Nominations voting is from January 8-12, 2025, with official Oscar nominations introduced January 17, 2025. Closing voting is February 11-18, 2025. And at last, the 97th Oscars telecast might be broadcast on Sunday, March 2 and air stay on ABC at 7 p.m. ET/ 4 p.m. PT. We replace our picks all through awards season, so hold checking IndieWire for all our 2025 Oscar predictions.
The State of the Race
The Greatest Authentic Rating expanded Oscar shortlist from December 17 contains “Alien: Romulus,” “Babygirl,” “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” “Blink Twice,” “Blitz,” “The Brutalist,” “Challengers,” “Conclave,” “Emilia Pérez,” “The Fireplace Inside,” “Gladiator II,” “Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1,” “Inside Out 2,” “Nosferatu,” “The Room Subsequent Door,” “Sing Sing,” “The Six Triple Eight,” “Depraved,” “The Wild Robotic,” and “Younger Lady and the Sea.”
“Blitz” (Apple TV+), from British director Steve McQueen, issues Londoners throughout the Blitz of World Warfare II in 1940. The harrowing drama focuses on a younger bi-racial boy (Elliott Heffernan) despatched to the countryside for safekeeping however instantly runs away and makes an attempt to reunite along with his mom (Saoirse Ronan) and grandfather (Paul Weller) again house in London. For composer Zimmer, this can be a deeply private film since his mom was evacuated from Germany and spent the conflict years in London. Thus, he was aware of her tales about residing in Mayfair, with all of the bombs dropping round her. Zimmer mirrored on his childhood when composing the rating and constructed it from a baby’s perspective of terror and chaos, opening with an orchestra of kids’s recorders.
“Conclave” (Focus Options), Edward Berger’s follow-up to “All Quiet on the Western Entrance,” is a psychological thriller through which Ralph Fiennes’ Cardinal searches for a successor to the deceased Pope, who harbored a darkish secret. “All Quiet” Oscar-winning composer Volker Bertelmann delivers a rating that varies from sacral items to thrilling, energetic compositions for rigidity and sensitivity.
“Emilia Pérez” (Netflix), the genre-defying crime musical from Jacques Audiard, finds Zoe Saldaña’s disgruntled lawyer serving to the titular Mexican cartel chief (Karla Sofía Gascón) with gender affirming surgical procedure to evade seize and affirm her gender. The operatic rating by Clément Ducol and Camille conveys the surreal mix of household drama, narcotics thriller, and musical (with a splash of comedy). The rating got here to them in an experimental means after writing the songs. It blends with the dialogue, lyrics, and total soundscape.
In Fede Álvarez’s “Alien: Romulus” (twentieth Century Studios), which takes place between “Alien” and “Aliens,” Benjamin Wallfisch’s rating pays tribute to Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner whereas creating his personal menacing fashion balancing horror with motion.
“Gladiator II” (Paramount), Ridley Scott’s sequel to his Oscar winner, takes place twenty years later, when Lucius (Paul Mescal), the previous inheritor to the Empire, is pressured to enter the Colosseum as a ruthless gladiator. There, he faces Pedro Pascal’s Roman common, Marcus Acacius. Harry Gregson-Williams’ rating embodies the non secular essence of the unique movie whereas making a contemporary sound for Lucius, who required a flexible melody that conveys his love, management, rage, and vengeance. Distinctive instrumentation included a baritone violin, electrical cello, and primitive horns that assist recall historical Rome.
“The Wild Robotic” (DreamWorks/Common), directed by Chris Sanders, is an animated sci-fi journey that finds robotic Roz (Lupita Nyong’o) washed ashore on an uninhabited island and should adapt and stay among the many animals, together with Brightbill (Equipment Conor), an orphaned gosling chicken, and a fox named Fink (Pedro Pascal). Kris Bowers’ rating musically captures the convergence of Roz’s private journey of survival and transformation with the sense of group that she witnesses among the many animals on the island. The rating additionally shares musical DNA with the unique track “Kiss the Sky,” carried out and co-written by Maren Morris.
Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu” (Focus Options) reworks the legendary silent vampire movie by F.W. Murnau with Invoice Skarsgård because the notorious Rely Orlok, Lily-Rose Depp as Ellen Hutter, and Nicholas Hoult as her husband. Robin Carolan, the director’s go-to composer, captures the extreme terror and dread in addition to the tragedy and doomed romanticism of this gothic re-imagining. He combines large-scale orchestral work with genuine Jap European instrumentation and unnerving sound design.
With “Challengers” (Amazon MGM Studios), director Luca Guadagnino tackles the aggressive nature of tennis as a love triangle involving former tennis prodigy-turned-coach Zendaya, her husband and slumping tennis champ Mike Faist, and low-circuit tennis participant Josh O’Connor, her ex-lover and his former finest good friend. Composers Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross present the proper driving, thumping, techno rating to accompany the recent, super-sweaty, aggressive motion on the tennis court docket.
