Oscar Nominations 2025: Post 7 of 10

1. Sinners, One Battle after Another, Sentimental Value

2. Marty Supreme, Frankenstein, Hamnet
3. Bugonia, The Secret Agent, Train Dreams

4. F1, Blue Moon, It Was Just an Accident

5. Sirāt, Avatar: Fire and Ash, K-Pop Demon Hunters

6. If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, Song Sung Blue, Weapons, The Voice of Hind Rajab

This year's remaining Animated Feature nominees are:

Arco

1 nomination

• Animated Feature

Director: Ugo Bienvenu

Cast: Margot Ringard, Oldra Oscar Tresanini, Nathanaël Perrot, Alma Jodorowsky, Swann Arlaud, Vincent Macaigne, Louis Garrel, William Lebghil, Sophie Mas, Frédérique Cantrel, Oxmo Puccino

This is wonderful. There's nothing like it this year, and it's imaginative and narratively innovative in a way that I wasn't expecting at all. This is—finally—a movie about kids that is not about the anxieties of parenting. Instead it's about friendship and the need to explore, and the desire to be allowed to make decisions for oneself as a young person. The film exists in two very different futures from our own, but they don't feel very far away at all, and this makes Arco also feel richly related to our own time despite being set in the distant future. What's more, Arco also continues a really powerful conversation about artificial intelligence, the humanity of robots, labor, and education. This just has a great deal going for it. Everyone else thinks so too because this film has won the "Best Animated Feature" award from nearly every critic group. I don't think it will win the Oscar, but it's a worthy contender for it, and it might surprise on Oscar night after all. Unfortunately, I had to see this in the theatre with the American cast—I know why they do this: it's really hard for kids to read subtitles, and this is definitely a movie for kids—but I really wanted to see it in the theatre. If you're watching at home, I recommend listening to the French cast.

Will win: N/A

Could win: Animated Feature

My rating: #16 out of 95

Elio

1 nomination

• Animated Feature

Directors: Adrian Molina, Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi

Cast: Yonas Kibreab, Remy Edgerly, Zoe Saldaña, Brad Garrett, Brandon Moon, Jameela Jamil, Young Dylan, Jake T. Getman, Matthias Schweighöfer, Ana de la Reguera, Atsuko Okatsuka, Shirley Henderson, Naomi Watanabe, Brendan Hunt, Anissa Borrego, Shelby Young, Bob Peterson, Kate Mulgrew, Tamara Tunie

I shared some of my thoughts on this movie here already. Elio is an absolute delight, and it's very funny. The two kids at the center of this movie, little Elio and little Glordon (a very sweet alien who just doesn't want to grow up and be mean and uncaring and violent), are truly adorable and I loved them both. I don't think a lot of people went to see this movie for some reason, but everyone is missing out. This is very fun and I laughed out loud numerous times. The animated features this year are pretty good, with only one that's middle of the road. I think this category is finally getting to a respectable place.

Will win: N/A

Could win: Animated Feature

My rating: #23 out of 95

Zootopia 2

1 nomination

• Animated Feature

Directors: Jared Bush, Byron Howard

Cast: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Ke Huy Quan, Fortune Feimster, Andy Samberg, David Strathairn, Idris Elba, Shakira, Patrick Warburton, Quinta Brunson, Danny Trejo, Nate Torrence, Bonnie Hunt, Don Lake, Michelle Gomez, David Fane, Joe Anoa'i, Phil Brooks, Stephanie Beatriz, Wilmer Valderrama, Jean Reno, Alan Tudyk, Macaulay Culkin, Brenda Song, John Leguizamo

This was unobjectionable and unremarkable. It even got a few laughs out of me! As it turns out, the people of Zootopia need to learn all of the same lessons in film 2 that they really ought to have learned in film 1. As with the first film, this Zootopia has a solid mystery to it, and it moves quickly with lots of fun action. It's way more sentimental than it needs to be. But I guess the makers of Zootopia believe that sentimentality is how one fights racism. In any case, this is mostly fine.

Will win: N/A

Could win: N/A

My rating: #67 out of 95

Amélie et la Métaphysique des Tubes

(Little Amélie or the Character of Rain)

1 nomination

• Animated Feature

Directors: Han Liane-cho, Maïlys Vallade

Cast: Loïse Charpentier, Victoria Grobois, Yumi Fujimori, Cathy Cerda, Marc Arnaud, Laëtitia Coryn, Haylee Issembourg, Isaac Schoumsky

I read somewhere that critics have understood this movie to be about nostalgia, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. What Amélie et la Métaphysique des Tubes tries to do is give us the narcissism and wonder of a child. It’s a beautiful film drawn in gorgeous 2D animation in pastel hues with the character almost of pastels themselves. In no way is this about adults or looking back. Instead what we get is the perspective of the child herself. What I appreciated so much about Amélie is that it’s about the narcissism and entitlement with which we are born—and the realization that we must inevitably come to: that the world doesn’t exist for us alone. This realization, of course, comes with a feeling of loss, and by the end of the film what we have come to is a way to process that loss. It’s quite a beautiful little piece.. 

