The nominees for the 2025 Oscars have been announced.
This year’s hopefuls were revealed during a live broadcast presented by Bottoms actor Rachel Sennott and SNL star Bowen Yang from the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
The recent wildfires in Los Angeles have notably impacted this awards season, leading the Academy to extend the nomination voting period and delay the announcement, which was previously scheduled for January 17.
Leading the pack was the divisive Netlfix musical Emilia Pérez on 13 nominations while The Brutalist, Conclave and Wicked emerged with 10 nominations each.
Meanwhile, Demi Moore (The Substance), Timothée Chalamet (A Complete Unknown), Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain) and Ariana Grande (Wicked) were among the stars recognized in the acting categories.
Follow along for live updates below.
The 97th Academy Awards will be hosted by Conan O’Brien and will take place on 2 March.
Oscars
- How to watch this year’s Oscars
- The film that might bag Demi Moore her first Oscar
- Will Emilia Pérez make Oscars history?
- The 215-minute, Oscar-tipped epic that could save Hollywood – if we let it
- Watch the nominations live here
Emilia Pérez star makes Oscar history
16:43 , Tom MurrayKarla Sofía Gascón just became the first-ever openly trans individual nominated for an Academy Award in any acting category.
The 52-year-old was acknowledged for her title role in Jacques Audiard’s Netflix musical Emilia Pérez. In it, she plays a cartel leader named Manitas who seeks the help of a Mexican lawyer (Zoe Saldaña) to help fake his death and transition into Emilia Pérez.
What was with all the ‘nominees to be determined’?
15:51 , Tom MurrayIf you were watching the broadcast, you might have noticed Rachel Sennott and Bowen Yang had to read out a lot of “nominees to be determined” in the Best Picture category.
“Guys paperwork, come on, come on, come on,” Sennott joked about the bizarre situation. Best Picture is generally awarded to the film’s producers provided they are found eligible by the Academy’s Producers Branch Executive Committee. Perhaps as a result of the devastating Los Angeles wildfires, this process is still ongoing in some cases.
Read more:
The six biggest snubs and surprises
15:08 , Tom MurrayWhile the frontrunners of Emilia Pérez, Conclave and The Brutalist were largely expected, there were some significant snubs and surprises sprinkled into this year’s nominees.
Sebastian Stan’s nomination for Best Actor was, in fact, part snub, part surprise. The actor had indeed been tipped to pick up his first-ever nod at this year’s awards, but for Aaron Schimberg’s surreal drama-comedy A Different Man – not for The Apprentice, which is how it has transpired.
Meanwhile, Denzel Washington’s villainous turn in Gladiator II was passed over by the Academy.
Read more:
Stay with us as we analyse this year’s nominees
14:14 , Tom MurrayThe broadcast is over but we’re not done yet. The Independent’s Culture team is putting together a list of the biggest snubs and surprises in this year’s nominees, from Challengers being shut out to Felicity Jones getting a surprise nomination.
Also, what was with all the “nominees to be determined”?
Stay tuned...
The 2025 Oscar nominees in full
14:00 , Tom MurrayThat’s all folks! The stage is set for the 97th Academy Awards. You can find the list of nominees in full here:
Best Picture nominees
13:59 , Tom MurrayThe nominees for Best Picture are:
Anora
The Brutalist
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
I’m Still Here
Nickel Boys
The Substance
Wicked
Best Actress in a Leading Role
13:54 , Tom MurrayThe nominees for Best Actress are:
Mikey Madison, Anora
Cynthia Erivo, Wicked
Demi Moore, The Substance
Karla Sofia Gascón, Emilia Perez
Fernanda Torres, I’m Still Here
See the full nominees list here:
Best Actor in a Leading Role nominations announced
13:50 , Tom MurrayThe nominees for the big acting categories have now been announced. Those for Best Actor in a Leading Role are:
Adrien Brody, The Brutalist
Colman Domingo, Sing Sing
Ralph Fiennes, Conclave
Timothée Chalamet’s, A Complete Unknown
Sebastian Stan, The Apprentice
Felicity Jones is now a two-time Oscar nominee
13:45 , Tom MurrayThe English actor was first nominated for portraying Jane Wilde Hawking in The Theory of Everything (Actress in a Leading Role) and is now acknowledged for her role as Erzsébet Tóth in The Brutalist.
Ariana Grande is a first-time Oscar nominee
13:41 , Tom MurrayGrande fans go wild as the singer receives her first Oscar nomination for her role as Glinda in Wicked.
