Oscar nominations 2025: Snuff and surprises

What a day for Oscars super fans!

After the nominations, the presentation was delayed twice due to the tragic wildfires in California Oscar nominations hit the news this morning ahead of the March 2 ABC Oscars telecast. And they are packed with snubs and surprises.

Aren’t they always? Sure, but this year you can create a whole new awards show with only those who aren’t nominated for awards.

Oscars 2025: Full list of nominations

It all speaks to the film’s gravity-defying strength against pandemics, strikes and streaming wars that might otherwise bring them down. It won’t happen.

BEST PICTURE

SURPRISE: “Emilia Perez”

I am not surprised that this amazing film was nominated. I’m shocked that it got a whopping 13 nominations, more than any other film. Not bad for a musical sung and acted in Spanish from a French director about a ruthless Mexican mobster who undergoes gender reassignment surgery, leaves his family behind and has tragic consequences for all concerned. The odds now favor a Best Picture Oscar win (watch out for “The Brutalist”), which would be a first for Netflix and a significant sign that a surge in global Oscar voters is having an effect. As Timothée Chalamet’s Bob Dylan sings in “A Complete Unknown,” another best picture contender, “The times, they are a-changin’.”

SNUB: “Sing Sing”, “A Real Pain”

The former is a prison drama about a real-life art program at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility in New York. The latter is a touching personal take on two American cousins ​​(Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin) who go on a Holocaust tour in Poland in honor of their late grandmother.

How these two missed inclusion in the Oscars top 10 is beyond my comprehension.

Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande and more stars react to the 2025 Oscar nominations

BEST Instructor

SURPRISE: Coralie Fargeat for “The Substance”

Of course, Fargeat fully deserves this spot. But since the Oscar boys’ club has only presented its award to a female director three times in the academy’s 97-year history (pause here for a scream of protest), it still qualifies as a shock that Fargeat made the cut, especially for a horror. movies that voter snobs stupidly love to grab.

SNAP: Edward Berger for “Conclave” and Jon M. Chu for “Wicked”

Berger, foolishly out for “All Quiet on the Western Front,” is getting the cold shoulder again for his superb Vatican thriller “Conclave,” despite the film earning 10 nominations, including for best picture. Has it fixed itself? The academy’s disdain for film versions of Broadway musicals continues unabated with the exclusion of virtuoso Chu from among the director nominees for “Wicked.” The film received 10 nominations, including for Best Picture.

BEST ACTRESS

SURPRISE: Karla Sofia Gascón for “Emilia Pérez”

The Academy’s tradition of hewing to a straight line gloriously broke the mold by making the transfixing Gascón the first openly trans actor to receive an Oscar nomination. Gascón may have a hard time beating comeback queen Demi Moore (“The Substance”) in the race for Oscar gold, but it will be a great ride to see her try.

SURPRISE: Fernanda Torres for “I’m Still Here”

Brazilian actress Torres, magnificent as a wife and mother fighting against her country’s corruption, is nominated in the same category as her mother, Fernanda Montenegro, who received the nomination for “Central Station” 26 years ago. How can you not love that?

SNAP: Marianne Jean-Baptiste for “Hard Truths”

Critics groups from New York to Los Angeles rightly believed that Jean-Baptiste gave the female performance of the year as Pansy, a working-class member of London’s Afro-Caribbean community. Some thought her character was unlikeable. Ha! Unforgettable is more like it.

SNUB: Pamela Anderson for “The Last Showgirl”. Nicole Kidman for “Babygirl”, Angelina Jolie for “Maria”, Amy Adams for “Nightbitch”, Saoirse Ronan for “The Outrun”, Kate Winslet for “Lee”, Tilda Swinton for “The Room Next Door”.

I am not kidding about the quality of the competitors in this race. I bet you have your own. But the exclusion of Jean-Baptiste and Anderson hurt the most. Should this category be extended?

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BEST ACTOR

SURPRISE: Sebastian Stan for “The Apprentice”

Word was that election fatigue would hurt Stan’s chances for his much-praised but little-seen performance as the young Donald Trump on “The Apprentice.” The newly installed president himself previously mocked the film on Truth Social. Oscar voters thought otherwise, putting Stan in the running against favorites Adrien Brody (“The Brutalist”) and Timothée Chalamet (“A Complete Unknown”). Let the Oscar campaign begin.

SNAP: Daniel Craig for “Queer”

The former James Bond was touted for his first ever acting nomination as a gay man tormented by unrequited love. Or was there anger that Craig was cast in a role that a gay actor might be better suited for? I understand that Stan just cut Craig out by a hair.

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BEST ACTOR

SNAP: Selena Gomez for “Emilia Perez”

Had the pop star-turned-actress won her coveted nomination as a mobster’s spurned wife, “Emilia Pérez” would have tied the record for most Oscar nominations ever for a single film at 14, along with “Titanic,” “All About Eve” and “La La Land.” Perhaps the idea of ​​another pop star in the lineup, along with Ariana Grande for “Wicked,” was too much for elitist Oscar voters to take. Doesn’t matter. Gomez’s performance will stand the test of time.

SURPRISE: Monica Barbaro for “A Complete Unknown”

Many expected Gomez or Jamie Lee Curtis, as big as a Vegas cocktail waitress in “The Last Showgirl,” to take that spot. But that’s not a knock on Barbaro, who proved her mettle in song and story as Joan Baez, the folk goddess who held her own on stage and against her sometime lover Bob Dylan. Barbaro was no slouch on the guitar either.

‘Emilia Pérez’ star Karla Sofía Gascón becomes first openly trans actress to win Oscar nomination

BEST ACTING

SNAP: Denzel Washington for “Gladiator II”

Are you making me? Everyone thought Washington had this Oscar in the bag, a third Academy trophy to add to his wins for “Glory” and “Training Day.” Heck, he’s just one of the best actors on the planet. But voters sniffed out all the digital fakery in “Gladiator II,” despite Denzel’s perennial stardom. They also rejected newcomer Clarence Maclin, who matched Denzel’s scene-stealing bravado as a prisoner with acting chops to die for in “Sing Sing.” What gives?

SURPRISE: Jeremy Strong for “The Apprentice”

So much for the wise pundits who wrote off “The Apprentice” because of its lack of box office success. But actors who vote for the nominations in this category know when they see a master at work. And Strong’s dynamite portrayal of Trump’s legal fixer Roy Cohn is one for the time capsule. What a juicy coincidence that Strong will be reuniting with his “Succession” co-star Kieran Culkin for “A Real Pain.” They each won an Emmy for the HBO series, but which of the former Roy brothers will take home their first Oscar? Place your bets. Just another reason why the Oscars are such a fun watch. See you on March 2.

See the full list of Oscar nominations in 2025 here.

Oscar nominations 2025: Snuff and surprises originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com