For African cinema, the Oscars 2025 list of nominees presents good and bad news. The Good news is that Cindy Lee’s The Last Ranger has made it to the finals. The South African short film about poaching has been nominated in the Best Live Action Short category.
But whatever hope lovers of African cinema had that a feature film produced by the continent would turn up at the Oscars 2025 International Film category was extinguished when Mati Diop’s documentary Dahomey wasn’t named among the Best Documentary and Best International Feature Film nominees. The film had scaled the penultimate stage for both categories.
The announcement of the 2025 Academy Award nominees, as made by Bowen Yang and Rachel Sennott, means that the continent will have to keep hoping as the Academy has decided that Diop’s 2024 Golden Bear winner doesn’t deserve a spot on its list.
Consolation for Africa at the 2025 Oscars?
But there is some consolation as Cynthia Erivo, the British actor of Nigerian descent scored a Best Actress nomination for her role in Wicked, and Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, a film directed by Belgian filmmaker Johan Grimonprez, covers an important chapter in African politics through an examination of 1960s’ Democratic Republic of Congo.
Both of those nominations will hardly console those who hoped for a first International Film nomination since South Africa’s win for Tsotsi at the 2006 ceremony.
Going into the ceremony, which will be held on March 2, Jacques Audiard’s musical Emilia Perez takes the most nominations with 13. It now holds the record for the most nominations for a non-English film.
Next in line are two films with 10 nods each: John M. Chu’s Wicked and Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, for which Adrien Brody is again up for the Best Actor Oscar after winning it for The Pianist at the 2003 ceremony. A Complete Unknown and Conclave received 8 nominations each.
Here are the nominees for the 2025 Oscars as announced today.
Best Picture
ANORA
Alex Coco, Samantha Quan and Sean Baker, Producers
THE BRUTALIST
Nominees to be determined
A COMPLETE UNKNOWN
Fred Berger, James Mangold and Alex Heineman, Producers
CONCLAVE
Tessa Ross, Juliette Howell and Michael A. Jackman, Producers
DUNE: PART TWO
Mary Parent, Cale Boyter, Tanya Lapointe and Denis Villeneuve, Producers
EMILIA PÉREZ
Nominees to be determined
I’M STILL HERE
Nominees to be determined
NICKEL BOYS
Nominees to be determined
THE SUBSTANCE
Nominees to be determined
WICKED
Marc Platt, Producer
Actor in a Leading Role
Adrien Brody in THE BRUTALIST
Timothée Chalamet in A COMPLETE UNKNOWN
Colman Domingo in SING SING
Ralph Fiennes in CONCLAVE
Sebastian Stan in THE APPRENTICE
Actor in a Supporting Role
Yura Borisov in ANORA
Kieran Culkin in A REAL PAIN
Edward Norton in A COMPLETE UNKNOWN
Guy Pearce in THE BRUTALIST
Jeremy Strong in THE APPRENTICE
Actress in a Leading Role
Cynthia Erivo in WICKED
Karla Sofía Gascón in EMILIA PÉREZ
Mikey Madison in ANORA
Demi Moore in THE SUBSTANCE
Fernanda Torres in I’M STILL HERE
Actress in a Supporting Role
Monica Barbaro in A COMPLETE UNKNOWN
Ariana Grande in WICKED
Felicity Jones in THE BRUTALIST
Isabella Rossellini in CONCLAVE
Zoe Saldaña in EMILIA PÉREZ
Animated Feature Film
FLOW
Nominees to be determined
INSIDE OUT 2
Kelsey Mann and Mark Nielsen
MEMOIR OF A SNAIL
Adam Elliot and Liz Kearney
WALLACE & GROMIT: VENGEANCE MOST FOWL
Nominees to be determined
THE WILD ROBOT
Chris Sanders and Jeff Hermann
Animated Short Film
BEAUTIFUL MEN
Nicolas Keppens and Brecht Van Elslande
IN THE SHADOW OF THE CYPRESS
Shirin Sohani and Hossein Molayemi
MAGIC CANDIES
Daisuke Nishio and Takashi Washio
WANDER TO WONDER
Nina Gantz and Stienette Bosklopper
YUCK!
