Oscars 2025 nominations: Live updates with Rachel Sennott and Bowen Yang at the Academy Awards
Key points
Ahead of the 97th Academy Awards taking place in Los Angeles on March 2nd, Bowen Yang and Rachel Sennott are set to unveil the list of Oscars nominations on January 23rd at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
The nominations ceremony is scheduled to get underway at 5:30am PT having previously been postponed on two prior occasions this month due to the tragic Los Angeles wildfires. The Academy have confirmed the Academy Awards will still be going ahead as planned at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood and will be hosted by Conan O’Brien.
While predicting the movies nominated for the Oscars has proved itself to be a near-impossible task over the years due to the endless surprises, it would be a major shock if Emilia Pérez, Conclave, Wicked, A Complete Unknown and The Brutalist didn’t pick up nods in the major categories. Meanwhile, Demi Moore’s performance in The Substance and Keiran Culkin’s showing in A Real Pain are also likely to receive nominations.
Isabella Rossellini reflects on first Oscars nomination
At 72, Isabella Rossellini is one of the most seasoned professionals operating at the top of Hollywood. However, up until today, she’d never received an Academy Award nomination, despite notching up classic roles over the years in movies such as Blue Velvet and Two Lovers.
After many decades in the business, Rossellini has now been acknowledged in the ‘Best Actress in a Supporting Role’ category thanks to Conclave. Reacting to the news, the actor shared, “When I was young I was always identified as the daughter of Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini. As l’ve gotten older, this doesn’t happen as frequently and I miss it especially today. I wish my parents were alive to celebrate with me this great honor.”
Timothée Chalamet becomes youngest two-time nominee since James Dean
Following his second nomination in the ‘Best Actor in a Leading Role’ category, Timothée Chalamet, 29, has become the youngest actor since the late James Dean to achieve this feat. In 2017, Chalamet was previously nominated in the same category for his performance in Call Me By Your Name and has now been shortlisted for playing Bob Dylan in James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown.
Dean was only 24 when he secured his second nomination in the same category for Giant in 1956 after previously receiving a nod in 1955 for East of Eden. In all honesty, it’s unlikely Dean’s record will ever be broken.
Ariana Grande “can’t stop crying” following nomination
After receiving recognition for her performance in Wicked, Ariana Grande, nominated for ‘Best Actress in a Supporting Role’, has shared her reaction to the joyous news.
Taking to Instagram, Grande shared her joy, commenting, “Picking my head up in between sobs to say thank you so much to The Academy for this unfathomable recognition. I cannot stop crying, to no one’s surpise. I’m humbled and deeply honored to be in such brilliant company and sharing this with tiny ari who sat and studied Judy Garland singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow just before the big, beautiful bubble entered. I’m so proud of you, tiny.”
Grande continued: “Thank you Jon M Chu for taking this chance on me and for being the most unbelievably brilliant leader, human being, and most fierce friend. I am so proud of my Elphie, my sister, my dear Cynthia Erivo. Your brilliance is never ending and you deserve every flower (tulip) in every garden. I love you unconditionally, always.”
[Link]Mikey Madison reacts to first Oscar nomination
After securing a nomination for ‘Best Actress in a Leading Role’ thanks to her performance in Anora, Mikey Madison has shared: I’m absolutely floating right now… I was in bed in my hotel, facetiming with my mom… She was crying and then she immediately humbled me by saying: ‘Oh congrats sweetie, I love you so much. Also you need to take your dog to obedience training.’”
Madison faces competition in the category from The Substance’s Demi Moore, Cynthia Erivo for Wicked, Karla Sofía Gascon for Emilia Pérez, and I’m Still Here star Fernanda Torres.
Karla Sofía Gascon becomes first openly trans actor to secure ‘Best Actress’ nomination
Emilia Pérez is on-course for a record-breaking night at the Oscars on March 2nd after securing 13 nominations. The Netflix movie, directed by Jacques Audiard, is nominated across almost all of the major categories, including ‘Best Picture’, but star Karla Sofía Gascon has already wrote herself in history by being nominated for ‘Best Actress in a Leading Role’.
With this nomination, Gascon has become the first openly transgender women to be shortlisted in this prestigious category. In a week when President Donald Trump has made an executive order discriminating against the transgender community, Gascon’s nomination is a ray of light amid the darkness.
‘Wicked’ and ‘The Brutalist’ land 10 nominations each
Going into the nominations, Wicked and The Brutalist were considered to be among the most-nominated movies for the Oscars. However, many other films have been in similar positions before, and been snubbed. Instead, they both landed ten nominations each with only Emila Pérez securing more with 13.
Wicked is notably nominated in the ‘Best Picture’ category. Meanwhile, Cynthia Erivo is up for ‘Best Actress in a Leading Role’ and Ariana Grande is shortlisted for ‘Best Actress in a Supporting Role’. However, the lingering question remains… will they perform on March 2nd?
