Oscar 2025: Possible winners and record holders among this year's nominees

This year, the audience's dream of star-studded awards is becoming a reality once again. I've prepared a series of interesting facts that will help immerse you in the atmosphere of the upcoming Oscar ceremony. The successes of films related to current events in the world, along with specific intriguing facts about the nominees, allow us to view the happenings from a new perspective.

• 1.This year, it has become a significant event that two musicals have been nominated for the "Best Picture" award for the first time in over fifty years. "Wicked" and "Emilia Perez" represent the first musical pair being discussed for the top award since 1969, when "Funny Girl" and "Oliver!" were nominated. The revival of musicals has partly been due to the expansion of the nomination list to 10 slots, which has made the competition easier. The last musical to win the Oscar for Best Picture was "Chicago" in 2003.
• 2.Adrien Brody already holds one Oscar record and may break another. Currently, he is the youngest winner of the Best Actor award – he was 29 years old when he won for his role in the 2002 film "The Pianist." However, he was only nominated again this year for "Brutalist." A win would make him the first actor to win the Best Actor title with just two nominations. At the moment, only seven actors can boast a 100% success rate at the Oscars among two or more nominations – Vivien Leigh, Hilary Swank, Kevin Spacey, Luise Rainer, Christoph Waltz, Helen Hayes, and Mahershala Ali.
• 3.But Timothée Chalamet is a serious contender. The star of "Dune" and "Wonka" poses the strongest competition for Brody in the Best Actor category thanks to his critically acclaimed performance as Bob Dylan in "Absolutely Unknown." If he manages to win, it will not only end Brody's winning streak but also give Chalamet the title of the youngest award recipient. The difference is slight: he is only 10 months younger than Brody at the time of his victory.
• 4.The Spanish-language musical "Emilia Perez" may face a bleak scenario for streaming films. Despite the number of nominations, it could follow in the footsteps of other streaming projects that received numerous nominations but ultimately did not win. For example, "The Irishman" received no awards out of 10 nominations, "Mank" won two out of ten, "The Power of the Dog" – one out of twelve, and "Killers of the Flower Moon" – zero out of ten. In certain categories, "Emilia Perez" has chances, although a complete victory is not expected. So far, the only instance where a streaming film won the Oscar for Best Picture was with "CODA," which had only three nominations.
• 5.Jeremy Strong and Kieran Culkin have been nominated in the "Best Supporting Actor" category for their performances in the films "The True Pain" and "The Apprentice." However, they are the only nominees not representing films nominated for Best Picture. The omission of "The True Pain" from the Best Picture category should not prevent Culkin, who is the favorite, from winning the award. The last person to win this category without a Best Picture nomination was Christopher Plummer in 2012 for "Beginners." All the actors in this category, except for Edward Norton, are first-time Oscar nominees.
• 6.“Substance” is the first film in the body horror genre nominated for “Best Picture,” and only the seventh overall in the horror category. The other six are “The Shining,” “Awakening,” “The Silence of the Lambs,” “Jaws,” “The Sixth Sense,” and “Black Swan.” “Substance” could be a strong contender in the “Best Makeup and Hairstyling” category, where winners often align with those among the actors. This could work in Demi Moore's favor in the tight race for “Best Actress.”
• 7.Isabella Rossellini has been nominated for her eight-minute performance in the film "Conclave," which, however, is not the shortest in Oscar history. That record belongs to Beatrice Straight, who won in the same category for her 5 minutes and 2 seconds in the film "Network." Dame Judi Dench narrowly surpassed her, winning for her performance in "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" with 5 minutes and 52 seconds. There have certainly been many winners, but the shortest nominee is considered to be Hermione Baddeley for her work in "Room at the Top," which lasted 2 minutes and 19 seconds. In terms of length, "Brutalist" (with a runtime of 3 hours and 35 minutes including an intermission) will be the fourth longest film ever to win Best Picture, following "Gone with the Wind," "Lawrence of Arabia," and "Ben-Hur."
• 8.Colman Domingo from "Sing Sing" has been nominated again for Best Actor, just a year after a similar nomination for "Rusin." This is certainly an impressive achievement. However, he still has a long way to go to catch up with Bette Davis and Greer Garson, both of whom received five consecutive Oscar nominations in the 1930s and 1940s. Following them are Al Pacino, Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando, Thelma Ritter, and Jennifer Jones, who each received four in a row. Bradley Cooper, Renée Zellweger, Russell Crowe, Glenn Close, Jane Fonda, Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, William Hart, Richard Burton, Deborah Kerr, Gregory Peck, Ingrid Bergman, Gary Cooper, and Spencer Tracy received three consecutive nominations.
• 9.All five nominees for the title of "Best Actress" represent films that are also nominated for "Best Picture." At first glance, this may not seem remarkable, but it is happening for the first time since 1977. The historical gap between the two categories has often been explained by the Academy's lesser inclination to award the top prize to films with female leads. However, in recent years, this trend has changed, as evidenced by films with female characters like "Nomadland," "CODA," and "Everything Everywhere All at Once," which have won the Best Picture award.
• 10.Before Sebastian Stan's nomination for the film "The Apprentice," only seven actors had been awarded an Oscar for their portrayals of U.S. presidents.