She’s nominated for Best Supporting Actress alongside:
Monica Barbaro, A Complete Unknown
Felicity Jones, The Brutalist
Isabella Rossellini, Conclave
Zoe Saldana, Emilia Pérez
An early morning for presenters Bowen Yang and Rachel Sennott
13:34 , Tom MurrayIt’s 5:30am in Los Angeles. Yang and Sennott begin by joking they’ve had “10 diet cokes, three cigarettes and an Adderall” between them. “Guess who had what,” Yang quips.
Will ‘The Brutalist’s’ Oscar hopes be impacted by its AI controversy?
13:22 , Tom MurrayThe Brutalist director Brady Corbet was quick to play down comments made by editor Dávid Jancsó after he revealed AI tools were used in the film’s production.
Hungarian native Jancsó said they used AI software to help blend his own speech with the actor’s performances: “We coached [Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones] and they did a fabulous job but we also wanted to perfect it so that not even locals will spot any difference.”
Questions were immediately asked about whether this revelation could hurt the film’s chances during awards season if judges thought Brody and Jones’s performances had been artificially enhanced.
In a statement to Deadline, Corbet responded to the criticism, saying: “Adrien and Felicity’s performances are completely their own. They worked for months with dialect coach Tanera Marshall to perfect their accents. Innovative Respeecher technology was used in Hungarian language dialogue editing only, specifically to refine certain vowels and letters for accuracy. No English language was changed.
“This was a manual process, done by our sound team and Respeecher in post-production. The aim was to preserve the authenticity of Adrien and Felicity’s performances in another language, not to replace or alter them and done with the utmost respect for the craft.”
Read more:
The Brutalist director responds to backlash after editor admits to using AI tools
A reminder of the categories
13:15 , Tom MurraySennott and Yang will announce the nominees across a total of 23 categories. Here’s a reminder of what they have in store:
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Best Writing (Original Screenplay)
Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
Best International Feature Film
Best Animated Feature Film
Best Documentary Feature
Best Film Editing
Best Cinematography
Best Music (Original Score)
Best Music (Original Song)
Best Sound
Best Visual Effects
Best Production Design
Best Costume Design
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Best Animated Short Film
Best Live Action Short Film
Documentary Short Film
The Independent will be updating its list of nominees live as they are announced here:
Who’s presenting the Oscar nominations?
13:13 , Tom MurrayThis year’s Oscars nominations will be announced by rising stars Rachel Sennott and Bowen Yang.
The pair are both actors, writers and comedians and will be hopeful that the early-morning hosting gig from Los Angeles isn’t their last association with the Academy Awards.
Sennott has starred in a string of critically acclaimed indie hits, including the Gen Z slasher Bodies Bodies Bodies opposite Pete Davidson (which also earned a four-star review) and teen fight club comedy Bottoms, alongside The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri (dubbed “cynical, cool and hysterically weird”).
In 2018, Yang was hired as a writer by Saturday Night Live and was promoted to featured player the following year. He became the show’s first-ever Chinese-American cast member and only the third gay male cast member.
As an actor, Yang appeared in the 2022 queer romcom Fire Island and most recently played a supporting role in Wicked, which is tipped to be one of the films to garner the most nominations at this year’s Oscars.
Read more:
Who are 2025 Oscars nominations presenters Rachel Sennott and Bowen Yang?
Best Director
12:30 , Jacob StolworthyThere’s a fun bunch in the mix for Best Director this year. Brady Corbet, 38, appears to be the favourite for The Brutalist – and for good reason. The film is among the best of this year’s contenders.
Other shoo-ins include Jacques Audiard, the French filmmaker behind Emilia Pérez, Edward Berger, the All Quiet on the Western Front director who made Conclave, and Sean Baker for his palme d’Or winning Anora.
But please can we see a nomination for Indian director Payal Kapadia? All We Imagine as Light was one of the greatest films of 2024. Ditto Coralie Fargeat, whose body horror The Substance was an electrifying success thanks to her sterling efforts behind the camera.
I’d also swap out one of the sure bets with Denis Villeneuve; his work on Dune: Part Two does not deserve to go unnoticed.
Two directors who have been sitting on the outside, but could squeeze through a crack in the door, are A Complete Unknown director James Mangold – his Bob Dylan biopic is a by-the-numbers release voters usually find comforting – and Jon M Chu. Voters often like to recognise directors of big-budget musicals and the fact Wicked wasn’t a disaster might see him get named today. It feels unlikely, though.
Best Supporting Actor contenders
12:00 , Jacob StolworthyNow it’s time to analyse the contenders for Best Supporting Actor, which will hilariously be an art-imitating-life situation for Succession co-stars Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain) and Jeremy Strong (The Apprentice).
