The 2025 Oscar nominations have been announced by actors Bowen Yang (Wicked) and Rachel Sennott (Bottoms).
Here's the full breakdown of the primary categories with a link to the complete Oscar nominations at the end.
The Brutalist, Wicked and Conclave lead the way
Following on from the performance at the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs, this could be a title fight between period epic The Brutalist (10 nominations) and Papal thriller Conclave (eight nominations). However, one shouldn't discount Wicked, nominated for 10 Oscars, or A Complete Unknown, nominated for 8 Oscars. (Jacques Audiard's trans musical Emilia Perez is also a heavyweight, having scored multiple nominations.)
Both The Brutalist and Conclave have embarked on a track record of success in the so-called 'above the line' categories and the Oscar nominations have continued this momentum. It's Adrien Brody versus Ralph Fiennes in the Best Actor field, and given that Broady has already scooped one of these (for 2002's The Pianist), one might imagine he has the sentimental advantage with the Oscar voters. (Yes, it's true, Fiennes has never won an Oscar, unbelievably.)
Brody also scooped the Golden Globe - Drama gong and a nomination for the BAFTA, potentially putting him above Fiennes and fellow Oscar rivals Timothée Chalamet (nominated for the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown) and Sebastian Stan (nominated for the controversial Donald Trump drama The Apprentice).
Both movies are nominated for the prestigious top prize of Best Picture (more details on which below), and Best Director (awarded to Brady Corbet for The Brutalist and Edward Berger for Conclave). Corbet and Berger have also been nominated in the screenplay fields, the former for Original Screenplay and the latter for Adapted Screenplay.
Composers Daniel Blumberg and Volker Bertelmann have been nominated for their striking work on The Brutalist and Conclave, respectively. Rounding out the top-line contenders is the acclaimed drama Anora, which has yielded nominations for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay (both for Sean Baker) and Best Actress for Mikey Madison.
The Best Actress field is perhaps a tad more open. The Golden Globes split the difference between comedy and drama, which resulted in wins for Demi Moore (The Substance) and Fernanda Torres (I'm Still Here). Based on that alone, this category could go anywhere.
The Substance is that rare horror film to land multiple nominations
It's a rare and triumphant day when the horror genre lands with awards voters. More often than not this is a genre whose creative and artistic potential is overlooked.
Not so with the gonzo and brilliantly grotesque body horror The Substance. The movie is already a critical and commercial success and has yielded a clutch of top-line Oscar nominations (five in total) in line with its recognition at the Golden Globes and BAFTA nominations.
The movie has been nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, the last two categories going to provocative filmmaker Coralie Fargeat. She has been acclaimed for taking the scalpel to Hollywood's double standards on beauty and ageing, fusing it with a David Cronenbergian story of mutating flesh.
The movie's ability to capture both surface-level shock and intellectual stimulation has now yielded further artistic success. Whether it will push over the line into winning Best Picture or Best Director is unknown – the last horror movie (in fact the only horror movie) to achieve such a thing was The Silence of the Lambs and director Jonathan Demme in 1992.
Star Demi Moore has earned her first-ever Oscar nomination for her fearless and taboo-breaking role (yes, she wasn't even nominated for Ghost back in 1990). With a Golden Globe already in the bag and potentially a BAFTA too, she could become the first actress to win for a horror movie since Jodie Foster in the aforementioned The Silence of the Lambs.
The Substance isn't the only horror movie that's done well this year. Robert Eggers's deliciously creepy vampire chiller Nosferatu has landed four nominations including Best Cinematography for Jarin Blaschke and Best Costume Design for Linda Muir. Interstingly, there's poised to be a straight-up fight in the Best Make-up category between Nosferatu and The Substance. Who will win: Count Orlok or Monstro Elisasue? Let them fight!
Wicked and Dune: Part II are honoured in the Best Picture category
Oscar voters looked to the Western sky in recognising the blockbusting musical Wicked. The movie's recognition in the technical categories (Production Design, Costume and so on) was perhaps a given, although ironically its song adaptations precluded a nomination in the category that mattered the most. Making up for that was a nomination for Best Original Score, acknowledging both composer John Powell and Wicked creator Stephen Schwartz.
The true measure of Wicked's breakout success lies in its nomination for Best Picture (one might say it's 'Popular'). Stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande have been recognised in the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress fields respectively, which may be contentious but is usually a way to stop competing actors in the same film from cancelling themselves out.
There was, however, no love for director Jon M. Chu who helped bring it all together. Nor was there any love for Dune: Part II filmmaker Denis Villeneuve who was also infamously shut out of the nominations for the first Dune movie. That said, Dune: Part II has been acknowledged for Best Picture, a sign that, as with Wicked, crowd-pleasing blockbusters can cross the streams and resonate with artistic bodies.
When do the Oscars take place?
The 97th Academy Awards get underway on March 3rd. Visit the link below for a full list of this year's nominations.
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