Amanda Crouse

Arts & Entertainment Editor

On Thursday, Jan. 23, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California, actors Bowen Yang and Rachel Sennot presented the nominees for the 2025 Academy Awards. The announcement ceremony had been rescheduled twice due to the effects of the California wildfires. For those who were busy last Thursday morning, or didn’t catch the livestream, here are some of the Oscars nomination line ups.

Nominated for Best Picture are “Anora,” “The Brutalist,” “A Complete Unknown,” “Conclave,” “Dune: Part Two,” “Emilia Pérez,” “I’m Still Here,” “Nickel Boys,” “The Substance” and “Wicked.”

Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role nominees are Adrien Brody (“The Brutalist”), Timothée Chalamet (“A Complete Unknown”), Colman Domingo (“Sing Sing”), Ralph Fiennes (“Conclave”) and Sebastian Stan (“The Apprentice”).

Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role nominees are Cynthia Erivo (“Wicked”), Karla Sofía Gascón (“Emilia Pérez”), Mikey Madison (“Anora”), Demi Moore (“The Substance”) and Fernanda Torres (“I’m Still Here”).

Achievement in Cinematography nominees are “The Brutalist,” “Dune: Part Two,” “Emilia Pérez,” “Maria” and “Nosferatu.”

Achievement in Directing nominees are Sean Baker (“Anora”), Brady Corbet (“The Brutalist”), James Mangold (“A Complete Unknown”), Jacques Audiard (“Emilia Pérez”) andCoralie Fargeat (“The Substance”)

Best International Feature Film nominees are “I’m Still Here” (Brazil), “The Girl with the Needle” (Denmark), “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” (Germany) and “Flow” (Latvia)

Some viewers expressed disappointment at the exclusion of “Nosferatu,” starring Lily Rose-Depp and Bill Skarsgård, from the lineup of Best Picture nominations, although Robert Eggers’ adaptation of the 1922 silent film “Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror” was nominated for Achievement in Cinematography. There was a similar outcry over Lucas Guadagnino’s “Challengers,” which received no academy award nominations, and “Dune: Part Two” director Denis Villeneuve’s exclusion from Best Director. 

The nominations list contained a number of surprises, as well; “The Substance,” directed by Coralie Fargeat, is the seventh horror film in Academy Award history to be nominated for Best Picture. Fargeat is also in the running for Best Director; if she won, she would be the fourth female director to be awarded the title.

Also nominated for Best Picture, Jacques Audiard’s musical/thriller “Emilia Pérez” has been mired in controversy and impassioned discussion since its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival –– and the film has been brought back into the limelight after receiving 13 Oscar nominations, including one for Best Picture and one for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role. Karla Sofía Gascón is the first openly transgender actress to be nominated for an Academy Award, which she received for her performance as the titular Pérez. The film itself has been subject to much scrutiny by some transgender film critics, who have expressed distaste toward the tonal depiction of a trans woman and her morality. Members of the Latinx community have also gone online to voice discontent with how the film portrays Mexican culture. This came after an interview clip of Audiard went viral where he claimed that he did not make an effort to study Mexico before the making of the film.

Finally, Ali Abbasi’s film “The Apprentice,” a biopic following Donald Trump from the beginnings of his business empire in the 1970s, rose into the spotlight. Despite disapproval from President Trump, who took to his social media app, “Truth Social,” to call the film a “politically disgusting hack job,” “The Apprentice” received two nominations from the Academy. Sebastian Stan appeared as a surprise name on the list of Best Actor nominees for his portrayal of Trump, while co-star Jeremy Strong was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for the role of lawyer Roy Cohn. 

The Academy Awards will premiere on Mar. 2, 2025, at 7 p.m. EST, with Conan O’Brien as host.