Oscars 2025: The 10 movies that could be competing for ‘Best Picture’
You might have only just unbuttoned your pressed white shirt and cleaned the sick off your shoes after having celebrated the 2024 Academy Awards, where Christopher Nolan’s explosive cinematic epic Oppenheimer walked away with the lion’s share of statuettes, including ‘Best Picture’. But the showbiz machine never stops churning, and studio executives will already be thinking about how they can get their hands on an Oscar the next time the ceremony rolls around in 2025.
Conversations will, indeed, already take place where producers try to figure out how to best position their next Oscar bait project, looking at how much they should lean into their WWII context or how much pandering they should dedicate to the illustrious history of Hollywood. But, maybe this is all too cynical, with several iconic auteurs making their return in 2025, whose artistic vision will not be altered in any way, shape or form.
So, casting an eye on the future of cinema, let’s attempt to predict what could be in the running for ‘Best Picture’ in 2025, with such filmmakers as Barry Levinson, Robert Eggers and Ridley Scott due to release long-awaited projects in the coming months.
There might be some crossover with some of the most highly-anticipated movies of 2025, but as we know, the Oscars often don’t go for the popular choice, so explore a mix of arthouse films, indie flicks and blockbuster events below.
Potential 2025 ‘Best Picture’ nominees:
Alto Knights (Barry Levinson)
If there’s one thing that the Oscars traditionally love to do, it’s look back to the past, and the forthcoming collaboration between former award winners Barry Levinson and Robert De Niro could be too much to ignore. With a screenplay by Nicholas Pileggi, the Oscar-nominated writer of Goodfellas, Alto Knights tells the story of two leaders of separate Italian American criminal gangs in the mid-20th century.
If this didn’t already stink of Oscar success, De Niro is due to play both of these lead characters, Vito Genovese and Frank Costello. If this doesn’t even get a nomination, the world of cinema would be stunned.
Bird (Andrea Arnold)
Speaking of previous Oscar winners, the British filmmaker Andrea Arnold won a coveted statuette for her short film Wasp in 2005 but hasn’t seen much success at the ceremony ever since. Still, Arnold remains one of British cinema’s most distinct voices, and while little is known of her latest project, Bird, aside from that it was shot in Kent, UK, the talent involved suggests that it could be destined for Oscar success.
Starring Franz Rogowski, Jasmine Jobson and Barry Keoghan, who many thought would claim at least a nomination for his performance in 2023’s Saltburn, Bird has the scintillating feel of something that could receive a fair bit of critical acclaim.
Blitz (Steve McQueen)
After a hiatus from feature filmmaking, creating the seminal TV series Small Axe and the extensive WWII documentary Occupied City in the meantime, British director Steve McQueen is back with Blitz. A wartime drama written and directed by McQueen, the film tells the story of several different groups of Londoners fighting to survive in the British capital during the brutal German bombing raids that occurred during the Second World War.
The Oscars adore WWII stories, and they also love Steve McQueen, who took home ‘Best Picture’ in 2014 for 12 Years a Slave, so, with this and a cast of Saoirse Ronan, Harris Dickinson, and Stephen Graham tossed in, this could be prime awards material.
The End (Joshua Oppenheimer)
The most exciting movie of 2024 that no one is talking about is Joshua Oppenheimer’s first movie in a decade and only his third feature film after the incredible documentaries The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence. Entirely different from these powerful yet bleak films, The End is a fantasy musical about the last family on earth, starring Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon and George MacKay.
Yes, you did read that correctly; Oppenheimer’s forthcoming film indeed seems as marvellously bizarre as it sounds. Speaking to W Magazine about her role in the film’s plot, Swinton stated: “I’m the mother in basically the richest family on the planet. The father has been at the forefront of engineering the destruction of the biosphere, and they’ve lived for the last 20-something years in a bunker underneath Middle America, which is like Versailles”.
Gladiator II (Ridley Scott)
Some people were surprised not to see the industry stalwart Ridley Scott not receive a major Oscar nomination for his work in the historical epic Napoleon, a film that seemed destined for awards success. But maybe this is because they are gearing up to give his next movie, Gladiator II, the plaudits instead, with the forthcoming film being a sequel to his own 2001 ‘Best Picture’ winner.
With an all-star cast of beloved industry talent, including Pedro Pascal, Paul Mescal and Joseph Quinn, the film is due to follow the son of the original film’s protagonist, with Ridley Scott surely already licking his lips at the thought of Oscar success.
Hard Times (Mike Leigh)
The Academy Awards love a good story and giving the iconic British filmmaker Mike Leigh ‘Best Picture’ after having completed his very last movie would be quite the romantic tale indeed. Leigh has previously received Oscar nominations on several occasions but has never walked away with an award of his own, even if he did secure the Palme d’Or at Cannes back in 1996 for Secrets & Lies.
Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who was previously nominated for ‘Best Actress’ at the Oscars for Secrets & Lies, returns to work with Leigh, appearing in the undoubtedly pertinent piece of social realism following human tragedy in contemporary Britain.
Megalopolis (Francis Ford Coppola)
We’ve already talked about some high-profile returns to cinema, but Francis Ford Coppola may be the pick of the bunch, making a grand homecoming to Hollywood with his long-time passion project Megalopolis. Writing and funding the $100million movie himself, Coppola’s film could be a magnificent hit or a colossal failure, telling the story of an architect who wants to rebuild New York City after a vast disaster.
Having won six Oscars in the past, Coppola is very much a darling of the Academy, so they would surely be more than happy to heap him more plaudits, especially when they see the likes of Forest Whitaker, Adam Driver and Dustin Hoffman in the lead cast.
The Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross)
As well as haunting WWII tales, grand rock biopics and the return of iconic filmmakers, the Academy also loves a quality adaptation of an influential book. Step up director RaMell Ross and the 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel’ The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, a tale following the experiences of two boys who studied at the 1960s reform institution Dozier School for Boys, which was known for abusing many of its pupils.
A stellar cast, including Craig Tate, Hamish Linklater, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and Fred Hechinger, lead the cast in front of the camera while the former Oscar-nominee and first-time feature filmmaker RaMell Ross has his fingers crossed for awards success as the writer and director.
Nosferatu (Robert Eggers)
American filmmaker Robert Eggers is one of those beloved A24 directors who has attracted a mass following of dogged fans online but who is yet to be properly recognised by the Academy. But his remake of F. W. Murnau’s iconic 1922 silent classic Nosferatu may be too potent to ignore, being a film so utterly steeped in the history of the moving image, telling the gothic tale of a young woman and the vampire who is infatuated by her.
With the perfect mix of award icons like Willem Dafoe and Nicholas Hoult, as well as up-and-coming talents like Emma Corrin and Lily-Rose Depp, Nosferatu has some serious cinematic pedigree.
Woman of the Hour (Anna Kendrick)
We finish the list with an indie hit because what Academy Awards isn’t complete without such a film? Helmed by the beloved industry talent Anna Kendrick, Woman of the Hour is written by Ian MacAllister McDonald and tells the story of the American serial killer Rodney Alcala, who bizarrely took part in and won the TV game show The Dating Game as a short hiatus to his murderous spree.
Having already gained a great amount of buzz, the film features Kendrick in the lead role beside the likes of Tony Hale, Daniel Zovatto and Kelley Jakle and could just be a dark horse for awards season.
