Breaking Down The 2025 Oscar Nominations!

As Los Angeles continues to deal with fires in every corner of the county, we got a little distraction this morning with the announcement of the 2025 Academy Awards, aka the pinnacle of Awards Season. And as exciting as the nominations are, perhaps the biggest story was who/what did NOT make the lists. We see a lot of repeats from the Golden Globes, but with no distinction between Dramas and Musicals/Comedies like with the Globes, a lot of folks found themselves on the outside looking in this morning. Let's get into it!

Emilia Pérez leads the way with 13 nominations, which also happens to be a record for a non-English language film, with The Brutalist and Wicked not far behind with 10 nominations each. Among the slew of noms for Emilia Pérez are nods for stars Karla Sofia Gascón -- the first ever openly trans woman to be nominated for an Oscar -- and Golden Globes winner Zoe Saldaña, while writer/director Jacques Audiard finds himself a triple nominee for Best Director, Best Writer, and Best Original Song ("El Mal"). However, Selena Gomez, who was nominated for a Golden Globe, did not make the lists. As for whether or not Emilia Pérez will actually win, or even The Brutalist (which won the Globe), I wouldn't place any bets yet, as Conclave has been doing very well this Awards Season too. There's also an argument to be made that Wicked will come out on top, as it is the only nominee that is a "feel-good" movie, and we could all use right now, amirite?

Speaking of Wicked, the film did predictably well, though remained noticably absent from the Best Director category, with the Academy snubbing Jon M. Chu just as the Globes did. (Hot take but I feel like if your film reaches double digits in Oscar nominations, the director should probably be among them.) But in happier news, Ariana Grande woke up to her first ever Oscar nod this morning, alongside her now 3-time Oscar nominated co-star Cynthia Erivo. The film also shows up in just about every technical category, except, notably, Best Cinematography -- the film received some flack online for its muted and drab colors so critics might have actually had a point there...

Perhaps the deepest pool of the year was the Best Actress category. Demi Moore, the frontrunner after winning the Golden Globe, received her expected nod, alongside the aforementioned Karla Sofia Gascón and Cynthia Erivo, as well as Mikey Madison and Fernanda Torres. Aside from Erivo, all the nominees are first-timers, which definitely makes things interesting. However, Pamela Anderson, who was considered a shoe-in for an Oscar nomination, was left off the lists (in fact, The Last Showgirl was shut out altogether, including Miley Cyrus for Best Original Song), as well as Angelina Jolie for her performance in Maria. At any rate, many think this could be Demi's year, but she is going up against the surprise Globes winner for Best Actress in a Drama Film Torres, who could be a dark horse this year.

As for Best Supporting Actress, this feels like Zoe Saldaña's award to lose honestly. Coming off her Golden Globes win, she is up against all the same nominees (Ariana Grande, Monica Barbaro, Felicity Jones, and Isabella Rossellini), with perhaps her biggest competition being Barbaro, whose portrayal of iconic folk singer Joan Baez in A Complete Unknown has been getting praise across the board. Noticeably absent, though, is Globes nominee Margaret Qualley, whom many feel is just as deserving as Demi Moore for her work in The Substance.

In the Best Actor category, Timothée Chalamet got his expected nod, along with Golden Globes winner Adrien Brody. An interesting turn of events, though, was Sebastian Stan -- now, like the Globes, he had 2 excellent opportunities for nominations this year, but the one the Academy decided to go with was NOT the one that he actually won the Golden Globe for! Up for both A Different Man and The Apprentice at the Globes (and winning for the former), Academy voters went in a different directon and gave him his first nomination for the latter. He faces some stiff competition, though, going up against 3-time nominee Ralph Fiennes, 2-time nominee Chalamet, and former winner (and this year's frontrunner after his Globes win) Adrien Brody. However, the recent controversy around the revelation that some of Brody's dialogue was enhanced by AI could hurt his chances for his second Oscar and hand the award to a completely new contender.

For Supporting Actor, Sebastian Stan's The Apprentice co-star Jeremy Strong finds himself a first-time Oscar nominee this morning as well, along with Golden Globes winner Kieran Culkin, who is considered the frontrunner at this point. A name not on this list, though, is Denzel Washington, which surprised many Awards Season watchers.

Sean Baker has a lot to be proud of this morning, as his film fest fave Anora is up for a slew of awards, including Best Picture, himself for Best Director, Original Screenplay, AND Best Editing, and his breakout stars Mikey Madison and Yura Borisov. Of all of these, he probably has the best shot at Screenplay, and considering that the Golden Globes winner in this category, Conclave, is now in the Adapted Screenplay category at the Oscars, his chances greatly improve. Though he'll have to get through Jesse Eisenberg's script for A Real Pain first...

Speaking of Best Directors, we got a lady on the board this year -- Coralie Fargeat made the list for The Substance, beating out the aforementioned Jon M. Chu as well as Dune 2's Denis Villeneuve and Conclave's Edward Berger.

Having been entirely absent at the Golden Globes, holiday horror sensation Nosferatu received 4 Oscar nominations, all in technical categories. (It's only the second Robert Eggers film to receive any nominations at all, so I'm sure he'll take it!)

Another surprising snub this morning was the songwriting duo of Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor, whose score for Challengers landed them a Golden Globe a few weeks ago but nada at the Oscars.

Check out the full list of nominees here and tune in to the 97th Academy Awards on March 2 on ABC and streaming on Hulu!