It seems likely that Culkin will win out come awards night, but his competition will include Guy Pearce (The Brutalist) and Edward Norton (A Complete Unknown).
We’re also expecting to see Russian actor Yura Borisov for his charming turn in Sean Baker’s Anora.
Best Supporting Actress contenders
11:32 , Jacob StolworthyLet’s get the obvious out of the way: Best Supporting Actress is Zoe Saldaña’s to lose. The Emilia Pérez star is clearly a favourite of awards voters who have been honouring the star all season long.
Less deserved, but Saldaña’s co-star Selena Gomez could also be earning her first Oscar nomination today, which could boost Emilia Pérez to an historic nomination tally.
The only other sure bet is Ariana Grande, who was wondrous in Wicked and Isabella Rossellini who is set to be nominated for barely being in Conclave.
Then there’s Jamie Lee Curtis, who might capitalise off the halo effect, which sees recent winners essentially given an automatic nomination for something mildly reputable. She won for Everything Everywhere All at Once in 2023 and looks set to get nominated this year for The Last Showgirl.
Best Actor has the room for some welcome surprises but let’s tackle the dead certs first: Ralph Fiennes will receive a nod for Conclave as will Timothee Chalamet for Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown.
Meanwhile, Adrien Brody currently looks like the one to beat for The Brutalist.
But how about Sebastian Stan for The Apprentice - or even A Different Man? Or Colman Domingo for Sing Sing? Or Daniel Craig for Queer?
Those nods would be interesting but, if I’m honest, the outside bet I’m hoping for is Hugh Grant for his delectably creepy turn in Heretic.
Best Actress contenders
10:30 , Jacob StolworthyCould this be Demi Moore’s year? Her chances have only grown stronger since securing a Golden Globe win and Bafta nomination for her role in body horror The Substance.
It would certainly be a great story – as a staple of box office hits in the 1990s, Moore has never received many plaudits for her work until now.
But it’s a tough Best Actress race this year: Mikey Madison is in the running for Anora as is Fernanda Torres, who also won at the Golden Globes, for I’m Still Here.
Karla Sofía Gascón will boost Emilia Pérez’s nomination count, with Wicked star Cynthia Erivo likely rounding out the category.
But there’s also past winner Angelina Jolie, who received acclaim for her role as Maria Callas in a new biopic. Months ago, it was believed Moore’s name wouldn’t have made the cut – but now, our prediction is this year’s snub will be Jolie.
Extreme horror film that caused cinema walkouts now available in safety of own home
Emilia Pérez is set to make history
10:00 , Jacob StolworthyOh, Emilia Pérez. Nobody thought (myself included) that the film would become an Oscar nominee back when it had its humble premiere at Cannes last May.
But not only is it set to receive a string of nominations, it’s being predicted the film could usurp record holders All About Eve (1950), Titanic (1997), and La La Land (2016) as the most nominated film ever.
This is due to the fact that it will most likely get two nominations in Best Supporting Actress category (for Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez) as well as the Best Original Song category.
It would need to get recognition in the Cinematography and Sound categories, too.
OK, let’s run through all of the contenders for nominations today – and the films that might just miss out.
Let’s start with Best Picture, which currently looks set to be a two-horse race between Brady Corbet’s sweeping epic The Brutalist and the frankly average Emilia Pérez.
Other nominees will undoubtedly include Anora, A Complete Unknown, Conclave and Wicked – but that’s where it gets trickier.
A nomination for The Substance would be huge considering body horror films rarely, if ever, get recognised by the Academy, and it would also be unfair for Dune: Part 2 to miss out considering it was perhaps the best use of IMAX ever put to screen.
Outside bets include critical darlings The Nickel Boys, A Real Pain and Sing Sing – but expect one of those to creep in.
Green, pink or golden: Will ‘Wicked’ prove popular on Oscars night?
07:59 , Kevin PerryWicked, the movie adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, proved a box office success and boasted all-singing, all-dancing performances from stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.
Back in 1940, The Wizard of Oz was overlooked for the Academy’s top prize in favor of Gone With The Wind. Could Wicked finally take Best Picture back to Oz?
It will surely be in the running, but The Independent’s critic Clarisse Loughrey had some misgivings:
The Wicked movie is fun and well-acted – but why does it look so terrible?
How to watch the 2025 Oscars
07:11 , Kevin PerryAs a reminder, this year’s Oscars take place on Sunday, March 2 and will be hosted for the first time by former talk show host and genius The Simpsons writer Conan O’Brien.
