Surprises from the 2025 Oscar Nominations

Spoiler alert: There aren’t many.

The 2025 Academy Awards nominations have been announced, officially solidifying the Oscar campaigns of a number of awards hopefuls.

Many of the films nominated were the ones prognosticators were expecting. Truly, the most shocked I was watching Bowen Yang and Rachel Sennott announce the nominees was seeing the Elton John song get a Best Original Song nomination. Even with this, after thinking about it for a moment, it made reasonable sense as a nomination.

As much as we can talk about surprises, these are the snubs and unexpected noms from this morning’s announcement.

Best Picture Snubs

Given the Academy’s recent track record of nominating a buzzy non-American production in Best Picture (this year there are two), it is not a total shock to see I’m Still Here pop up, even if it is at the expense of other hopefuls such as A Real Pain, Sing Sing, and September 5. Fernanda Torres reclaiming her spot in Best Actress after losing out on the SAG nomination is also notable.

What is perhaps more surprising is that Nickel Boys, which did not receive many nominations after its campaign had plateaued, also got into the Best Picture category. Outside of I’m Still Here and Nickel Boys, the slate of films up for the night’s biggest award is the to-be-expected titles.

Despite Controversy, ‘Emilia Pérez’ Remains a Favorite

Emilia Pérez led nominees with 13 total nominations. This was not a surprise, per se, given how it caters to a variety of both “above the line” and technical categories (it is also a musical, so two Original Song nominations also pad its numbers).

But the film has been drawing plenty of scrutiny online for its portrayal of Mexico and the trans character at the film’s center. The film, directed by Jacques Audiard, a French citizen, has been critiqued for not having enough Mexican representation on the cast or crew. GLAAD called the film “a step backward,” “retrograde,” and “not good trans representation.”

If I were to predict it today (and much will change between now and the Oscars), I would say Emilia Pérez is less likely to win Best Picture over a film like The Brutalist. But I certainly would place it among the top 3 in terms of Best Picture contenders. Not to mention it will likely be a heavy favorite for categories like Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Song.

Netflix Gets Shut Out in Best Documentary

This is not the sexiest of Oscar snubs, but Netflix went 0-for-3 with its shortlisted Best Documentary contenders. Daughters, The Remarkable Life of Ibelin, and the crowd-pleasing Will & Harper all lost out on nomination morning. Another notable snub (although I was not shocked to see it absent) was Dahomey, a short-listed film by Mati Diop that discusses the repatriation of 26 pieces of African art and traces those artifacts movement from France to the Republic of Benin. (If I may break from format briefly and exercise some subjectivity, it is a very good film that is worth watching).

No Other Land, the current betting odds favorite to win the award according to GoldDerby, is a front-runner despite still not having U.S. distribution. Other nominees are Black Box Diaries, Porcelain War, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, and Sugarcane.

Oscars Deviate from SAG in Acting Categories

There are often some minor differences between the Screen Actors Guild nominations and the Oscar acting categories, but this year saw a lot of shifting spots. The biggest “snub” is perhaps Daniel Craig, who did not earn the Oscar nod for his role in Luca Guadagnino’s Queer. Although, some prognosticators were eyeing the Sebastian Stan chances despite the SAG nominations. My thought process, personally, was that Stan was likely to split his own vote (he earned the Oscar nomination for portraying Donald Trump in The Apprentice, but he also was getting positive awards season attention for his role in A Different Man). Of course, this did not happen.

The other Academy omissions were the pair of performances from The Last Showgirl, with both Pamela Anderson and Jamie Lee Curtis being left off the Oscar lists. The Academy chose to go instead for Fernanda Torres in lead, and they swapped Curtis and Danielle Deadwyler (The Piano Lesson) for Felicity Jones (The Brutalist) and Isabella Rossellini (Conclave).

Jonathan Bailey (Wicked), who earned a surprise SAG nomination, was left out of the Oscar five in favor of Guy Pearce (The Brutalist).

As always, thanks for reading!

—Alex Brannan (Letterboxd, Facebook)