By Leonardo Salazar
2024 was an interesting year for cinema because a bunch of movies came out that gave a lot to talk about. This Sunday, March, the Oscars Awards event of 2025 will finally take place. Here are some of thoughts about the nominees’ and their films.
First, for Best Animated Film, one nominee is "Inside Out 2," which I think was a beautiful movie with a pretty message, but not much beyond that. Other nominees are "Memoir of a Snail" and "Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl," but apparently the favorites of the critics and public are "Flow" and "The Wild Robot" stories with more substance and a better-quality animation. So, the Oscar may surely be won by one of those two last films.
What films would do if there wasn't good acting? This was a pretty good year for acting and the nominees for male actors gave amazing performances. Colman Domingo is the nominee for "Sing Sing," and Sebastian Stan for "The Apprentice."We think that greater performances are given by Ralph Fiennes for "Conclave" and Timothée Chalamet for "A Complete Unknown," a film about the story of Bob Dylan.
Chalamet has bigger chances on this one because of his popularity, and we all know the Oscars have been leaning lately more towards popularity. But there's a possible upset with Adrien Brody nominated for "The Brutalist," considered one of the favorites as critics and audiences claiming that Brody gave the best performance of the year, so it's most likely a win for him.
This was also a great year for female actors. We have nominee Fernanda Torres for "I'm Still Here," Cynthia Erivo for "Wicked," and Karla Sofía Gascón (which we all know is not going to win) for "Emilia Pérez." But the favorite ones of critics and public are Demi Moore for "The Substance," and "Mikey Madison" for "Anora." A lot of people might believe Moore will be the winner because they loved her amazing performance coupled with a speech she did lately, but my personal favorite is Mikey Madison because her acting in "Anora" a truly unbelievable performance. She’s proved she's about to become one legend of the history of Hollywood because she is an extraordinary actress.
For Best Director, the nominees are Sean Baker for "Anora," Coralie Fargeat for "The Substance," James Mangold for "A Complete Unknown," Jaques Audiard for "Emilia Pérez" (which a lot of people consider ridiculous to even consider that movie is good, but I haven't seen it yet), and Brady Corbet for "The Brutalist." I think Sean Baker will be the winner this time because he is and always has been an amazing filmmaker. If he doesn't, then I think maybe Coralie Fargeat because she did an amazing job in "The Substance" and besides there's been very few women who’ve won the Best Director Award. It's important to add that it is a total snub that Denis Villeneuve was not nominated for "Dune: Part Two" because his job there was absolutely insane.
Now the moment we've all been waiting for, the time where we discuss which will be the Best Movie of the Year. The nominees for Best Picture are "The Brutalist," "A Complete Unknown," "Anora," "Conclave," "Dune: Part Two," "Emilia Pérez," "I'm Still Here," "Nickel Boys," "The Substance," and "Wicked." First of all, let's note that the horror genre has regularly been denied acknowledgment from the Motion Picture Academy, and seeing a horror film such as "The Substance" getting a nomination(and for nothing less than Best Picture!) is something amazing. But maybe because of that same reason, it will not win.
"A Complete Unknown," "I'm Still Here," and "The Nickel Boys" are amazing pictures, but far and away from being the best or the most popular, so they definitely won't win. "Dune: Part Two" was an EPIC film, and if you haven't watched it yet, do it, end of story. "Conclave" presented a very interesting story, but it was not a main favorite of the critics, so may not be winning, although the news out of the Vatican this week might have some impact.
And now let's talk about "Emilia Pérez." Definitely, there wasn't a film that was more talked about this year than "Emilia Pérez" and not for good reasons. This movie has been involved in a lot of controversies and polemics since it came out; a lot of people consider it offensive to Mexicans because of misrepresentations of serious topics. Other people say it is just a terrible script, an awful musical, and in general, a bad movie which has led to questions about how it ended up with recognition in the Oscars. Because of all these reasons, "Emilia Pérez" will definitely not win because if it does, I can assure an enormous amount of people will immediately stop watching the Oscars.
In my opinion, the two films with biggest chances of winning Best Picture are "The Brutalist" and "Anora." I personally would prefer "Anora" to win because when I saw it, it was a total rollercoaster of emotions. "Anora" is extremely good with such a fantastic story which, if you haven't seen yet, do yourself a favor and do.
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