‘Emilia Pérez’ leads 2025 Oscar nominations

In the wake of devastating wildfires in Los Angeles that struck at the heart of the movie industry, an embattled Hollywood lined up behind the ‘Netflix’ narco-musical about trans identity ‘Emilia Pérez’ in Oscar nominations on Thursday.

Jacques Audiard’s ‘Emilia Pérez’, a Spanish-language, French-made film, dominated the nominations with a leading 13 nominations, including ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Actress’ for Karla Sofía Gascón, making her the first openly trans actor ever nominated for Oscar. The film also landed nominations for directing, original screenplay, two of its songs and for Zoe Saldaña.

Another musical - ‘Wicked’, the smash Broadway adaptation - came away with nearly as many nominations. Jon M Chu’s lavish ‘Wizard of Oz’ riff scored 10 nominations, including ‘Best Picture’ and acting nods for its stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. ‘The Brutalist’, Brady Corbet’s postwar epic filmed in ‘VistaVision’, also came away with a commanding 10 nominations, including ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Director’ and nominations for actor Adrien Brody, Guy Pearce and Felicity Jones.

Apart from ‘Wicked’, the nominees for ‘Best Picture’ are ‘Anora’, ‘The Brutalist’, ‘A Complete Unknown’, ‘Conclave’, ‘Dune: Part Two’, ‘Emilia Pérez’, ‘I’m Still Here’, ‘Nickel Boys’ and ‘The Substance’.

In a wide-open Oscar race, the biggest surprises were the Brazilian film ‘I’m Still Here’, which also landed Fernanda Torres a ‘Best Actress’ nomination and RaMell Ross’ ‘Nickel Boys’, a POV-shot drama that had been overlooked by many guilds in earlier voting. Those nominees likely displaced a few best-picture possibilities in ‘Sing Sing’, ‘September 5’ and ‘A Real Pain’, though those films all landed nominations elsewhere.

One of 2024’s most audacious films, ‘The Apprentice’, landed a surprising pair of nominations, for Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong. In the ‘Best Actor’ category, where Stan and Brody were nominated, the other nominees were Timothée Chalamet (‘A Complete Unknown’), Colman Domingo (‘Sing Sing’) and Ralph Fiennes (‘Conclave’).

Best actress, a category Demi Moore has appeared to have locked up for her full-bodied performance in ‘The Substance’, saw nominations for Moore, Gascón, Torres, Erivo and the star of ‘Anora’, Mikey Madison. Arguably the year’s most competitive category, that left out Marianne Jean-Baptiste (‘Hard Truths’), Pamela Anderson, (‘The Last Showgirl’), Nicole Kidman (‘Babygirl’) and Angelina Jolie (‘Maria’).

In the directing category, ‘The Substance’ filmmaker Coralie Fargeat managed to crack into the otherwise all-male group of Sean Baker (‘Anora’), Corbet, Audiard and James Mangold (‘A Complete Unknown’).

The supporting actor was led by Kieran Culkin, the favourite for the award, for his performance in ‘A Real Pain’. The other nominees were Yura Borisov (‘Anora’), Guy Pearce (‘The Brutalist’), Edward Norton (‘A Complete Unknown’) and Strong.

With so many in the film industry reeling from the LA wildfires, some called on the Academy to cancel the Oscars altogether. Academy leaders have argued the March 2 ceremony must go ahead, for their economic impact on Los Angeles and as a symbol of resilience for the industry.

With five weeks to go until the Oscar ceremony, at least four or five movies - including ‘The Brutalist’, ‘Emilia Pérez’, ‘Anora’, ‘Conclave’ and ‘Wicked’ - are seen having a shot at best picture.