesy of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, as well as the leading triumvirate: Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist. Despite widespread success, none featured in the nominations. Sayombhu Mukdeeprom is another name in the zeitgeist, and his eye-opening cinematography on both of Guadagnino’s films as well as M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap has also gone unrecognised, Emilia Pérez making the cut instead.
Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu picked up a trio of technical nominations, for Costume Design, Production Design and Cinematography. Dune: Part Two also featured regularly in this sphere of awards, as well as picking up a Best Picture nomination.
Three films received nods in the double digits. The Emilia Pérez train shows no signs of slowing down with 13 nominations, The Brutalist and Wicked coming through next with 10 apiece.
Talking of The Brutalist, Brady Corbet’s epic has been at the centre of a lot of controversial chatter in recent weeks due to rumoured use of AI in the film. Corbet has defended his film by saying “Adrien [Brody] and Felicity [Jones]’s performances are completely their own,” confirming that AI was only used to “refine certain vowels and letters for accuracy”. The use of AI in Emilia Pérez to alter vocal ranges hasn’t quite received as much heat amongst the film community.
Neither film has been affected by this when it comes to nominations, but there are murmurs that this could factor into the final voting. Amongst the 13 nominations for Emilia Pérez, the joint-second most ever in Oscar history, were nods for Karla Sofía Gascón and Zoë Saldaña’s performances, mirrored by Brody and Jones in The Brutalist.
Zeroing in on the acting categories, which tend to be the most intriguing for film fans, Monica Barbaro (A Complete Unknown), Ariana Grande (Wicked) and Isabella Rossellini (Conclave) join Saldaña and Jones in the Supporting Actress category.
Fernanda Torres has received great acclaim for her role in I’m Still Here, and her Oscar nomination makes her only the second-ever Brazilian actress to be nominated for a leading role, remarkably following in the footsteps of her mother Fernanda Montenegro. Her competition for the golden statue is Gascón, Cynthia Erivo (Wicked), Mikey Madison (Anora) and Demi Moore (The Substance).
For the actors, Colman Domingo may have made it in for his leading role in Greg Kwedar’s Sing Sing but there is no place for his supporting co-star Clarence Maclin. Edward Norton (A Complete Unknown) and Jeremy Strong (The Apprentice) are amongst those to be nominated instead.
Full list of nominations:
Best picture
- Anora
- The Brutalist
- A Complete Unknow
- 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 actress
- Cynthia Erivo, Wicked
- Karla Sofia Gascón, Emilia Pérez
- Mikey Madison, Anora
- Demi Moore, The Substance
- Fernanda Torres, I’m Still Here
Best actor
- Adrian Brody, The Brutalist
- Timothée Chalamet, A Complete Unknown
- Colman Domingo, Sing Sing
- Ralph Fiennes, Conclave
- Sebastian Stan, 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 supporting actor
- Yura Borisov, Anora
- Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain
- Edward Norton, A Complete Unknown
- Guy Pearce, The Brutalist
- Jeremy Strong, The Apprentice
Best original screenplay
- Anora, Sean Baker
- The Brutalist, Brady Corbet & Mona Fastvold
- A Real Pain, Jesse Eisenberg
- September 5, Tim Fehlbaum & Moritz Binder
- The Substance, Coralie Fargeat
Best adapted screenplay
- A Complete Unknown, Jay Cocks & James Mangold
- Conclave, Peter Straughan
- Emilia Pérez, Jacques Audiard, Thomas Bidegain & Nicolas Livecchi
- Nickel Boys, RaMell Ross & Joslyn Barnes
- Sing Sing, Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Clarence Maclin & John “Divine G” Whitfield
Best international feature
- I’m Still Here, Walter Salles (Brazil)
- The Girl with the Needle, Magnus von Horn (Denmark)
- Emilia Pérez, Jacques Audiard (France)
- The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Mohammad Rasoulof (Germany)
- Flow, Miguel Gomes (Latvia)
Best documentary feature
- Black Box Diaries, Shiori Itō
- No Other Land, Adra/Ballal/Abraham/Szor
- Porcelain War, Brendan Bellomo & Slava Leontyev
- Soundtrack for a Cout d’Etat, Johan Grimonprez
- Sugarcane, Julian Brave NoiseCat & Emily Kassie
Best animated feature
- Flow
- Inside Out 2
- Memoir of a Snail
- Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
- The Wild Robot
Best cinematography
- The Brutalist, Lol Crawley
- Dune: Part Two, Greig Fraser
- Emilia Pérez, Paul Guillaume
- Maria, Edward Lachman
- Nosferatu, Jarin Blaschke
Best costume design
- A Complete Unknown, Arianne Phillips
- Conclave, Lisy Christl
- Gladiator II, Janty Yates
- Nosferatu, Linda Muir
- Wicked, Paul Tazewell
Best film editing
- Anora, Sean Baker
- The Brutalist, Dávid Jancsó
- Conclave, Nick Emerson
- Emilia Pérez, Juliette Welfling
- Wicked, Myron Kerstein
Best production design
- The Brutalist, Judy Becker
- Conclave, Suzie Davies
- Dune: Part Two, Patrice Vermette
- Nosferatu, Craig Lathrop
- Wicked, Nathan Crowley
Best original score
- The Brutalist, Daniel Blumberg
- Conclave, Volker Bertelmann
- Emilia Pérez, Clément Ducol & Camille
- Wicked, John Powell & Stephen Schwartz
- The Wild Robot, Kris Bowers
Best original song
- “Never Too Late,” Elton John: Never Too Late (Elton John & Brandi Carlile)
- “El Mal,” Emilia Pérez (Clement Ducol, Camille & Jacques Audiard)
- “Mi Camino,” Emilia Pérez (Clement Ducol & Camille)
- “Like a Bird,” Sing Sing (Adrian Quesada & Abraham Alexander)
- “The Journey,” The Six Triple Eight (Diane Warren)
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 makeup and hairstyling
- A Different Man
- Emilia Pérez
- Nosferatu
- The Substance
- Wicked
Best documentary short
- Death by Numbers
- I Am Ready, Warden
- Incident
- Instruments of a Beating Heart
- The Only Girl in the Orchestra
Best animated short
- Beautiful Men
- In the Shadow of the Cypress
- Magic Candies
- Wander to Wonder
- Yuck!
Best live-action short
- A Lien
- Anuja
- I’m Not a Robot
- The Last Ranger
- The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent