2025 Oscars

As I do annually, this post reviews Academy Award nominees in major categories and provides my rankings within them. I am not predicting winners and only rank the films I have seen. This year, I have not seen very many of the movies, so much more than normal I will be updating this post and noting the edits with yellow highlights. 

You can find my post about last year's Oscars here and work backward if you want. 

Best Picture

Conclave 
A Complete Unknown  

Anora  

Emilia Pérez  

Dune: Part Two  

The Substance 

I really liked Conclave even though I was not really expecting much. It features great acting performances and an intriguing storyline. 

A Complete Unknown is an interesting and generally well-done biopic focusing on just a few years of Bob Dylan's life -- his period as a NY folk musician. There are a lot of great songs. 

Anora is an interesting character study, but it felt like I was watching a preventable catastrophe. Emilia Pérez is a unique film. Did we need it? 

Dune 2 has a complicated storyline and the acting is fine, but it is overly long and more of a technical achievement than anything else. Green Borders was a better film last year and I'm sure there were many other more deserving candidates for an Oscar nomination. 

There were many non-Oscar nominated movies that I liked much better than The Substance. Indeed, in the same genre, I thought A Different Man was better. 

The Brutalist  

I’m Still Here  

Nickel Boys 

Wicked  

Directing

James Mangold, A Complete Unknown

Sean Baker, Anora

Jacques Audiard, Emilia Pérez

Coralie Fargeat, The Substance

I need to see more of the top films.   I never entirely know how to evaluate this category. 

Brady Corbet, The Brutalist

Actor in a Leading Role

Ralph Fiennes, Conclave

Sebastian Stan, The Apprentice

Timothée Chalamet, A Complete Unknown

Fiennes does a great job, though it is probably not the best performance of his career. That Nazi he played for Spielberg is difficult to shake all these years later. 

I saw Chalamet in Dune 2 and Stan in A Different Man so I have a feel for their work. Both are quite talented but this year I'd go for Fiennes among the 3 of them. Update: Chalamet was great in A Complete Unknown. And Stan was excellent in The Apprentice. It's a tossup. 

 

Adrien Brody, The Brutalist

Colman Domingo, Sing Sing

Actress in a Leading Role

Mikey Madison, Anora

Demi Moore, The Substance

Karla Sofía Gascón, Emilia Pérez

Madison committed to her role in Anora. She was very good, but it's an odd film. 

Moore's performance was perhaps the best aspect of The Substance, but that was not enough to save the film for me. Gascón's performance was fine, but I'm not sure it was Oscar-nomination material even if she was the title character. 

Cynthia Erivo, Wicked

Fernanda Torres, I’m Still Here

Actor in a Supporting Role

Jeremy Strong, The Apprentice

Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain

Edward Norton, A Complete Unknown

Yura Borisov, Anora

I watched A Real Pain instead of the Oscars. It was a very good performance, but grating. Norton was also excellent and could have won. Borisov was understated and also excellent. 

In my view, Strong was robbed of the award, though he probably should have been nominated for Best Actor. He had a lot of screen time. 

Guy Pearce, The Brutalist

Actress in a Supporting Role

Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Pérez

Monica Barbaro, A Complete Unknown

Isabella Rossellini, Conclave

Saldaña gives an excellent performance and I can see how she won. She even sings and dances, of course. 

Barbaro was good, but Elle Fanning might have been better. Her face said everything when she watched Dylan and Baez singing duets. 

I don't believe Rossellini will win as this is a surprisingly small part. She is more seen than heard, perhaps predictably in a film about the selection of a new Pope. 

Ariana Grande, Wicked

Felicity Jones, The Brutalist

Animated Feature Film

Flow

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

The Wild Robot 

This is unusual. In many years I don't see any of the animated features prior to the Oscars -- and may never see them. This year, I caught one because my wife wanted to see it (she usually has almost no interest in animation) and another because I teach climate change. A third was on a streaming service I'm accessing right now.

I really enjoyed Flow though I freely admit that the dog was my favorite character in a film mostly about the journey of a cat. The flooding and lack of people (and dialogue) makes this seem like a tale about climate change from the point of view of the natural world. 

W&G was fine, but not spectacular. The Wild Robot was too much of a kid movie for my tastes. 

Inside Out 2 

Memoir of a Snail 

Documentary Feature Film

Black Box Diaries 

No Other Land 

Porcelain War

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat 

Sugarcane 

International Feature Film

Flow 

Emilia Pérez 

Flow was a very good film, but I suspect there are stronger contenders for the award. It's amazing to me that Green Borders is not on this list -- apparently a decision marred by government pressure. 

Maybe Emilia Pérez is a better movie, but I liked Flow -- but split Emilia Pérez into 2 nights because I really don't like musicals very much. 

I’m Still Here 

The Girl With the Needle

The Seed of the Sacred Fig 

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