Nominations Oscar 2025: ‘Emilia Pérez’ leads with 13

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences showered a rare film rooted in progressive politics with nominations for the 97th Oscars on Thursday.

“Emilia Pérez,” a musical exploration of trans identity, and “The Brutalist,” a three-and-a-half-hour study of immigrant trauma and antisemitism, emerged as the losers for most nominations. ‘the main categories, including best picture and best director. “Emilia Pérez,” a Netflix entry, received 13 nominations in total, the most of any film.

“The Brutalist,” a low-budget film from A24 that hits theaters nationwide on Friday, received 10 nominations. and the power of resistance, has also been successful with voters. It received 10 nominations, but failed to crack the major categories for directing and acting.

Although the feature race has become more visible in recent months, the best picture competition remains unusually open. Unlike last year, when “Oppenheimer” established itself as the winner almost immediately and never looked back, many films are still in the running for Hollywood’s top prize this time around. this.

Best picture nominees include “Conclave,” a Vatican thriller that explores identity politics; “The Substance,” a feminist take on the body horror flick; “Nickel Boys,” a historical drama set in a racist reform school in 1960s Florida; “Anora,” a Cinderella story about a prostitute who is forced to marry the son of a Russian oligarch; “I’m Still Here,” a Brazilian drama about family life and political oppression; and the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown.”

Big-budget studio films “Wicked” and “Dune: Part Two” rounded out the category. Academy expands best picture field to 10 in 2022; It used to have a sliding number with five slots. The academy framed the change as part of a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion.

Adrien Brody (“The Brutalist”), Timothée Chalamet (“A Complete Unknown”), Colman Domingo (“Sing Sing”) and Ralph Fiennes (“Conclave”) were nominated for best actor, as expected. Sebastian Stan drew the wild-card slot for his performance as the underdog and first-timer Donald Trump on “The Apprentice.”

Demi Moore (“The Substance”) has been the favorite to win best actress since her emotional acceptance speech about Hollywood pigeons at the Golden Globes this month. The Academy’s voters waved it to the nominations stage and ordered Cynthia Erivo (“Wicked”), Mikey Madison (“Anora”), Fernanda Torres (“I’m Still Here”) and Karla Sofía Gascón (“Emilia”) Pérez”). Gascón was the first transmission actor to receive an Oscar nomination.

Kieran Culkin, who just won a Golden Globe for his performance in the dramedy “A Real Pain,” received a nomination for best supporting actor. Completing the category were Yura Borisov (“Anora”), Guy Pearce (“The Brutalist”), Edward Norton (“Totally Unknown”) and Jeremy Strong (“The Student”).

For supporting actresses, Oscar voters handed out nominations to favorites Zoe Saldaña (“Emilia Pérez”) and Ariana Grande (“Wicked”), who both played major roles but decided to run for office. secondly. Joining them are Isabella Rossellini (“Conclave”), Monica Barbaro (“A Complete Unknown”) and Felicity Jones (“The Brutalist”).

Most of the inductees — 13 of 20 — won the academy’s first honor, perhaps underscoring the organization’s efforts over the past decade to make the roster less dominant. older white men. The academy now has about 10,000 voting members, up from about 6,700 in 2017.

In the director category, the academy nominated the likes of Sean Baker (“Anora”), Brady Corbet (“The Brutalist”) and Jacques Audiard (“Emilia Pérez”). Rounding out the category were James Mangold (“A Complete Unknown”) and French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat (“The Substance”). Edward Berger (“Conclave”) and Jon M. Chu (“Wicked”) are among the notable ones.

Fargeat is the 10th woman to be nominated for the best director category in the academy’s 97-year history. Only three have won: Jane Campion (“The Power of the Dog”) in 2022, Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”) in 2021 and Kathryn Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker”) in 2009.

Early film nominees included “Anora,” “The Brutalist” and “A Real Pain.” The remaining two slots went to “The Substance” and “September 5.”

Played on “Conclave”, “Emilia Pérez”, “A Complete Unknown”, “Nickel Boys” and “Sing Sing”.

Netflix has had a banner week, announcing on Tuesday that it crossed 300 million subscribers and went on Thursday morning with 16 nominations, the most of any distributor. Thirteen nods for “Emilia Pérez” alone makes the musical disrespect the most popular film in its history. (“Emilia Pérez,” a Spanish-language musical, also became the most nominated non-English language film in Oscar history. The previous record holders were “Roma” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ” of which there were 10 each.)

“Emilia Pérez” won Netflix at last year’s Cannes Film Festival and has been winning awards ever since. Previously, Netflix’s most nominated film was 2018’s “Rome,” which received 10 nominations. The company’s most-nominated film is the 2022 drama “All Quiet on the Western Front.” , which won four Oscars, including best international film and best picture.

The streaming giant has collected 23 trophies since 2016, when it won its first for the documentary “The White Helmets”. He also won two best director wins: Campion for “The Power of the Dog” and Alfonso Cuarón for “Roma.” It has yet to win a Best Picture award.

The nominations were announced at the academy’s headquarters in Beverly Hills, Calif., at an early morning ceremony hosted by Bowen Yang and Rachel Sennott. The ceremony will be held on March 2.

In his quest to find a host that will cause controversy and not explode in his face, the organizers of the Academy Awards traded a current comedian (Jimmy Kimmel) for an old one: Conan O’Brien. Since he’s never hosted the Oscars before, O’Brien will likely bring something new to the show, which could be dated at best and irrelevant at worst. At the same time, he is a safe choice – a seasoned pro whose comedic style has been respected for decades and has managed to host other award shows, including the Emmys.

The recent wildfires in the Los Angeles area, which destroyed at least 10,000 homes, prompted the academy to delay the announcement of the nominations. Amidst the devastation, questions about the ceremony circulated in Hollywood. Should it be turned into a fundraising telethon? Or was it completely removed?

Academy officials rejected both ideas, saying in a letter to members Wednesday that “respect for the spirit of unity and collaboration in filmmaking ” was the primary focus of the ceremony. However, the show will “recognise those who bravely fought the bushfires”. Perhaps to add to the sanctity, the show will also “go live” on the nominated songs.

The down-to-earth Oscars have marked a revival in recent years, as the academy has sought to up the razzle-dazzle as part of a desperate effort to attract more viewers. ABC’s four-year-old finale broadcast drew nearly 20 million viewers. That number doubled as recently as 2014.

To make the Oscars more relevant to young people, the academy agreed in December to broadcast the ceremony online for the first time (on Hulu). ABC, which is owned by Disney like Hulu, remains the academy’s broadcasting partner.