I have gotten around to watching all the Best Picture nominees for 2025, and I’m ready to rank them from worst to best. 

I really wouldn’t call these 10 movies my ideal Best Picture nominees lineup, but there are some great movies here. I’m ranking these movies based on personal preference; I’ll give my thoughts on each movie, and also briefly cover its Oscar chances.

10. Emilia Pérez

Every awards season has its ‘villains’ but I’ve never seen an awards season in which there is one distinct and clear villain that almost everyone has united against until now with Emilia Perez. While critics and certain people (mainly actors, directors and others in the industry) loved it, the vast majority of the reactions I’ve seen towards it have been rather negative. As for me, I don’t like Emilia Perez at all and it’s probably the first time in a while that I’ve outright disliked a Best Picture nominee. 

There’s a lot that can be said about Emilia Perez, with the xenophobia and transphobia with the problematic representations and depictions of Mexico and transgender people. Even if I was to push all that to the side, I’m baffled at the love that it had been receiving from certain people. It’s not even an entertaining or fascinating disaster, it is incredibly bland and boring for a musical, with uninspired and downright bad musical numbers and songs. The story is also at odds with itself; after fulfilling the movie’s premise in the first act, it spends the rest of the runtime trying to find an identity and by the end, it hasn’t reached it. The few good performances and rare moments of absurd silliness (such as the now infamous Vaginoplasty musical number AKA “the penis to vagina song”) may be bright moments within the wreck that is Emilia Perez, but by the time it reached its underwhelming conclusion, it lost any goodwill I had built up towards it. So unfortunately, I am joining in on the Emilia Perez. I like big swings, but I just can’t defend this one on any level. 

If you asked me a month ago, I’d say that Emilia Perez was one of the frontrunners for Best Picture, though recent awards shows have thankfully indicated that this probably won’t be the case. It still had a shot at winning some awards, it’s almost certainly winning Best Supporting Actress, and probably going to win Best Song and Best International Feature Film (for some reason). Other movies definitely have a higher chance at winning Best Picture, but if Emilia Perez did win, I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to call it the Crash of the 2020s.

9. Wicked: Part One

I had some doubts from watching the trailers, but Wicked turned out better than expected and I still liked it after rewatching. As someone familiar enough with the original musical it’s based on, it does a good job at being an adaptation, while making enough changes to make it its own thing. The musical moments are good and so are the cast, especially Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. Its biggest issue is that unfortunately, a lot of its visuals are very hit or miss. While the production design and costumes were on point, the lighting ruined many of the shots. As for Wicked being split into two parts, while I initially thought it was unnecessary, I can really only judge the decision once part 2 releases. While I do like the movie overall, I wouldn’t have said that Wicked: Part One was good enough to be one of the Best Picture nominees, even if it’s a significant step up over Emilia Perez.

As far as winning chances go, Wicked has a shot with some of the technical categories, but that’s it, it isn’t winning Best Picture.

8. A Complete Unknown

Probably one of the most conventional and controversy-free movies on this list, A Complete Unknown is a standard music biopic about Bob Dylan, which slightly stands apart from other movies of this type by only covering 5 years of its subject’s life, and purposefully not providing any interiority to him. Otherwise, it plays things by the book, but is still interesting to watch, especially as someone who didn’t know anything about Bob Dylan. The direction from James Mangold is steady and solid even if it only really comes alive during the music sequences, but it’s the great performances that were the highlight of the film, including Timothee Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, and especially Monica Barbaro. Nothing special and I personally wouldn’t have nominated it for Best Picture, but still a pretty good movie.

Despite not being as controversial as some of the other nominees, I don’t think A Complete Unknown has a strong chance as being a major Best Picture player, especially when compared to some of the other nominees. It might have a better chance in some of the other categories like Best Actor and Best Sound though.

7. Anora

Anora was actually the last of these nominees that I watched, and in the time leading up to my viewing of it, I’ve been hearing all the raves and seeing people put it up as one of the year’s best. I found it to be pretty good, but certainly not on the level that I expected based on its reception. Thinking back on it, it’s a very conflicting movie and I’m not sure that it entirely works. The first act is an energetic romantic comedy, the second act is a chaotic cat and mouse chase, and the third act attempts to bring the heart to deliver a gut punch at the end, and I’d say that it succeeds at about half of that. At 2 hours and 20 minutes, it feels stretched out, and many of the situations and scenarios can be mainly repetitive (especially in the second half). The comedy is generally funny, but is also hit and miss and takes away from the eventual emotional impact later on. The ending scene itself is well done, but doesn’t feel earned; the movie really didn’t have a good enough foundation to have its deeper commentary and depth really land. Overall, I just felt like it worked better as a straight up screwball comedy. Still, from my one viewing it was entertaining enough and I was engaged with what was happening. The cast are great but it’s Mikey Madison as the titular character who’s the highlight, bringing a lot of nuance and layers to Anora even if the writing didn’t provide it. Sean Baker’s direction is great, with it being visually stunning and with a lot of energy provided throughout. I found Anora to be a solid and entertaining enough screwball comedy. It’s good enough that I would be fine with it winning Best Picture compared to the other nominees I have ranked it over. Certainly not among my favourites in this category though. 

From observing recent award shows, Anora is definitely still one of the frontrunners for Best Picture and has a solid shot at winning, especially with it being strong contenders in Best Actress and Best Director. 

