Film awards: Emilia Perez leads 2025 Oscar nominations with Wicked and The Brutalist just behind
The moment is finally here, the 2025 Oscars nominations have landed!
Guarantees, snubs and surprises, this year’s list has it all.
Film News Blitz’s Joe Matthews takes a look at the leading candidates for this year’s Academy Awards.
Emilia Perez on top of the Oscars nominations list
Jacques Audiard’s musical about a crooked lawyer, Emilia Perez, leads the way in this year's Oscar nominations with 13, including Best Directing, Actress in a Leading Role and Actress in a Supporting Role for both Karla Sofia Gascon and Zoe Saldana respectively.
The Brutalist and Wicked received 10 nominations each, with both being included in the Best Motion Picture shortlist.
In the same category, they were joined by The Substance, Anora, Conclave, the aforementioned Emilia Perez, Nickel Boys, I’m Still Here, and the two Timothee Chalamet inclusions, A Complete Unknown and Dune: Part Two.
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The latter is a surprise inclusion in some ways, as the Academy Awards have rarely recognised big-screen blockbusters, but the seventh-highest-grossing domestic box office hit proves too much to ignore.
Chalamet also received a nod for Actor in a Leading Role for his performance as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown.
He is joined by Sing Sing lead Colman Domingo, as well as the legendary Ralph Fiennes and Adrien Brody, for Conclave and ‘The Brutalist.
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The final nominee in that category was Sebastian Stan for his head-turning performance of real-estate mogul, and now the 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump in ‘The Apprentice’.
The film struggled to find a distributor as it became more and more likely Trump would defeat Kamala Harris in the recent presidential election.
The nominees for Best Actress in a Leading Role were as follows: Mikey Madison from Anora, Fernanda Torres for I’m Still Here, Demi Moore for The Substance, Cynthia Erivo for Wicked, with Gascon for Emilia Perez.
This year’s Oscars snubs and surprises
A notable disappointment was the failure of Gladiator II to capture the Academy's attention, only receiving one nomination for Costume Design.
Arguably the biggest snub was two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington seeing his supporting role performance go unrecognised.
His wasn’t the only big snub, with several big names missing.
To name a few, Denis Villeneuve remains unnoticed for Best Director for either Dune film, Nicole Kidman’s Lead Actress performance in Babygirl was a noticeable absence, and Margaret Qualley wasn’t put up for Supporting Actress for The Substance.
In Directing, Edward Berger (Conclave) and Jon M. Chu (Wicked) both missed out despite their work being nominated for Best Picture.
There are also several surprising nominations such as Stan’s Lead Actor nomination, as well as I’m Still Here being nominated for Best Picture thanks to a surge in viewing whilst the ballots were out.
Ultimately, Emilia Perez, The Brutalist, and Wicked will compete for Oscar supremacy at this year’s Academy Awards, and audiences will have to wait until March 3rd to see who will win.
Conan O’Brien is this year’s host.
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The 2025 Oscars Nominations
Best Picture
Anora
The Brutalist
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
I’m Still Here
Nickel Boys
The Substance
Wicked
Actor in a Leading Role
Adrien Brody
Timothée Chalamet
Colman Domingo
Ralph Fiennes
Sebastian Stan
Actress in a Leading Role
Cynthia Erivo
Karla Sofia Gascon
Mikey Madison
Demi Moore
Fernanda Torres
Actor in a Supporting Role
Yura Borisov
Kieran Culkin
Edward Norton
Guy Pearce
Jeremy Strong
Actress in a Supporting Role
Monica Barbaro
Ariana Grande
Felicity Jones
Isabella Rossellini
Zoe Saldana
Directing
Anora
The Brutalist
A Complete Unknown
Emilia Perez
The Substance
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Emilia Pérez
Nickel Boys
Sing Sing
Writing (Original Screenplay)
Anora
The Brutalist
A Real Pain
September 5
The Substance
International Feature Film
I’m Still Here
The Girl with The Needle
Emilia Perez
The Seed of a Sacred Fig
Flow
Animated Feature Film
Flow
Inside Out 2
Memoir of a Snail
Wallace & Gromit
The Wild Robot
Documentary Feature Film
Black Box Diaries
No Other Land
Porcelain War
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Sugarcane
Film Editing
Anora
The Brutalist
Conclave
Emilia Pérez
Wicked
Cinematography
The Brutalist
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Perez
Maria
Nosferatu
Production Design
The Brutalist
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Nosferatu
Wicked
Costume Design
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Gladiator II
Nosferatu
Wicked
Music (Original Score)
The Brutalist
Conclave
Emilia Pérez
Wicked
The Wild Robot
Music (Original Song)
El Mal, Emilia Pérez
The Journey, The Six Triple Eight
Like A Bird, Sing Sing
Mi Camino, Emilia Pérez
Never Too Late, Elton John: Never Too Late
Live Action Short Film
A Lien
Anuja
I’m Not a Robot
The Last Ranger
The Man Who Would Not Remain Silent
Animated Short Film
Beautiful Men
In the Shadow of the Cypress
Magic Candies
Wander to Wonder
Yuck!
Documentary Short Film
Death By Numbers
I Am Ready, Warden
Incident
Instruments of a Beating Heart
The Only Girl in the Orchestra
Makeup and Hairstyling
A Different Man
Emilia Pérez
Nosferatu
The Substance
Wicked
Sound
A Complete Unknown
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
Wicked
The Wild Robot
Visual Effects
Alien: Romulus
Better Man
Dune: Part Two
The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Wicked