Will win: N/A

Could win: N/A

My rating: #35 out of 95

All 2025 Oscar posts:

1. Sinners, One Battle after Another, Sentimental Value

2. Marty Supreme, Frankenstein, Hamnet
3. Bugonia, The Secret Agent, Train Dreams

4. F1, Blue Moon, It Was Just an Accident

5. Sirāt, Avatar: Fire and Ash, K-Pop Demon Hunters

6. If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, Song Sung Blue, Weapons, The Voice of Hind Rajab

7. Arco, Elio, Zootopia 2, Little Amélie or the Character of Rain

8. Animated Short Films

9. Live-action Short Films

10. Jurassic World: Rebirth, The Lost Bus, Kokuho, The Smashing Machine

11. The Ugly Stepsister, Diane Warren: Relentless, Viva Verdi!

Oscar Nominations 2021: 4 of 9

1. The Power of the Dog, Dune, Belfast, and West Side Story

2. King Richard, Drive My Car, Don't Look Up, and Nightmare Alley

3. CODA, Licorice Pizza, Being the Ricardos, and The Lost Daughter

 

The Tragedy of Macbeth

3 Nominations

• Actor: Denzel Washington (Roman J. Israel, Esq., Fences, Flight, Training Day, The Hurricane, Malcolm X, Glory, Cry Freedom)
• Cinematography: Bruno Delbonnel (Darkest Hour, Inside Llewyn Davis, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, A Very Long Engagement, Amélie)
• Production Design: Nancy Haigh (Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, Hail, Caesar!, True Grit, Dreamgirls, Road to Perdition, Forrest Gump, Bugsy, Barton Fink) & Stefan Dechant

Director: Joel Coen

Cast: Washington, Frances McDormand, Kathryn Hunter, Alex Hassell, Bertie Carvel, Corey Hawkins, Brendan Gleeson, Harry Melling, Moses Ingram, Miles Anderson, Matt Helm

I'm really glad this was recognized for its outstanding production design and gorgeous cinematography. This is Bruno Delbonnel's 6th nomination, and he won't win for this, so he is coming due. Hopefully he wins something soon! I recommend The Tragedy of Macbeth; I really liked it, and although it has a few problems, it's the best Shakespeare adaptation I've seen in a long time. Denzel Washington is so good that I think the production design and cinematography had to be that good just to compete with him for screentime. I don't think this movie will win anything, though.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #14 out of 57

Encanto

3 Nominations

• Score: Germaine Franco
• Animated Feature
• Song: Lin-Manuel Miranda (Moana)

Director: Jared Bush, Byron Howard

Cast: Stephanie Beatriz, Maria Cecilia Botero, John Leguizamo, Wilmer Valderrama, Jessica Darrow, Angie Cepeda, Diane Guerrero, Mauro Castillo, Carolina Gaitán, Maluma, Rhenzy Feliz

This is a beautiful movie with really fun songs and some lovely animation. I thought it was really funny and it also works a lot like a stage musical instead of a movie musical, and I think I liked that... at least for an animated movie like this. Now, everyone knows that the real hit of Encanto in terms of the songs is "We Don't Talk about Bruno", but the song "Dos Oruguitas", the eleven o'clock number that had me in tears, is the song that is nominated. I can see this, but of course this means that the Academy missed the boat on the song from the movie that actually matters a great deal to people at this moment. This was a mistake. Shout out, too, to Germaine Franco. This is her first nomination for original score, and the music branch doesn't frequently let composers into this club and still frequently women composers. So good for her! It isn't my favorite animated film of the year, but I don't think Encanto can lose Animated Feature. It's the one of the five with the most nominations, and it's been racking up wins in other places.

