As the year winds down, the buzz around the 2025 Oscars is already heating up, with everyone—from industry insiders to casual film buffs—churning out hot takes and bold predictions about which films will snag the coveted gold.
With nominations voting kicking off on January 8 and the official Oscar nods dropping January 17, one thing seems clear: the Best Picture race already has a standout contender stealing the spotlight.
Which films will rise to claim the other nine slots? Put on your movie critic cap and open up your Letterboxd app: It’s speculation season.
Was 2024 A Good Year For Movies?
With fewer films hitting theaters this year—and their quality wildly uneven—there’s already a lot of buzz (and skepticism) about which contenders could even fill the 10 coveted slots in the Best Picture race.
It is already increasingly difficult to get a low to mid-budget movie made and distributed thanks to the dominance of blockbusters, but the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes of 2023 pumped the brakes on many productions. On top of that, this year’s films are just lacking that je ne sais quoi that typically fuels the excitement of awards season.
Last year gave us Barbie, Oppenheimer, Anatomy of a Fall, and American Fiction—films that not only dominated the cultural conversation but also cemented their place in cinema history.
Which of these heavy hitters rose above the rest?
Back in those days, we all wanted to know. We were invested. (It was Oppenheimer—I wouldn’t leave you hanging like that).
Unfortunately, that thrill-of-the-race energy is a lack luster. Once the nominees are revealed, it’s likely the winner will already seem like a foregone conclusion.
Trendy Matter’s 2025 Oscars Best Picture Predictions
As someone who walked away with a winning ballot at my Oscars watch party last year—surrounded by industry insiders and professionals, no less—I’ve got a solid sense of which films might secure those coveted nominations this time around.
With those credentials flexed, here’s what I’m betting on for Best Picture nominations, a list curated based on my personal taste and what is trending “in the biz,” as they say.
Likely Best Picture Nominees
- A Complete Unknown
- Anora
- Blitz
- The Brutalist
- Dune: Part Two
- Sing Sing
- Wicked
- Nickle Boys
- A Real Pain
- Conclave
Honorable mentions: Juror #2, Gladiator II, and Emilia Pérez all stand a chance to beat out A Real Pain, Sing Sing, and Conclave for a nomination.
Truthfully, I feel strongly about five out of the 10 films on this prediction list.
So, what is the deciding factor? The easy answer is views. How many eyes can these distributors, stars, and filmmakers get on the project and encourage people to vote for? Who can get the internet’s attention?
The truth about the voting academy (love and light to them all) is that they have lives of their own, which sometimes interfere with their ability to watch every single film released this year. Instead, they will turn to the social proof filter, aka, the films generating the most chatter.
Prediction for Best Picture
I’ve been lucky enough to have watched all but one of these (Blitz). But Saoirse Ronan is already campaigning for Best Actress and is capturing the attention of the internet with her appearances on Brittany Broski’s Royal Court series on YouTube.
Her name, paired with the legacy of Steve McQueen, might be enough to get this critic-loved, audience-panned film into the race.
The other factor is the overall quality of the project. Though Wicked is likely to land a nomination with its high-quality production value and arguably, the biggest hype of the year, I suspect it may face a similar fate to Barbie. Yes on the nomination, no on the wins.
Instead, I am putting my money on either Anora or A Complete Unknown. The indie underdog versus legendary icon’s biopic—a Hollywood rivalry as old as time.
Could the underdog (in this case, Anora) take home the big award of the night?
We’ll see if it gets the nomination first. But if it does—it’s a shoo-in for the win.
The 97th Oscars is live on ABC at 7 pm ET/4 pm PT on Sunday, March 2, 2025.
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This article is for informational purposes only. Trendy Matters has no affiliation with any of the brands or individuals mentioned. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author. Neither the author nor Trendy Matters receive a commission through any links in this content.