Loïc Espuche and Juliette Marquet
Cinematography
THE BRUTALIST
Lol Crawley
DUNE: PART TWO
Greig Fraser
EMILIA PÉREZ
Paul Guilhaume
MARIA
Ed Lachman
NOSFERATU
Jarin Blaschke
Costume Design
A COMPLETE UNKNOWN
Arianne Phillips
CONCLAVE
Lisy Christl
GLADIATOR II
Janty Yates and Dave Crossman
NOSFERATU
Linda Muir
WICKED
Paul Tazewell
Directing
ANORA
Sean Baker
THE BRUTALIST
Brady Corbet
A COMPLETE UNKNOWN
James Mangold
EMILIA PÉREZ
Jacques Audiard
THE SUBSTANCE
Coralie Fargeat
Documentary Feature Film
BLACK BOX DIARIES
Shiori Ito, Eric Nyari and Hanna Aqvilin
NO OTHER LAND
Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal and Yuval Abraham
PORCELAIN WAR
Brendan Bellomo, Slava Leontyev, Aniela Sidorska and Paula DuPre’ Pesmen
SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT
Johan Grimonprez, Daan Milius and Rémi Grellety
SUGARCANE
Nominees to be determined
Documentary Short Film
DEATH BY NUMBERS
Kim A. Snyder and Janique L. Robillard
I AM READY, WARDEN
Smriti Mundhra and Maya Gnyp
INCIDENT
Bill Morrison and Jamie Kalven
INSTRUMENTS OF A BEATING HEART
Ema Ryan Yamazaki and Eric Nyari
THE ONLY GIRL IN THE ORCHESTRA
Molly O’Brien and Lisa Remington
Film Editing
ANORA
Sean Baker
THE BRUTALIST
David Jancso
CONCLAVE
Nick Emerson
EMILIA PÉREZ
Juliette Welfling
WICKED
Myron Kerstein
International Feature Film
I’M STILL HERE
Brazil
THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE
Denmark
EMILIA PÉREZ
France
THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG
Germany
FLOW
Latvia
Makeup and Hairstyling
A DIFFERENT MAN
Mike Marino, David Presto and Crystal Jurado
EMILIA PÉREZ
Julia Floch Carbonel, Emmanuel Janvier and Jean-Christophe Spadaccini
NOSFERATU
David White, Traci Loader and Suzanne Stokes-Munton
THE SUBSTANCE
Pierre-Olivier Persin, Stéphanie Guillon and Marilyne Scarselli
WICKED
Frances Hannon, Laura Blount and Sarah Nuth
Music (Original Score)
THE BRUTALIST
Daniel Blumberg
CONCLAVE
Volker Bertelmann
EMILIA PÉREZ
Clément Ducol and Camille
WICKED
John Powell and Stephen Schwartz
THE WILD ROBOT
Kris Bowers
Music (Original Song)
“El Mal” from EMILIA PÉREZ
Music by Clément Ducol and Camille; Lyric by Clément Ducol, Camille and Jacques Audiard
“The Journey” from THE SIX TRIPLE EIGHT
Music and Lyric by Diane Warren
“Like A Bird” from SING SING
Music and Lyric by Abraham Alexander and Adrian Quesada
“Mi Camino” from EMILIA PÉREZ
Music and Lyric by Camille and Clément Ducol
“Never Too Late” from ELTON JOHN: NEVER TOO LATE
Music and Lyric by Elton John, Brandi Carlile, Andrew Watt and Bernie Taupin
Production Design
THE BRUTALIST
Production Design: Judy Becker; Set Decoration: Patricia Cuccia
CONCLAVE
Production Design: Suzie Davies; Set Decoration: Cynthia Sleiter
DUNE: PART TWO
Production Design: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Shane Vieau
NOSFERATU
Production Design: Craig Lathrop; Set Decoration: Beatrice Brentnerová
WICKED
Production Design: Nathan Crowley; Set Decoration: Lee Sandales
Live Action Short Film
A LIEN
Sam Cutler-Kreutz and David Cutler-Kreutz
ANUJA
Adam J. Graves and Suchitra Mattai
I’M NOT A ROBOT
Victoria Warmerdam and Trent
THE LAST RANGER
Cindy Lee and Darwin Shaw
THE MAN WHO COULD NOT REMAIN SILENT
Nebojša Slijepčević and Danijel Pek
Sound
A COMPLETE UNKNOWN
Tod A. Maitland, Donald Sylvester, Ted Caplan, Paul Massey and David Giammarco
DUNE: PART TWO
Gareth John, Richard King, Ron Bartlett and Doug Hemphill
EMILIA PÉREZ
Erwan Kerzanet, Aymeric Devoldère, Maxence Dussère, Cyril Holtz and Niels Barletta
WICKED
Simon Hayes, Nancy Nugent Title, Jack Dolman, Andy Nelson and John Marquis
THE WILD ROBOT
Randy Thom, Brian Chumney, Gary A. Rizzo and Leff Lefferts
Visual Effects
ALIEN: ROMULUS
Eric Barba, Nelson Sepulveda-Fauser, Daniel Macarin and Shane Mahan
BETTER MAN
Luke Millar, David Clayton, Keith Herft and Peter Stubbs
DUNE: PART TWO
Paul Lambert, Stephen James, Rhys Salcombe and Gerd Nefzer
KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
Erik Winquist, Stephen Unterfranz, Paul Story and Rodney Burke
WICKED
Pablo Helman, Jonathan Fawkner, David Shirk and Paul Corbould
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
A COMPLETE UNKNOWN
Screenplay by James Mangold and Jay Cocks
CONCLAVE
Screenplay by Peter Straughan
EMILIA PÉREZ
Screenplay by Jacques Audiard; In collaboration with Thomas Bidegain, Léa Mysius and Nicolas Livecchi
NICKEL BOYS
Screenplay by RaMell Ross & Joslyn Barnes
SING SING
Screenplay by Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar; Story by Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Clarence Maclin, John “Divine G” Whitfield
Writing (Original Screenplay)
ANORA
Written by Sean Baker
THE BRUTALIST
Written by Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold
A REAL PAIN
Written by Jesse Eisenberg
SEPTEMBER 5
Written by Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum; Co-Written by Alex David
THE SUBSTANCE
Written by Coralie Fargeat
