The 97th Academy Awards ceremony is set to air on Monday, 3 March, at 11:00am AEDT. Australian nominees this year include Adam Elliot’s stop-motion animation Memoir of a Snail, Guy Pearce for Supporting Actor and cinematographer Greig Fraser.
Oscars 2025: quick links
Oscars 2025: Best Picture
- Anora
- The Brutalist
- A Complete Unknown
- Conclave
- Dune: Part Two
- Emilia Pérez
- I’m Still Here
- Nickel Boys
- The Substance
- Wicked
Oscars 2025: Frontrunner – Anora
A screwball comedy that nimbly shifts into something darker and sadder, Sean Baker’s Anora has seemed a major Oscar contender since its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival last May. There, it won the Palme d’Or, becoming the first American film to do so since 2011’s The Tree of Life.
Starring Mikey Madison as Ani – a self-possessed 23-year-old exotic dancer who allows herself to be whisked away by the feckless son of a Russian oligarch – Anora has already picked up the top prizes at the Producers and Directors Guild Awards, solidifying it as the film to beat at the Oscars.
Possible spoilers – Conclave, The Brutalist
Like his previous feature, All Quiet on the Western Front, Edward Berger’s pulpy papal thriller Conclave was awarded Best Film at the BAFTAs, signifying it as a possible alternative to Anora. Its Best Ensemble win at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) awards revealed it to be a real contender.
Also in the mix is Brady Corbet’s epic The Brutalist, which follows fictional architect and Holocaust survivor László Tóth (Adrien Brody) as he immigrates to America and accepts a commission to design a monumental public institute.
Admirable for its scope, especially given its relatively small budget, The Brutalist certainly has its ardent supporters. While I don’t expect it to get over the line in Best Picture, it’s likely to be recognised elsewhere.
A word on Emilia Pérez and a year of multiple controversies:
Any film which attains Best Picture frontrunner status is likely to generate some (usually superficial and quickly forgotten) negative discourse. In Anora’s case, conversation has stemmed from the lack of an intimacy coordinator on set. Meanwhile, The Brutalist has been criticised for its use of generative AI.
But in all my years of being amused/appalled by the Oscars, I’ve never seen a situation quite like that with this year’s nominations leader, Emilia Pérez.
When a series of virulently racist social media posts from Karla Sofía Gascón, the Spanish actress who portrays the film’s titular character, resurfaced online, the backlash was immediate. In the aftermath, Gascón, the first openly trans actor to receive an Academy Award nomination, was reportedly cut-off and removed from all Emilia Pérez campaigning material by Netflix.
Most strikingly, she was openly condemned by the film’s director Jacques Audiard: ‘I haven’t spoken to her, and I don’t want to,’ he told Deadline.
While the sentiments expressed in Gascón’s posts are inexcusable, it’s quite exasperating to see Audiard claiming the moral high ground given his own recent ignorant comments and admitted lack of care towards the country in which his film is set. All this to say, the toxicity that surrounds Emilia Pérez is quite ghastly, but then again, so is Emilia Pérez.
Oscars 2025: Best Director
- Sean Baker – Anora
- Brady Corbet – The Brutalist
- James Mangold – A Complete Unknown
- Jacques Audiard – Emilia Pérez
- Coralie Fargeat – The Substance
Oscars 2025: Frontrunner – Sean Baker (Anora)
Known for humanist dramedies that have often centred people living on the margins – an undocumented Chinese immigrant (Charles Jang) in Take Out, trans sex workers Sin-Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) and Alexandra (Mya Taylor) in Tangerine, an unemployed single mother (Bria Vinaite) and her six-year-old daughter (the extraordinary Brooklynn Prince) in The Florida Project – Sean Baker is undoubtably among the most significant figures in American independent cinema today.
Interestingly, Baker is nominated alongside two other Cannes Film Festival award-winning directors: Coralie Fargeat, whose entertaining body-horror satire The Substance won Best Screenplay, and the Jury Prize winner Audiard.
Reflecting on the 2024 Cannes line-up, however, I do think it’s a shame that filmmakers such as Mohammad Rasoulof (The Seed of the Sacred Fig – nominated for Best International Feature only) and Payal Kapadia (All We Imagine as Light – zero nominations) were not acknowledged here.
Possible spoiler – Brady Corbet (The Brutalist)
While, as previously mentioned, Baker won at the Directors Guild Awards and his film appears to be the strongest overall, Corbet received Best Director at the BAFTAs and the Golden Globes, indicating he’s a definite threat at the Oscars.
Oscars 2025: Best Actress
- Cynthia Erivo – Wicked
- Karla Sofía Gascón – Emilia Pérez
- Mikey Madison – Anora
- Demi Moore – The Substance
- Fernanda Torres – I’m Still Here
Oscars 2025: Frontrunner – Demi Moore (The Substance)
Notably, for the first time in 47 years, all five Best Actress nominees are in films also nominated for Best Picture. In what has generally been considered the closest acting race, Wicked’s Cynthia Erivo is the sole returning nominee (she was previously nominated in 2020 for Harriet).
Recognised for her great performance in Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here, Fernanda Torres has become the second Brazilian actress in history to be nominated in this category. The first was her mother, Fernanda Montenegro, who was nominated for Central Station, also directed by Salles.
While there’s certainly a possibility that Torres, a Golden Globe winner, will repeat at the Oscars, this race seems more likely to be between Anora star Mikey Madison and The Substance’s Demi Moore, who most recently took home the Screen Actors Guild Award.
Much of the recent conversation surrounding Moore has focused on her so-called awards ‘narrative’: that is, her being acknowledged for a decades-long career in which she has too often been written off as just a ‘popcorn actress‘.