6. Conclave

This movie about the election of a new pope makes for a very solid, twisty, well paced and crowdpleasing mystery thriller, constantly entertaining from beginning to end. The direction from Edward Berger is strong, with top notch cinematography, sound design, production design, costumes, and score, and benefits from a great ensemble of performances led by Ralph Fiennes. I wouldn’t quite call it one of the best movies of the year and there are certainly better films in the category, but if it won, I wouldn’t mind. 

Observing the other awards shows, Conclave seems to be one of the Best Picture frontrunners, and it has a shot at some of the other categories like with the writing. 

5. Nickel Boys

Nickel Boys is a deeply emotional, haunting and harrowing film.Through the great acting and RaMell Ross’s meticulous direction and excellent storytelling by taking place through the perspectives of its two main characters, they create a truly immersive and hard hitting movie about systemic racism. This experimental movie is so immaculately put together and compelling to watch, even if the non linear approach didn’t work for me personally. Visceral, powerful, and fantastic, Nickel Boys more than lives up to all the acclaim. 

Considering it only received two nominations at the Oscars, I don’t expect Nickel Boys to win Best Picture at all. It’s a shame though, it deserved to be recognised for the cinematography, editing and direction at the very least.

4. I’m Still Here

I went into I’m Still Here knowing only about its nominations and the fact that it was based on a true story of a family during the military dictatorship of Brazil during the 1970s, and it turned out to be an amazing movie. From the very beginning it immerses you intimately in the lives of the central family before things change for them. It’s an honest, raw, riveting and powerful story about loss, grief and hope, the direction is very strong and the acting is incredible from everyone. But it is Ferananda Torres who’s the standout, delivering such an understated, naturalistic and devastating performance. I’m Still Here is powerful and fantastic, one of the very best movies from 2024.

Based on the recent awards shows, I’m Still Here probably isn’t going to win Best Picture, It should be the frontrunner for Best International Feature Film, although it seems like that is going to Emilia Perez. It does have a small shot to win Best Actress however.

3. The Substance

When I first watched The Substance back at the NZIFF, I hoped that it would at least be recognised for the hair and makeup work at the Oscars. I did not expect it to be a major awards player, and I’m happy to see that. This unsubtle and unrestrained horror thriller leaves nothing to the imagination even before it gets to the body horror. While there’s a lot here thematically including body image and obsession, it manages to balance that along with being trashy, silly and campy. It takes its insane premise and effectively creates a bizarre and unpredictable movie that kept me locked in from beginning to end. It only continued to escalate in absurdity as it progressed, culminating in a third act that has to be seen to be believed. The phenomenal performances from Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley also really help to sell this story, Moore especially delivering some career best work here. It is also outstanding on a technical front, it’s visually gorgeous, and the practical effects and makeup are truly amazing, with some absurdly grotesque body horror. It is very much among my favourite movies from 2024. 

The Substance has reached a number of nominations and has a shot with some of the technical categories and even Best Actress for Demi Moore (who I think is safely the frontrunner for that category). That said, it’s not winning Best Picture, there are definitely a number of other nominees who have stronger chances at winning.

2. The Brutalist

A grandiose and epic film about the immigrant and artist experience, The Brutalist is certainly a lot, with a lot to digest, a lot of room for analysis, and would probably require revisiting (at least that’s how I felt after my first viewing). While there are certain aspects I’m still processing such as its divisive epilogue, on the whole, it is all around fantastic. Despite it being such a long movie, it is engaging and captivating from beginning to end. Brady Corbet’s direction is outstanding, he makes this movie constantly feel absolutely massive with stunning cinematography, outstanding production design, and a phenomenal score. And of course the acting from its ensemble cast is fantastic, particularly with Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones and Guy Pearce delivering some of the best (if not the best) work of their careers. Outstanding movie.

This is one of the frontrunners for Best Picture, and is probably my favourite of the frontrunners. While it has been receiving a number of wins at awards shows, I’m not prepared to declare it a done deal as of yet. With The Brutalist being 3.5 hours in length and making some choices that might alienate some people, I can see this resulting in some voters not being entirely on board with the film. This is also right after The Academy gave Best Picture to Oppenheimer, another 3+ hour long American epic which was far more accessible and a crowd pleaser. Still, it does have a good shot at Best Picture and some of the other categories like Best Director and Best Actor. 

1. Dune: Part Two

Dune: Part Two delivered on everything that the first movie set up, and is a truly monumental and epic film. It’s superior to the first movie in every way, larger with the stakes, scale and grandiose action sequences, while being a personal and character driven story. Denis Villeneuve has once again created a euphoric cinematic experience. It is excellently crafted; beautiful looking with outstanding visual effects, and the excellent costumes and production design help to make everything feel otherworldly. It also has a tremendous ensemble of performances, especially from Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca, Ferguson, Javier Bardem and Austin Butler. One of my favourite movies of the year and my favourite of the Best Picture nominees.

The biggest thing working against Dune: Part Two with the awards is the fact that it was released in March instead of later in the year. As a result, it hasn’t received as many nominations as you would expect, it even received less nominations than the first Dune considering that most find Part 2 to be the superior film. Still, it has a shot at winning in some of the technical categories, but definitely won’t be winning Best Picture.

How would you rank these 10 Best Picture nominees?