After The Brutalist enjoyed a night to remember at the Golden Globes, it could win even more awards at the Oscars. Brady Corbet is nominated for ‘Directing’, Felicity Jones is in the ring for ‘Best Actress in a Supporting Role’, Guy Pearce is nominated for ‘Best Actor in a Supporting Role’, and Adrien Brody is looking to win ‘Best Actor in a Leading Role’. The Brutalist is also shortlisted for ‘Best Picture’.
Kneecap: “Fuck the Oscars. Free Palestine”
Irish hip-hop trio Kneecap were expected to receive a nomination for ‘Best International Feature’ despite being selected as the Irish representative. Their biopic, which blurs the lines between fiction and reality with humour, recently secured six nominations at the Baftas.
Kneecap have taken to social media to address the snub by the Academy, writing, “Fuck the Oscars. Free Palestine”.
Who were the major snubs?
Although the ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Directing’ categories didn’t cause much in the way of surprises, in fact, most of us movie fans could have predicted the majority of the nominees, but the same can’t be said across other categories.
Daniel Craig can count himself unlucky not to have picked up a nomination for his role in Luca Guadagnino’s Queer for ‘Best Actor in a Leading Role’. Additionally, Margaret Qualley was harshly overlooked in ‘Best Actress in a Supporting Role’ for The Substance despite Demi Moore’s nomination in ‘Best Actress in a Leading Role’ for the same movie.
The Last Showgirl’s Jamie Lee Curtis, Emilia Pérez’s Selena Gomez, Gladiator II’s Denzel Washington were also surprisingly not nominated in their respective categories.
‘Emilia Pérez’ makes Oscars history
By securing 13 nominations, Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez has created Oscar history by becoming the most nominated movie in the Academy Awards’ history for a non-English language film.
It has been nominated across all of the major categories, including ‘Best Picture’, and ‘Directing’. Additionally, Karla Sofía Gascon has been nominated for ‘Best Actress in a Leading Role’, and Zoe Saldaña could secure Oscars glory for ‘Best Actress in a Supporting Role’.
[Link]‘Best Picture’ nominees
The most prestigious award of the Academy Awards, and in the wider film industry, is ‘Best Picture’. It’s a prize that every director dreams about winning, and every actor wants to have on their CV. The last 12 months have been phenomenal for cinema, and now, it’s between ten films for the top prize.
The Brutalist, Conclave, A Complete Unknown, Anora, and Emilia Pérez are all unsurprisingly nominated. The Substance, Wicked and Dune: Part Two have also been included in the shortlist. The only somewhat unexpected entrants into the race are Nickel Boys and I’m Still Here, which will be long shots to win ‘Best Picture’, but stranger things have happened in Oscars history.
[Link]‘Directing’ nominees revealed
Last year, Christopher Nolan won the ‘Directing’ category for Oppenheimer, and now, a series of directors are competing to be the 2025 victor of the same award, including A Complete Unknown director James Mangold. He won Academy Awards for his last biopic, Walk the Line, and is now in contention to do the same again with his Bob Dylan movie.
The other nominees are Jacques Audiard for Emilia Pérez, Anora’s Sean Baker, Coralie Fargeat for The Substance, and the Golden Globe-winning director Brady Corbet for The Brutalist.
‘Actress in a Leading Role’
In this hotly-contested category, which Emma Stone won for the second time in 2024, Demi Moore has rightly been acknowledged for her head-turning showing in The Substance. Moore won the same award recently at the Golden Globes and will be a favourite with bookmakers.
However, if Moore is to win her first Academy Award, she will need to beat Cynthia Erivo for Wicked, Karla Sofía Gascon for Emilia Pérez, Anora’s Mikey Madison, and I’m Still Here star Fernanda Torres.
‘Actor in a Leading Role’
Adrien Brody, who was recently been celebrated at the Golden Globes, has received a. nomination for ‘Actor in a Leading Role’ for The Brutalist. He will compete against outsider Sebastian Stan for The Apprentice, and Sing Sing’s Colman Domingo.
However, Brody’s fiercest competition comes from Timothée Chalamet for A Complete Unknown and Ralph Fiennes for Conclave. Chalamet could become the youngest actor to win this award in movie history, despite also being nominated in 2017 for Call Me By Your Name when he was even younger.
‘The Brutalist’ nominated for ‘Film Editing’
Despite the controversy surrounding the use of artificial intelligence to enhance the Hungarian accents by Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones in Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, the movie has been celebrated by the Academy for it’s editing work.
The other nominees are Anora, Conclave, Wicked and Emilia Pérez.
[Link]‘Original Song’ nominees
While the nominees for ‘Original Song’ are no longer obliged to perform at the Oscars, the Academy has promised to deliver musical moments. More importantly, there’s an Oscar up for grabs, and now, it’s been revealed who’ll be fighting for it.
Emilia Pérez dominates the list with two of the five nominations coming from the movie while The Six Triple Eight, Sing Sing, and Elton John: Never Too Late also secure nods.
‘Actress in a Supporting Role’
The nominations are coming in thick and fast, with ‘Actress in a Supporting Role’ being the latest category announced by Yang and Sennott.