Although Moore is now being widely predicted, her winning for The Substance would be something exciting and unusual for the Academy, which usually disregards genre films. That The Substance managed to garner five nominations is already a major feat, especially considering that directors like David Cronenberg and John Carpenter, whose influences are clearly felt in Fargeat’s film, have never been nominated.
Possible spoiler – Mikey Madison (Anora)
While Madison’s only major precursor win has been at the BAFTAs, Anora rests so entirely on her performance that it would feel somewhat strange if the film were to win Best Picture but she were to lose Best Actress. I’m certainly intrigued to see how this category plays out.
Oscars 2025: Best Actor
- Adrien Brody – The Brutalist
- Timothée Chalamet – A Complete Unknown
- Colman Domingo – Sing Sing
- Ralph Fiennes – Conclave
- Sebastian Stan –The Apprentice
Oscars 2025: Frontrunner – Adrien Brody (The Brutalist)
When Adrien Brody won an Oscar for The Pianist in 2003, he became the youngest Best Actor winner in history, a record which he holds to this day. Having already been awarded a Golden Globe and a BAFTA for his remarkable role in The Brutalist, he has a very good chance of becoming a two-time Academy winner.
Possible spoiler – Timothée Chalamet (A Complete Unknown)
On the other hand, 29-year-old Timothée Chalamet, previously nominated for his sensational breakout performance in Call Me by Your Name, has the opportunity to not only win his first Oscar but also to break Brody’s longstanding record.
Having conducted a genuinely delightful press tour for the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, which he also produced and spent five years in preparation for, Chalamet won his first major televised award at the SAG ceremony, indicating an Oscar win is also a distinct possibility.
Remarkably, Chalamet has already starred in seven Best Picture nominated films. This year, alongside A Complete Unknown, he leads the very good but oddly overlooked Dune: Part Two.
Among the other Best Actor nominees, I’m also not entirely counting out Ralph Fiennes, who received his third acting nomination for Conclave. Rounding out the category, Colman Domingo earned his second consecutive nomination for the acclaimed prison-set drama Sing Sing, and Sebastian Stan his first for portraying Donald Trump in The Apprentice.
Oscars 2025: Best Supporting Actress
- Monica Barbaro – A Complete Unknown
- Ariana Grande – Wicked
- Felicity Jones – The Brutalist
- Isabella Rossellini – Conclave
- Zoe Saldaña – Emilia Pérez
Oscars 2025: Frontrunner – Zoe Saldaña (Emilia Pérez)
While the controversy surrounding Gascón may have left a bad taste in the mouths of some Academy voters, Emilia Pérez’s co-lead Zoe Saldaña remains the odds-on favourite to win Best Actress in a Supporting Role, having already been awarded by the SAG, BAFTAs and Golden Globes.
Other contenders include Ariana Grande, frequently hilarious in Wicked, and Isabella Rossellini, who has somehow never been nominated before now.
Oscars 2025: Best Supporting Actor
- Yura Borisov – Anora
- Kieran Culkin – A Real Pain
- Edward Norton – A Complete Unknown
- Guy Pearce – The Brutalist
- Jeremy Strong – The Apprentice
Oscars 2025: Frontrunner – Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain)
In a fun Oscars happenstance, Succession’s Jeremy Strong and Kieran Culkin received their first nominations alongside each other this year. As Trump’s mentor Roy Cohn, Strong wholly commands The Apprentice, however it is the always engaging Culkin who is firmly favoured to take home the trophy.
This category also sees the first nomination for Guy Pearce – excellent as László’s benefactor/ tormentor in The Brutalist – and the fourth for Edward Norton, who portrays folk singer Pete Seeger as an almost painfully earnest paternal figure to Chalamet’s wayward boy genius.
Finally, while I think Anora supporting actors Mark Eydelshteyn and Karren Karagulian were unlucky to be passed over for nominations, it’s not hard to see why a consensus instead formed around their co-star Yura Borisov, whose sensitive performance is so integral to the film’s final act.
Oscars 2025: Best Original Screenplay
- Anora – Sean Baker
- The Brutalist – Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold
- A Real Pain – Jesse Eisenberg
- September 5 – Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum, co-written by Alex David
- The Substance – Coralie Fargeat
Oscars 2025: Frontrunner – Anora
On paper, Original Screenplay seems like it should be an easy win for Anora, but precursors awards have indicated this is far from guaranteed.
Possible spoiler – A Real Pain
While Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain missed out on a Best Picture nomination, its screenplay has been consistently singled out for praise. Its win at the BAFTAs proved it has a genuine chance at the Oscars.
Oscars 2025: Best Adapted Screenplay
- A Complete Unknown – James Mangold and Jay Cocks
- Conclave – Peter Straughan
- Emilia Pérez – Jacques Audiard in collaboration with Thomas Bidegain, Léa Mysius and Nicolas Livecchi
- Nickel Boys – RaMell Ross & Joslyn Barnes
- Sing Sing – Screenplay by Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar; Story by Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Clarence Maclin, John ‘Divine G’ Whitfield
Oscars 2025: Frontrunner – Conclave
Conclave’s screenplay, which has long been favoured in this category and has already been awarded at the BAFTAs and the Golden Globes, was written by Peter Straughan, a previous nominee for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
Possible spoiler – Nickel Boys
At the Writers Guild Awards, where Conclave was notably ineligible, RaMell Ross’s Nickel Boys took home best adapted screenplay, placing it as the likeliest alternative to the former film.
It’s just very unfortunate that Nickel Boys, like last year’s Best Picture nominee American Fiction, bypassed theatrical release in Australia to instead go straight to streaming on Amazon Prime.
The 97th Academy Awards ceremony airs on Monday, 3 March, at 11:00am AEDT. Channel 7 will stream the Oscars live on TV and online via the 7 Plus app.