And they’re off.
Awards season just got entirely official with the revealing of shortlists for the 97th Oscars in 10 categories today. See the lists from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences below.
Fifteen movies each are moving forward in the contests for International Feature Film, Documentary Feature, Original Song, Music Score and Documentary, Animated and Live Action Shorts. Ten films each also advanced in the categories of Sound, Visual Effects and Makeup & Hairstyling.
Celebrating the Oscar shortlists the most today undoubtedly is Emilia Pérez with a towering six mentions, missing only from the Visual Effects list of possible inclusion, though that would have been a longshot. This sets up a possible huge showing for Jacques Audiard’s film, which could also land two Best Song nominations, the only film to have a pair among the finalists.
Also having a good morning is Wicked with four mentions, the most it could possibly have received considering none of its songs were original and thus ineligible. It was named for Makeup & Hair, Score, Sound and Visual Effects.
Universal (and DreamWorks Animation) also have to be cheering the showing for their animated feature The Wild Robot, which nailed mentions for Score, Sound and Song (“Kiss the Sky”), putting it above archrival Inside Out 2 — the year’s top-grossing film — which was named only in Music Score. Also doing well with three mentions is Paramount’s Gladiator II and Alien: Romulus, both offshoots from the world of Ridley Scott.
Other films that received more than one mention were Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Deadpool & Wolverine, Nosferatu, Blitz, Better Man, Twisters, Mufasa: The Lion King, Will & Harper, Challengers and Irish International Feature hopeful Kneecap.
Of course, any shortlist of song possibilities is going to include Diane Warren. She is going for her 17th nomination — without a competitive win yet — with “The Journey” from The Six Triple Eight, one of four song possibilities making the cut for Netflix.
Every year there is a weird irony. Anora is considered of the front-runners for Oscars but received zero mentions — not that these categories are its strength — while the relatively obscure Waltzing with Brando, which features Billy Zane as Marlon Brando and has not been officially released to my knowledge, landed a mention for Makeup & Hair. It must have qualified quietly to make this list.
Here are the full 2025 Oscar shortlists:
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM
The Bibi Files
Black Box Diaries
Dahomey
Daughters
Eno
Frida
Hollywoodgate
No Other Land
Porcelain War
Queendom
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Sugarcane
Union
Will & Harper
DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM
Chasing Roo
Death by Numbers
Eternal Father
I Am Ready, Warden
Incident
Instruments of a Beating Heart
Keeper
Makayla’s Voice: A Letter to the World
Once upon a Time in Ukraine
The Only Girl in the Orchestra
Planetwalker
The Quilters
Seat 31: Zooey Zephyr
A Swim Lesson
Until He’s Back
INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM
Brazil, I’m Still Here
Canada, Universal Language
Czech Republic, Waves
Denmark, The Girl with the Needle
France, Emilia Pérez
Germany, The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Iceland, Touch
Ireland, Kneecap
Italy, Vermiglio
Latvia, Flow
Norway, Armand
Palestine, From Ground Zero
Senegal, Dahomey
Thailand, How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies
United Kingdom, Santosh
MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
The Apprentice
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
A Different Man
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
Maria
Nosferatu
The Substance
Waltzing with Brando
Wicked
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)
Alien: Romulus
Babygirl
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Blink Twice
Blitz
The Brutalist
Challengers
Conclave
Emilia Pérez
The Fire Inside
Gladiator II
Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1
Inside Out 2
Nosferatu
The Room Next Door
Sing Sing
The Six Triple Eight
Wicked
The Wild Robot
Young Woman and the Sea
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)
“Forbidden Road” from Better Man
“Winter Coat” from Blitz
“Compress/Repress” from Challengers
“Never Too Late” from Elton John: Never Too Late
“El Mal” from Emilia Pérez
“Mi Camino” from Emilia Pérez
“Sick in the Head” from Kneecap
“Beyond” from Moana 2
“Tell Me It’s You” from Mufasa: The Lion King
“Piece by Piece” from Piece by Piece
“Like a Bird” from Sing Sing
“The Journey” from The Six Triple Eight
“Out of Oklahoma” from Twisters
“Kiss the Sky” from The Wild Robot
“Harper and Will Go West” from Will & Harper
ANIMATED SHORT FILM
Au Revoir Mon Monde
A Bear Named Wojtek
Beautiful Men
Bottle George
A Crab in the Pool
In the Shadow of the Cypress
Magic Candies
Maybe Elephants
Me
Origami
Percebes
The 21
Wander to Wonder
The Wild-Tempered Clavier
Yuck!
LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
Anuja
Clodagh
The Compatriot
Crust
Dovecote
Edge of Space
The Ice Cream Man
I’m Not a Robot
The Last Ranger
A Lien
The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent
The Masterpiece
An Orange from Jaffa
Paris 70
Room Taken
SOUND
Alien: Romulus
Blitz
A Complete Unknown
Deadpool & Wolverine
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
Gladiator II
Joker: Folie à Deux
Wicked
The Wild Robot
VISUAL EFFECTS
Alien: Romulus
Better Man
Civil War
Deadpool & Wolverine
Dune: Part Two
Gladiator II
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Mufasa: The Lion King
Twisters
Wicked
Erik Pedersen contributed to this report.