The 5 biggest takeaways, surprises, and snubs in the 2025 Oscar nominations
The 2025 Oscar nominations are here—and this year’s Academy Awards ceremony is anyone’s game. Leading the crusade is Emilia Pérez, the musical crime drama about a Mexican cartel kingpin who comes out as a trans woman, with a total of 13 nominations. Following closely behind are other major hits, with Wicked and The Brutalist earning 10 nominations each, Conclave and A Complete Unknown earning eight nominations, and Anora earning six nominations. Ahead, we break down all the biggest surprises, snubs, and takeaways from this year’s Oscars nominees list.
Remember Challengers? The Academy doesn’t.
For months after its April 2024 release date, Challengers seemed to be the only movie on anybody’s mind. Luca Guadagnino’s sexy love-triangle tennis film captivated audiences and titillated early ideas of Oscar buzz, a fact due in equal measure to the strong performances from leading stars Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, and Mike Faist and to the delightfully dynamic cinematography. Who could forget that shot of the tennis ball’s POV as it ricocheted from one end of the court to the other?
Well, apparently, the Academy did forget. While Challengers received four nominations at the Golden Globes—ultimately winning one for Best Original Score—the movie was entirely excluded from the 2025 Oscar nominations. Better luck to Guadagnino and friends next time.
Zoe Saldaña and Ariana Grande have a lot to celebrate.
Longtime Hollywood royals are getting their due with their first-ever Oscar nominations. Harper’s Bazaar US's February 2025 cover star, Zoe Saldaña, is at last an Academy Award nominee. Her performance as lawyer Rita Mora Castro in the Spanish-language musical Emilia Pérez earned her a place among the nominees in the Best Actress in a Supporting Role category. (Saldaña previously won in the same category at the Golden Globes.) Joining her is Ariana Grande, whose return to acting as Glinda in the long-awaited Wicked movie-musical adaptation also snagged her a Best Supporting Actress nomination. Grande’s Wicked costar, Cynthia Erivo, snagged her first Oscar nomination too; she was nominated in the category of Best Actress for her role as Elphaba.
Zendaya, Angelina Jolie, and Selena Gomez missed out.
While some A-listers finally got their flowers, others were notably missing from the nominations list.
Although all three received nods at this year’s Golden Globes ceremony, Zendaya (Challengers and Dune: Part Two), Angelina Jolie (Maria), and Selena Gomez (Emilia Pérez) did not receive an Academy Award nomination this year. If they had been recognized, the Oscar nominations would have been firsts for Zendaya and Gomez.
Jon M. Chu and Denis Villeneuve were shut out from the Best Directors club.
Speaking of snubs, directors of the some of the biggest box-office hits in 2024 were totally omitted from the list of Best Director contenders. Both Jon M. Chu, who directed the Wicked Broadway-musical adaptation, and Denis Villeneuve, who directed the sci-fi sequel Dune: Part Two, did not receive a nomination for Best Director despite both of their movies being nominated in the Best Picture category. Perhaps they’ll get another shot at the Best Directors club at a future Academy Awards ceremony, given that additional installations of their respective movies are due out in 2025 and 2026.
Karla Sofía Gascón made history, again.
Weeks after making history as the first openly trans actress to be nominated at the Golden Globes, Karla Sofía Gascón made history once again at the Oscars. Her performance as the titular Emilia Pérez—a Mexico City cartel kingpin who secretly undergoes gender-affirming surgery—has earned Gascón her first-ever Oscar nomination, making her the first out trans actress to be nominated at the prestigious awards show.
Gascón previously mused on the Oscar buzz surrounding her performance in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar. “For me, the biggest recognition is being given the chance to participate in such a wonderful film and to have been able to pull off this character like I have. And with that, I can go to bed at night happy and say, ‘Hats off!’ Anything that comes from the work I’ve done is welcome, and it will be an honor to share it,” she said. “But personally, I think that there’s something really beautiful that’s happened. There’s a lot of people that wish for a part of the population [specifically trans people] to be recognised. And if I can make that happen in any way, I would feel very proud of having been able to contribute not just a grain of sand but a whole mound of hope to this planet.”
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