2025 Oscars Nominations: Emilia Pérez Sets Record with 13 Nods, While The Brutalist and Wicked Earn 10 Each
Emilia Pérez, Jacques Audiard’s musical about a transgender gangster fleeing the mob in Mexico, has set a new record for the most Oscar nominations ever received by a non-English-language film.
The film earned 13 nominations during Thursday’s announcement—surpassing the previous record of 10 shared by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2001 and Roma in 2018.
Notably, the film’s star, Karla Sofía Gascón, made history as the first openly transgender actor to be nominated for an Oscar. Elliot Page was nominated for Juno in 2008, 12 years before he transitioned. Audiard’s film also secured nominations for supporting actress (Zoe Saldaña), director, best picture, adapted screenplay, international feature, editing, cinematography, makeup and hairstyling, original score, sound, and two separate original songs.
Meanwhile, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, a three-and-a-half-hour epic about a Hungarian architect (played by Adrien Brody) who emigrates to the United States after World War II, received 10 nominations, as did Wicked, the blockbuster adaptation of the Broadway hit.
James Mangold’s Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown picked up eight nominations, along with Edward Berger’s papal thriller Conclave, starring Ralph Fiennes. Despite his previous success with All Quiet on the Western Front, Berger missed out on a directing nod for Conclave. While the film featured an impressive ensemble cast, including John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci, and Lucian Msamati, the only other acting nomination besides Fiennes was for supporting actress Isabella Rossellini.
A Complete Unknown, however, outperformed expectations, with Edward Norton (as Pete Seeger) and Monica Barbaro (as Joan Baez) receiving nominations alongside Timothée Chalamet, who stars as Dylan.
Only one of the 10 films nominated for Best Picture was directed by a woman—Coralie Fargeat’s provocative body horror The Substance. Fargeat also stood out as the sole female screenwriter with a solo credit among the 10 nominated scripts.
The Best Actress category saw its fair share of surprises, with industry icons Nicole Kidman (Babygirl) and Angelina Jolie (Maria) unexpectedly left out. Instead, Demi Moore emerged as the category frontrunner, riding a wave of momentum following her Golden Globe win earlier this month. Moore and Karla Sofía Gascón (Emilia Pérez) will compete against Cynthia Erivo (Wicked), Mikey Madison (Anora), and Fernanda Torres (I’m Still Here), Walter Salles’s gripping drama about a real-life Brazilian abduction.
British hopes were dashed as Marianne Jean-Baptiste, expected to earn a nod for her reunion with Mike Leigh in Hard Truths, was overlooked. Similarly, Hugh Grant (Heretic) and Daniel Craig (Queer) missed out on final nominations despite Golden Globe recognition for their respective performances in horror and erotic drama.
The Best Actor lineup includes Adrien Brody (The Brutalist), Ralph Fiennes (Conclave), and Timothée Chalamet (A Complete Unknown), alongside Colman Domingo (Sing Sing) and Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice), whose portrayal of Donald Trump in the unflattering biopic has sparked significant buzz. Jeremy Strong’s nod in the Supporting Actor category for his role as Roy Cohn in The Apprentice suggests Hollywood may already be taking aim at the returning president.
Kieran Culkin leads the Supporting Actor race with his performance in Jesse Eisenberg’s Holocaust tour comedy A Real Pain, while Zoe Saldaña (Emilia Pérez) looks like a strong contender in the Supporting Actress category. However, Denzel Washington missed out on his 11th nomination for his standout role in Gladiator II, leaving fans and critics alike stunned.
Ridley Scott’s long-awaited sequel to his 2000 Oscar-winning epic failed to replicate its predecessor's success at this year’s ceremony, earning only a nomination for Best Costume Design.
Meanwhile, Luca Guadagnino’s two films from last year, Challengers and Queer, received no recognition from the Academy. Similarly, Pamela Anderson and Jamie Lee Curtis were snubbed for their performances in The Last Showgirl.
Irish-language music drama Kneecap, a six-time BAFTA nominee, also missed out entirely at the Oscars. Instead, the Best International Feature Film category is led by Emilia Pérez and includes I’m Still Here, the Danish baby-killing drama The Girl With the Needle, Mohammad Rasoulof’s Iranian film The Seed of a Sacred Fig, and the Latvian animated cat film Flow.
In the Best Animated Film category, Flow competes with Memoir of a Snail, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, The Wild Robot (which also received three total nominations), and Inside Out 2, which had been a long shot for a Best Picture nod.
The documentary shortlist leaned heavily into serious topics, leaving no room for lighter fare like Will & Harper, Will Ferrell’s road trip documentary, or the retrospective on Christopher Reeve. Instead, contenders include No Other Land, an investigation into the destruction of the Masafer Yatta district in the West Bank; Porcelain War, a look at Ukrainian artists; Black Box Diaries, focusing on a pivotal sexual harassment case in Japan; Soundtrack to a Coup d’État, a jazz-fueled exploration of Patrice Lumumba’s assassination; and Sugarcane, which examines Canada’s Indian residential school system.
This year’s Oscar nominations were delayed twice to allow the Academy’s 10,000 voters—60% of whom are based in Los Angeles—additional time to watch films and cast their ballots, following disruptions caused by the California wildfires. It remains unclear what impact the subsequent controversy over the use of AI voice-cloning in The Brutalist and Emilia Pérez might have.
Both films utilized AI for voice-cloning technology, with The Brutalist tweaking the Hungarian accents of Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones, and Emilia Pérez enhancing Karla Sofía Gascón’s singing voice. Responding to criticism, The Brutalist director Brady Corbet defended the use of AI, stating, “Adrien and Felicity’s performances are completely their own.”
In a letter to Academy members, CEO Bill Kramer and President Janet Yang emphasized that this year’s ceremony would reflect on the wildfires while celebrating the resilience and creativity of Los Angeles. “We will honour Los Angeles as the city of dreams, showcasing its beauty and resilience, as well as its role as a beacon for filmmakers and creative visionaries for over a century,” they wrote.
In a notable shift, the Academy announced it would reduce live musical performances during the broadcast in favor of spotlighting songwriters, whose contributions have often been overlooked.
The Oscars will take place on 2 March, hosted by Conan O’Brien, with the BAFTAs preceding them on 16 February.
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