In brief
The Academy Awards are just around the corner, featuring a historic lineup of films, a mix of musical contenders, and record-breaking performances.
As the Academy Awards on March 2, 2025, draw near, this year promises a riveting race filled with record-breakers and unique trends. Among the nominees for Best Animated Feature is "Inside Out 2," which emerged as the highest-grossing film globally in 2024. The year's cinematic landscape was marked by notable events, from the face-off between "Deadpool" and "Wolverine" to a slew of scandals involving high-profile stars and looming wildfires in Los Angeles.One noteworthy fact is the unprecedented nomination of two musicals, "Wicked" and "Emilia Pérez," for Best Picture—the first such occurrence in over fifty years since "Funny Girl" and "Oliver!" in 1969. This shift towards musicals is driven partly by the expansion of the Best Picture category to include up to ten nominees.Adrien Brody, a previous Best Actor winner at just 29 for "The Pianist," returns with a nod for "The Brutalist," and a potential win would make him the first actor to win Best Actor on his first two nominations. However, Timothée Chalamet poses stiff competition with his celebrated role as Bob Dylan in "A Complete Unknown," and holds a chance to become the youngest Best Actor winner if victorious.In an interesting twist for streaming services, "Emilia Pérez," despite securing multiple nominations, may face an uphill battle for wins, mirroring the fates of other heavily-nominated films like "The Irishman" and "Mank."Meanwhile, actors Jeremy Strong and Kieran Culkin, both nominees for Best Supporting Actor, find themselves at a disadvantage as their films are absent from Best Picture nominations. Yet, history favors Culkin, being the only nominee in their category without that backing to win previously.This year's competition features notable firsts as well, with "The Substance" becoming the first body horror film in contention for Best Picture, alongside the impressive nominations of Isabella Rossellini for her brief role in "Conclave" and the potential of filmmaker Sean Baker achieving a historic feat by winning four Oscars for a single film in “Anora.”Overall, all five nominees for Best Actress hail from films nominated for Best Picture, suggesting a shift in recognition towards female-led narratives. Continued anticipation surrounds which nominees will leave the night with coveted statuettes amid a myriad of intriguing stories and surprises.