Here’s how to watch them live:
Will ‘Emilia Pérez’ make history?
06:10 , Kevin PerryEmilia Pérez, a florid Spanish-language musical by French auteur Jacques Audiard about a Mexican cartel boss who undergoes a series of gender-affirming surgeries, could make history as soon as nominations are announced.
It has been tipped to set a new record for most nominations for an international film: the current number to beat is 10, held jointly by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and Roma (2018).
Whether it breaks that record or not, The Independent’s critics aren’t sure it deserves the highest recognition. In a two-star review, Clarisse Loughrey called the film a “reductive” take on the trans experience:
Selena Gomez is miscast in the reductive Oscar frontrunner Emilia Pérez – review
Does Demi Moore have ‘The Substance’ to take home an Oscar?
05:09 , Kevin PerryHorror has traditionally been underserved at the Oscars, but there are plenty who consider Demi Moore a favorite to go home with an Oscar after she won a Golden Globe for her gripping performance in Coralie Fargeat’s body horror The Substance.
The Independent’s critic lauded Moore as “sensational”, but didn’t think much of the film’s ending:
Gross, grisly The Substance loses its way, but Demi Moore is sensational – review
Might Kieran Culkin be A Real Oscar contender?
04:08 , Kevin PerryIn Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain, two cousins (played by Eisenberg and Succession star Kieran Culkin) travel to Poland for a tour that includes visits to Majdanek concentration camp and their late grandmother’s former home.
It’s a sharp, witty and beautifully observed story, lit up by Culkin who The Independent’s critic said delivers a “poignant, wrecking ball performance”. Read our review in full here:
A Real Pain boasts a wrecking ball of a performance from Kieran Culkin – review
Will Papal drama ‘Conclave’ see Berger crowned king?
03:07 , Kevin PerryEdward Berger’s All Quiet on the Western Front took home four Oscars in 2023, and the German-born director has been tipped to be similarly fêted for his follow-up Conclave.
The film, led by Ralph Fiennes, is a tense, taut thriller following the internal politics of the elections to decide a new Pope.
The Independent’s critic gave it just three stars. Here’s why:
The twisty, Oscar-tipped Conclave needed more than shock and awe
Can ‘Anora’s Cinderella story take it all the way to the Oscars?
02:16 , Kevin PerryAnora has won over plenty of fans since triumphing in the Palme d’Or at Cannes last May, and Sean Baker’s intimate tale about a stripper who marries the son of a Russian oligarch could yet have a fairytale ending of its own with victory at the Academy Awards.
Here’s The Independent’s review:
The funny, chaotic, tender Anora is Cinderella with sex workers
Could ‘Dune: Part Two’ pull a ‘Godfather: Part II’?
01:05 , Kevin PerryIt’s rare for a sequel to win Best Picture, although The Godfather: Part II and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King did both manage it. Could Dune: Part Two repeat the trick?
The epic certainly has its fans, including The Independent critic Clarisse Loughrey who wrote that the film contains moments “that feel so audacious, they play out as if they were already etched onto the cinematic canon.”
Here’s her review:
Dune: Part Two is like no other blockbuster in existence – review
Will ‘A Complete Unknown’ leave Timothée Chalamet tangled up in Oscar glory?
00:05 , Kevin PerryTimothée Chalamet has been widely tipped to pick up an Oscar nomination for his performance as Bob Dylan in biopic A Complete Unknown, but The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey felt the film itself played it too safe.
Here’s her full review:
Timothée Chalamet tries his best in a Bob Dylan biopic that plays too safe – review
Will 'The Brutalist’ triumph?
Wednesday 22 January 2025 23:10 , Kevin PerryBrady Corbet’s The Brutalist is a defiant, distinctive masterpiece at loggerheads with conventional film industry wisdom. It’s also considered a favorite to take home Best Picture, along with a few other awards.
Here, Xan Books explains why the film is a nod to a far more interesting kind of American filmmaking:
The 215-minute, Oscar-tipped epic that could save Hollywood – if we let it
Who are 2025 Oscars nominations presenters Rachel Sennott and Bowen Yang?
Wednesday 22 January 2025 22:34 , Kevin PerryThis year’s Oscars nominations will be announced by rising stars Rachel Sennott and Bowen Yang.
The pair are both actors, writers and comedians and will be hopeful that the early-morning hosting gig from Los Angeles isn’t their last association with the Academy Awards.
Here’s all you need to know about the pair:
Who are 2025 Oscars nominations presenters Rachel Sennott and Bowen Yang?
