Oscar 2025 is no longer predictable

After the three international film festivals of Venice, Telluride and Toronto ended, many potential candidates for the 2025 Oscars gradually emerged.

Adrien Brody in The Brutalist (left) and Ralph Fiennes in Conclave are considered by The New York Times as the two leading candidates for Best Actor - Photo: Vanity Fair

However, unlike the last two years, there is currently no name strong enough to dominate the racetrack. Oscar 2025 like Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) or Barbieheimer Fever (Barbie and Oppenheimer) last year.

This leads to an unpredictable pre-Oscar period.

Many film websites such as Variety, IndieWire... and critics from The New York Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post... compete to predict which works will be named at next year's awards season.

The Best Actor Oscar nomination is sure to go to Adrien Brody - who still holds the record for youngest Oscar winner for The Pianist.

New York Times critic Kyle Buchanan

Many candidates appear

Critic Kyle Buchanan of The New Yorks Times immediately pointed out the two most prominent names: Conclave - a film about a group of cardinals conspiring to choose a new pope, and The Brutalist - following a architect Jews immigrated to America after World War II.

Directed by Edward Berger, who won four Oscars for All Quiet on the Western Front, Conclave is expected to win the hearts of audiences as well as many Oscar votes thanks to its engaging story, reflecting painful issues in society.

The Brutalist scores points for its massive story, unique storytelling style, and great acting from a cast including Adrien Brody, Guy Pearce, and Felicity Jones.

Variety, on the other hand, rated the two most prominent candidates as two films from the Cannes Film Festival: Anora and Emilia Pérez. Anora - winner of the Palme d'Or - is an 18+ film about a romantic but stormy love affair between a stripper and the son of a wealthy tycoon.

Emilia Pérez tells the story of a Mexican drug lord who, with the help of a lawyer, flees from the troubles of his business and becomes transgender.

The film was highly appreciated for the stable performance of the female cast, which made history this year when it brought home the Best Actress award at Cannes for three stars Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón and Selena Gomez.

On Rotten Tomatoes, The Life of Chuck received an 85% fresh tomato score - Photo: The Verge

In addition, The Guardian also mentioned the two biggest unknowns after the film festival seasons: September 5 and The Life of Chuck - two "dark horses" of this year's Oscar race.

Arguably the biggest surprise at the 2024 Toronto Film Festival was The Life of Chuck's win in the People's Choice Award category, beating out strong contender Emilia Pérez.

Even before that, director Mike Flanagan's work was "ignored" by the media, had not found a distributor, let alone set up a campaign to compete for an Academy Award.

With September 5, the film with a journalism theme was unexpectedly bought by Paramount Studios and heavily invested in to compete in the Best Picture category next year.

According to the producer's description, the film will have elements related to the conflict in the Gaza Strip, and will likely attract the attention of voters due to its topicality.

Anora and Emilia Pérez are two names that are "sure" to appear at the 2025 Oscars, according to many film sites - Photo: TIFF

Other categories are equally dramatic.

Talking more about the acting category, this year's academy race also marks the competition of many top Hollywood names such as Nicole Kidman, Angelina Jolie, Adrien Brody, Ron Howard, Joaquin Phoenix...

In particular, just in the two recent Venice and Toronto film festivals, there were many excellent performances, worthy of Oscar nominations.

These include Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore (The Room Next Door), Nicole Kidman (Babygirl), Angelina Jolie (Maria), Vincent Lindon (The Quiet Son), Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones (The Brutalist), Daniel Craig (Queer).

In the animated film category, IndieWire predicts that this will be a fierce battle between three excellent works: Flow, Inside Out 2 and The Wild Robot - the film that just emerged as a phenomenon at the opening night of the Toronto Film Festival.

In general, the outstanding films we just mentioned have just begun their journey. It is still half a year before movie lovers meet again at the Oscars, so it is likely that by then many excellent films will appear.

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