Oscar voting is over for the 97th Academy Awards, and now we are just patiently waiting until the awards are handed out on March 2nd. Matt Neglia and I spoke with several Academy voters about what they are voting for and why. We’ll be posting some of those thoughts for your amusement in the lead-up to the Oscars (because that’s all this is at the end of the day). Here are the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh 2025 Anonymous Oscar voters we spoke with. Remember, as you read these, they represent only a tiny fraction of the 10,000+ people who vote on the Oscar winners. While these may help provide some insight into how voters make their selections, they are far from the be-all-end-all of what will win the Oscars and should be taken with a grain of salt.
Best Picture:
- “Anora” – I just thought this was such a fascinating story. It’s always interesting when a movie makes you feel something unexpected. When I left that movie, I thought she didn’t really have an arc– she’s literally back in the same place where she started. But as the viewer, I had experienced an arc. I felt like I had changed as far as my perception of people working in that industry, or people with tough backgrounds, who are really kind of stuck…a lot of movies kind of show you, rather than experience that, so it was nice to get to experience that arc within myself.
- “The Brutalist” – Amazing performances and production design…I wish movies weren’t as long these days, but what are you gonna do?
- “Emilia Pérez” – I’m generally not a fan of musicals, but I liked how it was so unexpected and used the songs creatively.
- “Conclave” –Â I particularly liked the editorial choices made in that film. It was very intelligent and deliberate, and I liked how the pace of that film made me feel. Obviously, the subject matter was fascinating, but I thought it was a movie, from an editorial pacing perspective, that really led me to feel something.Â
- “A Complete Unknown” – Mangold did a really good job making the music biopic formula feel fresh. I loved the performances of everyone involved. And Timothée is just amazing here.
- “Dune: Part Two” – It’s well made, and I admire the craft, but something is missing emotionally for me with these movies.
- “Nickel Boys” – I respected the technical exercise, but it didn’t really work for me.Â
- “The Substance” – I do kind of like that this got nominated for Best Picture. It’s so out of line with what normallygets nominated, and Demi Moore was amazing, but I didn’t really enjoy the movie as a whole.Â
- “I’m Still Here” – It was a good drama but lacked something extra to push it over the line for me. I’m not sure. Perhaps it was how dragged out the third act felt? I don’t know. A part of me feels it peaked early and couldn’t maintain that energy throughout.
- “Wicked” – I understand why some people like it…but like I said, I’m not a fan of musicals. I thought it could’ve resonated more, and I thought the VFX was lacking throughout.
Best Director:
Brady Corbet. Everything in “The Brutalist” was so precise. You see him taking this chaotic world and shaping it with that level of precision that you don’t see with many actors turned directors. It’s just outstanding.
Best Actress:
Mikey Madison. She’s so relatable. She spent all this time working on this accent that was really perfect to signal where she came from from a socioeconomic perspective, but it wasn’t too in your face where you kinda didn’t believe it. She did such a good job riding this line between where you want her to succeed, and you can tell this guy does not totally fool her, but she needs anything to get out of this place she’s in, so she kinda tricks herself…that kind of self-deceit is hard for actors to show. Lying to the audience is one thing; convincingly lying to yourself is another.
Best Actor:
Timothée Chalamet, of course. I thought Adrien Brody obviously did an amazing job. And all this chatter about the AI of it all doesn’t weigh into this at all. Actors have had different people ADR for them in foreign languages, and nobody has ever said anything about it. So that sort of voice of it all is another tool in the toolbox for filmmakers. That performance is still Adrien’s. He did a fantastic job, and nothing should take away from that. So it really was a coin toss for me between those two. The way Timothée immersed himself in the role and all the stuff they’re doing live, there’s no “Hey, let’s record this after” they’re doing it on set. It’s really impressive work.
Best Supporting Actress:
Zoe Saldana. She’s just a badass in that movie. Everybody in that movie did an excellent job, but she was the lone grounded, believable character. Everyone else in that movie is kind of a caricature, but Zoe’s character felt real and guided us through that movie.
Best Supporting Actor:
Kieran Culkin. He just had this unbelievable blend of humor and heartbreak. He delivered a nice layered performance. It’s classic Supporting Actor stuff. I really like everything he’s in.
Best Original Screenplay:
I went with “Anora.” As I said, Sean Baker really took me on a journey, one that I won’t forget any time soon.
Best Adapted Screenplay:
“Conclave.” This was a super dense novel, and as far as movies go, when you’re taking a dense novel and compressing it and still keeping all the novel’s suspense, that’s not easy. Much of the pacing and character work was in the editing, but that was definitely in the writing.
Best Animated Feature:
“The Wild Robot” gave me all the feels. As a parent, it made me so emotional, and it really stayed with me.
Best Documentary Feature:
I abstained after not seeing all of the nominees.
Best International Feature Film:
“Emilia Pérez.” If you can convince me to like a musical, I have to give you some credit.
Best Cinematography:
“The Brutalist.” I really liked them bringing out Vistavision for this. It made it feel special.
Best Costume Design:
“Dune: Part Two,” “Nosferatu,” and “The Brutalist” were my favorites from an overall design perspective this year, and I couldn’t vote for the other two in this category, so “Nosferatu” wins by default.
Best Film Editing:
“Conclave” for the same reasons stated above.
Best Makeup & Hairstyling:
“The Substance” was gnarly, gnarly stuff. Obviously, it’s supported by a great performance from Demi Moore, but that makeup took that performance to a whole other level.
Best Production Design:
This was a tough one. I was waffling between “Dune: Part Two,” “Nosferatu,” and “The Brutalist” but I went with “Dune: Part Two“ because I’m a sucker for science fiction and how you have to create new worlds from scratch.
Best Original Score:
As I said, “The Wild Robot” led me through some really emotional places, and the music was a huge part of that.
Best Original Song:
I went with “El Mal” from “Emilia Pérez.” It had the most energy and stood out from the others; Saldana did a great job with it.
Best Sound:
For this one, I chose “Dune: Part Two.” That movie was just an insane assault on the senses. If you’re gonna put something on to demo your home theater system, it would be that.
Best Visual Effects:
“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.” That whole series has been chronically underrated from a VFX perspective because it looks so good and is so naturalistic. Anyone who has been to the zoo or in nature and seen monkeys and apes is just like, “Yeah, that’s what they look like,” but to achieve these synthetic versions of these characters in worlds they wouldn’t normally be found in and not be able to tell where reality starts and stops? That’s hard. With “Dune: Part Two,” you see him riding a worm, and it looks great, but there’s never a moment where you think, “Oh my god, this is real.” But these fuzzy characters are so believable, and they’re almost a victim of being too good because you’re not even thinking about it the whole time you’re watching. In this one, I was especially impressed with how they worked with some of the elements, such as the hair interacting with the water. The VFX team has written all their own software to have these things called “coupled simulations” for fur and water interaction, and it’s just extraordinary work.
***This voter, a member of the visual effects branch, abstained from voting in the shorts as they didn’t get around to all of the nominees in time this year.***
Please let us know your thoughts on our X account and be sure to listen to our final Oscar predictions podcast episode coming this Sunday. Here are the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh 2025 Anonymous Oscar voters we spoke with about their ballots. Please click here for more important upcoming dates this awards season and here for the most recent tally of awards season winners for the current year.
You can follow Matt & Will and hear more of their thoughts on the Oscars & Film on Twitter at @NextBestPicture& @mavericksmovies