Will Win: Animated Feature

Could Win: Song
My Rating: #17 out of 57

No Time to Die

3 Nominations

• Sound
• Visual Effects
• Song: Billie Eilish & Finneas O'Connell

Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga

Cast: Daniel Craig, Lashana Lynch, Léa Seydoux, Christoph Waltz, Rami Malek, Ana de Armas, Ralph Fiennes, Jeffrey Wright, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw, Billy Magnussen, Rory Kinnear

Sure, sure, sure. You have to nominated the Bond movie for these things, and the movie is loud and its visual effects are cool, and the song is... a Bond song. So, ok. Bond 25 was not that great, though, and I think everybody knows it. I mean, it has Rami Malek as a villain, and he spends the whole movie trying to get the audience's sympathy instead of being a terrible villain who wants to destroy the world. This movie is looooong and it has way too many feelings that I didn't understand.
Will Win: N/A

Could Win: Song

My Rating: #50 out of 57

Flee (Flugt)

3 Nominations

• Documentary Feature
• International Feature: Denmark (Another Round, Under Sandet, A War, The Hunt, A Royal Affair, In a Better World, After the Wedding, Waltzing Regitze, Pelle the Conqueror, Babette's Feast, Harry and the Butler, Paw, Qivitoq: the Mountain Wanderer)
• Animated Feature

Director: Jonas Poher Rasmussen

Cast: Amin Nawabi, Daniel Karimyar, Fardin Mijdzadeh, Milad Eskandari, Belal Faiz, Elaha Faiz, Zahra Mehrwarz, Sadia Faiz 

This is one of the best movies of the year. I absolutely loved it, and I'd recommend it to anyone. It's an animated documentary film about a man talking about fleeing Afghanistan and trying to live as a refugee in Europe – first in Russia and then in Denmark. This movie documents illegal border crossings and their difficulties and terrors, but it also gets to something else. This is the story of a man who is now safe, who is now living as a refugee in Denmark and doesn't have too much to worry about, but he can't help but feel, always, like he needs to flee. It is ingrained in him to run away, to mistrust others. And Flee tries to tell the story of how this man must try, then, to develop the loving relationships we all need to flourish in this world. It's a great movie.

Will Win: Documentary Feature

Could Win: International Feature
My Rating: #3 out of 57

5. Tick, Tick... Boom!, Parallel Mothers, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and The Worst Person in the World
6. Cruella, Spencer, The Hand of God, and Lunana: a Yak in the Classroom
7. Cyrano, The Mitchells vs the Machines, Luca, and Raya and the Last Dragon
8. Spider-man: No Way Home, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Free Guy

9. House of Gucci, Coming 2 America, and Four Good Days

Do I Like Lin-Manuel Miranda Now?

I don't know how to say this, and I still think he is annoying as a human being, but Lin-Manuel Miranda is having a very good year at the movies. Encanto and Tick, Tick... Boom! are both excellent. I loved them both. Encanto is fun and hilarious and colorful. I laughed a lot, and it has some absolutely great fucking songs. "We Don't Talk about Bruno" is a total jam, and when Sebastián Yatra started singing "Dos Oruguitas", Encanto's eleven-o'clock number, I was stunned to realize it was in Spanish and that there was simply going to be no translation. Someone convinced Jared Bush and Byron Howard to have this key song only in Spanish. It's beautiful, and I burst into tears as soon as I realized what was happening. It's a great moment honestly. What a cute movie.

Tick, Tick... Boom! is another beast altogether. This is a film adaptation of the musical Jonathan Larson wrote before he wrote Rent. One of the things I loved about this is that it wasn't a film about him writing Rent. If it had been, I think that there would simply have been nothing to root for. We know that Rent is going to be one of the biggest musicals of the 1990s and is going to be a huge success, so there would be no stakes. But Tick, Tick... Boom!'s subject matter is different.

Instead, this is a movie about being a troubled artist who can't figure his shit out. He's selfish and stubborn and doesn't really know how to live his life, even though he is obviously very, very talented. The movie turns its attention to this aspect of Larson, and it makes the whole thing so much more interesting. I also really liked the songs, I really liked the filmmaking, Andrew Garfield is really excellent, and the entire approach to this musical just worked for me.

I want to say that I found Tick, Tick... Boom! very theatrical. But I thought Miranda dealt with the theatricality in really interesting ways. He reminds us all the time that this is a show – we watch the show being performed onstage at the same time as we watch the movie version of that same show. This seemed to me a really intelligent approach. And he knows when to remove this device, also. There's a wonderful moment in the third act when Larson is thinking about his sick friend and he goes to the park and sings a song by himself, and Miranda never cuts back to the theatre. We stay in this moment with Larson, and the film doesn't undercut its emotional thrust with the kind of editing tricks that were so pervasive in the the film of Miranda's In the Heights.

 Also the cameos! I was particularly obsessed with the appearance of Chita Rivera looking fabulous!