“Inside Out 2″ (Pixar/Disney), the animated sequel from director Kelsey Mann, launched the hyperactive Nervousness (Maya Hawke) as the latest and most resonant emotion for 13-year-old Riley (Kensington Tallman). Pixar’s first feminine composer, Andrea Datzman, supplies a rating that musically embodies the emotional rollercoaster, mixing melodic themes, intimate harmonies, and various pop-punk rock, wrapped round lush orchestrations.
In “Depraved” (Common), Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of the Broadway musical by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, composer John Powell scores in collaboration with Schwartz. It’s in regards to the unlikely friendship between Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), a misunderstood woman with inexperienced pores and skin, and the favored Galinda (Ariana Grande), who finally develop into the Depraved Witch of the West and Glinda.
“The Room Subsequent Door” (Warner Bros.) marks Pedro Almodóvar’s English-language debut with an adaptation of the novel “What Are You Going Via” by Sigrid Nunez. It’s in regards to the rekindling of a relationship between a conflict correspondent (Tilda Swinton), dying of most cancers, and a former co-worker (Julianne Moore). Go-to composer Alberto Iglesias could be counted on to offer his eclectic mix of melodic orchestral and atonal avant-garde types.
“The Brutalist” (Focus Options), from director Brady Corbet (“Vox Lux”), is a “Fountainhead”-inspired, 215-minute epic shot in 70mm, starring Adrien Brody as László Tóth, a Hungarian Jew and Auschwitz survivor who struggles as a visionary architect earlier than being provided an enormous mission by Man Pearce’s Lee Van Buren. Corbet tapped his good friend, experimental British composer Daniel Blumberg, to deal with the rating following his free jazz flourish on “The World to Come.”
For “Babygirl” (A24), the erotic thriller starring Nicole Kidman a few shifting energy battle, Emmy-winning composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer (“The White Lotus”) creates a mesmerizing rating appropriately crammed with shifting moods and eclectic sounds.
“Blink Twice” (Amazon MGM Studios), Zoë Kravitz’s psychological thriller on a non-public island, includes a moody rating by Chanda Dancy that mixes classical, Japanese, and Indonesian types.
“The Fireplace Inside” (Amazon MGM Studios), the directorial debut of cinematographer Rachel Morrison, is a coming-of-age biopic about younger boxing phenom Clarissa “T-Rex” Shields (Ryan Future) coaching for the 2012 Summer time Olympics in London. The rating from composer Tamar-kali strikes a stability between Shields’ transformative journey and the rhythmic and percussive nature of boxing by way of strings, percussion, fashionable digital sounds, and brass.
Kevin Costner’s epic Western, “Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1” (Warner Bros.), boasts a basic orchestral throwback rating by John Debney, which inserts the big selection of themes and melodies that underscore the Civil Warfare enlargement and settlement of the American West.
“The Six Triple Eight” (Netflix), Tyler Perry’s historic drama in regards to the all-Black, all-female battalion throughout World Warfare II, affords a rousing rating by Aaron Zigman.
“Younger Lady and the Sea” (Disney), Joachim Rønning’s sports activities biopic about Trudy Ederle (Daisy Ridley), the primary girl to swim the English Channel, was scored by Amelia Warner round a basic theme of hope and willpower with sweep and bombast.
“Sing Sing” (A24), Greg Kwedar’s biopic about John “Divine G” Whitfield (Colman Domingo), founding member of the Rehabilitation Via the Arts program on the most safety jail, affords a rating by Grammy-winning guitarist Bryce Dessner that underscores the setting and temper. It emphasizes an natural shaping with improvisation and dissonance.
Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” (Warner Bros), the sequel to his horror comedy, sees Michael Keaton’s foul-mouth ghoul return from the afterlife to torment the Deetz household 36 years later. Danny Elfman’s foolish, spooky rating jumps round stylistically in step with the kinetic film that strikes forwards and backwards between the actual world and the afterlife.
Potential nominees are listed in alphabetical order; no movie might be deemed a frontrunner till we’ve got seen it.
Frontrunners
“Blitz” (Hans Zimmer)
“Conclave” (Volker Bertelmann)
“Challengers” (Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross)
“Emilia Pérez” (Clément Ducol and Camille)
“The Wild Robotic” (Kris Bowers)
Contenders
“Alien: Romulus” (Benjamin Wallfisch)
“Babygirl” (Cristobal Tapia de Veer)
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” (Danny Elfman)
“Blink Twice” (Chanda Dancy)
“The Brutalist” (Daniel Blumberg)
“The Fireplace Inside” (Tamar-kali)
“Gladiator II“ (Harry Gregson-Williams)
“Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1″ (John Debney)
“Inside Out 2” (Andrea Datzman)
“Nosferatu” (Robin Carolan)
“The Room Subsequent Door” (Alberto Iglesias)
“Sing Sing” (Bryce Dessner)
“The Six Triple Eight” (Aaron Zigman)
“Depraved” (John Powell)
“Younger Lady and the Sea” (Amelia Warner)