Emilia Pérez Has Too Many Noms, Snubs, & More

The 2025 Oscars nominations were announced earlier this morning. Emilia Pérez led the pack with 13 nominations in total, while The Brutalist and Wicked both earned 10 each.

Behind them were A Complete Unknown and Conclave with eight nominations, while Anora, Dune: Part Two, I’m Still Here, Nickel Boys, and The Substance all received Best Picture nominations in addition to the four aforementioned movies.

Naturally, people are talking. There are some snubs and some unexpected victories, as there are every year. Let’s break down some of the biggest takeaways from the 2025 Oscars nominations.

Did Emilia Pérez really need 13 nominations?

Emilia Pérez scored 13 nominations for the 2025 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, and more. The record for the most nominations received by a single film is 14 (1950’s All About Eve, 1997’s Titanic, and 2016’s La La Land), meaning it’s now tied for second place alongside movies such as The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Forrest Gump, and more. And I have just one question: Why?

Look, I don’t want to take anything away from Karla Sofia Gascón, here. She’s easily the best part of the film. I think it’s awesome that she makes Oscars history as the first openly trans actress to ever be nominated. She earned a spot on that list.

But wouldn’t that victory feel a little more sweet if the movie was, I don’t know, better? Because I can’t say I was wowed by any of the songs in the film. Or the writing. Or much of anything beyond Gascón’s performance, really. There has also been a lot of discourse and discussion from both the LGBTQ community and Mexican audiences about how it mishandles its representation and the themes it’s addressing — I urge you to seek out and listen to the critics who are part of these spaces and can talk about the matter more thoroughly. The point being, in a year with so, so much to offer when it comes to cinema, is Emilia Pérez really the movie we want to praise the most? My vote would be no.

The Substance (thankfully) wasn’t overlooked

But the news isn’t all bad! While the Academy has often turned a blind eye to the horror genre (I’m still not over Toni Collete not being nominated for Hereditary and Lupita Nyong’o being snubbed for Us), The Substance managed to pull in some major nominations.

I’m most happy for Demi Moore getting an Actress in a Leading Role nom; it’s tough competition this year with Cynthia Erivo and Mikey Madison also being part of the category, but I’m personally rooting for Demi.

The fact that it got both a Best Picture nom and that Coralie Fargeat got in there for Best Directing is really cool, too. Even if it doesn’t win anything, the nominations will likely get a bunch of people who probably never would have given it the time of day to check it out, and that’s always a good thing.

Did the Academy forget that Challengers exists?

I’m not saying that Challengers needed to be in the Best Picture conversation. Would I have nominated it if I was in charge? Yeah, probably. But, like, those of us who follow awards season closely know how these things work, I can accept that it didn’t quite make it in there.

Having said that, it getting absolutely nothing seems pretty wild. I mean, I would have nominated Justin Kuritzkes for Best Original Screenplay and Sayombhu Mukdeeprom for Best Cinematography. But I think the one that really shocked us all is nothing in the Best Original Score category for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Given just how good the music is in the movie, that seems absurd.

Top it off with the fact that director Luca Guadagnino’s other 2024 movie, Queer, didn’t get any recognition either despite being lauded in a number of other awards circles, and it just strikes me as kind of strange.

Jeremy Strong and Sebastian Stan won’t be ignored

Back on the positive side of things, Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong both got acting nominations for The Apprentice, the biographical film about Donald Trump. Given that Stan previously said he couldn’t do Variety’s Actors on Actors because other stars’ publicists didn’t want their clients talking about Trump due to the current political climate, I’d consider this a win.

A win because that means, despite Trump’s attempts to block this movie from existing and all the struggles it had when finding a distributor, it’s now part of Oscars and cinema history from now until the end of time. That’s great! It’s not an easy movie to watch, but what it’s saying certainly is important and relevant now.

Other 2025 Oscars snubs and victories

Of course, there’s loads more to talk about beyond that. I was hoping Adam Pearson would get a Best Supporting Actor nom for A Different Man. Marianne Jean-Baptiste getting in the Best Actress race for Hard Truths would have also been cool. A Complete Unknown wasn’t a bad movie, necessarily, but I would argue Denis Villeneuve should have probably been part of the Best Director race for Dune: Part Two over James Mangold for A Complete Unknown.

Still, it’s cool that Colman Domingo got a nom for Sing Sing, I’m happy for both Erivo and Ariana Grande, and Kieran Culkin seemingly being the Actor in a Supporting Role frontrunner for his performance in A Real Pain makes me happy. He’s just so, so good in that movie. I haven’t had the chance to see I’m Still Here as it hasn’t been playing theatrically around where I live yet, but that was a cool surprise, and I’m excited to check it out.

The 2025 Academy Awards ceremony will be held on March 2, 2025.

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