The nominees are A Complete Unknown’s Monica Barbero, Wicked’s Ariana Grande, The Brutalist’s Felicity Jones, Conclave’s Isabella Rossellini and Zoe Saldaña from Emilia Pérez.
Selena Gomez was one of the names expected to receive a nomination for Emilia Pérez, but instead, her castmate, Saldaña was chosen instead. They were both nominated in this category at the Baftas.
Jamie Lee Curtis has also missed out on a nomination for The Last Showgirl.
‘Best Original Score’
Another major category to be revealed early doors during the ceremony is ‘Best Original Score’. The soundtracks to The Brutalist, Conclave, Wicked, The Wild Robot, and Emilia Pérez will be fighting it out for the Academy Award in this prestigious category.
Surprisingly, Trent Reznor didn’t receive a nomination for his score for Challengers.
[Link]‘Actor in a Supporting Role’
The first nominations have been revealed by Yang and Sennott. Anora’s Yuri Borisov will be competing against A Real Pain’s Keiran Culkin, The Brutalist’s Guy Pearce, A Complete Unknown’s Edward Norton and The Apprentice’s Jeremy Strong for ‘Actor in a Supporting Role’.
Notably, Denzel Washington has been snubbed for his role in Gladiator II, which was widely expected to be among the nominees.
[Link]
The ceremony is underway
Janet Yang and Bill Kramer from the Academy are getting the ceremony underway in Beverly Hills. They have begun the occasion by paying tribute to the victims of the recent Los Angeles wildfires, and honoured the firefighters who saved countless lives as devastation struck.
The pair also welcomed Bowen Yang and Rachel Sennott to host the ceremony, who have pulled an all-nighter in preparation for the event.
[Link]Five minute warning
After two delays, it’s now only five minutes to go until we start to discover the nominations for the Academy Awards. With that in mind, quickly boil the kettle and grab a warm beverage before coming back to find out the nominees for the most important night of the cinematic calendar.
Where to watch the Oscars nominations
The nominations for the Oscars are being held in Beverly Hills at the Samiel Goldwyn Theatre, but if you’re not fortunate enough to be in the building, stay calm as it’s being live-streamed by ABC News on YouTube.
However, if you’d prefer to read the nominations as they come in live, then you’re in the right place and Far Out is on hand to provide commentary throughout the occasion.
Changes to the Oscars ceremony
On January 22nd, the Academy revealed a surprising change to the Oscars ceremony in 2025. Last year, a major talking point was Ryan Gosling performing ‘I’m Just Ken’ from Barbie, however, no nominees for ‘Best Original Song’ will be taking to the stage this year.
Explaining the decision, the Academy said in a statement: “This year the ‘Best Original Song’ category presentation will move away from live performances and will be focused on the songwriters. We will celebrate their artistry through personal reflections from the teams who bring these songs to life.”
Although the explanation makes sense, performances by ‘Best Original Song’ nominees have provided countless moments to remember over the years and will be sorely missed.
However, as Wicked didn’t include original songs, nor did A Complete Unknown, Ariana Grande and Timothée Chalamet could both feasibly perform at the Oscars.
With 20 minutes to go before the nominations start, revisit Gosling’s performance from 2024.
‘The Brutalist’ AI controversy
Brady Corbet’s movie, The Brutalist, is expected to be a major contender across the board, having recently won several awards at the Golden Globes. However, it has been under fire this week after editor Dávid Jancsó said that he fed his own voice into Respeecher, a Ukrainian editing software, to finesse the pronunciation of Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones’ characters.
“Adrien and Felicity’s performances are completely their own,” the director said in response, explaining that the actors worked with a dialect coach for months to master their accents and that the Respeecher technology “was used in Hungarian language dialogue editing only, specifically to refine certain vowels and letters for accuracy.”
The goal, he concluded, “was to preserve the authenticity of Adrien and Felicity’s performances in another language, not to replace or alter them and done with the utmost respect for the craft.”
Whether the use of AI has any impact on The Brutalist’s faring in the Oscars nominations remains to be seen, but it likely hasn’t helped the film’s cause.
Who are the nomination hosts Bowen Yang and Rachel Sennott?
Fans of Saturday Night Live will be familiar with Bowen Yang, who has been a member of the cast for the beloved sketch show since 2018. He has also expanded his work outside of the programme, appearing in many movies, including Wicked, which is expected to be among the nominees at the Oscars.
Similarly to Yang, Rachel Sennott has a link to Saturday Night Live, having recently appeared in the biopic Saturday Night, charting the beginnings of the iconic programme. Her other notable roles include The Idol, and I Used to be Funny.
Oscars nominations to go ahead despite wildfires delay
The votes have been counted, and after a long wait, the Academy Awards will finally unveil the nominations today. Contenders for the major categories are expected to include A Complete Unknown, Emilia Pérez, Conclave, and The Brutalist.
As Far Out’s News Editor, I’ll be with you to provide live updates throughout the nominations ceremony, covering the winners and losers as Hollywood looks ahead to March 2nd.
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