It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Oh, not Christmas, but the we’re getting ever so close to the next Oscar Blitz! We’re just over a month away from the reveal of the nominees, and today the Academy released their shortlists for half the categories in the field, 12 of the now 24! It’s been an intriguing year in movies to say the least, with the theatrical model facing an existential crisis and entire studios being bought and sold with the sales themselves hinging on how much the interested parties bribe the President. We’re looking at the possibility of three or more foreign films being nominated for Best Picture due simply to a lack of options. For now though, we have this crop of semifinalists, so let’s see who’ll be vying for the top prizes!
Animated Short – 15 Films
Autokar
Butterfly
Cardboard
Éiru
Forevergreen
The Girl Who Cried Pearls
Hurikán
I Died in Irpin
The Night Boots
Playing God
The Quinta’s Ghost
Retirement Plan
The Shyness of Trees
Snow Bear
The Three Sisters
Obviously, the short categories are hard to parse at the moment, as most of the entries have only screened at qualifying festivals. The only one of this group I’ve seen is Éiru, which screened before Little Amélie or the Character of Rain. It’s by Cartoon Saloon (The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, etc), and I really enjoyed it. Even if it wasn’t the only possible rooting interest at this point, I’d still be cheering it on.
Casting – 10 Films
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
The Secret Agent
Sentimental Value
Sinners
Sirât
Weapons
Wicked: For Good
A few things to unpack here, as this is a brand new category. First and foremost, this is similar to the bake-off categories (Makeup & Hairstyling, Visual Effects, etc.), but not exactly the same. Rather than having a meeting of the associated branch (Casting Directors), members will have access to film clips and pre-recorded interviews with the casting departments of each movie starting in early January as a resource for their voting choices. I’m curious to see what type of criteria the branch uses to make its nomination decisions.
Secondly, you’ll notice that there are three international entries on this list, in the forms of The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value, and Sirât. We’re going to be seeing even more of them as these lists go on. Don’t be shocked if a fair few of these end up being considered in multiple categories apart from International Feature. It’s already looking like Best Picture is going to be a two-horse race between Sinners and One Battle After Another, based on the nominations for the Golden Globes and Critics’ Choice Awards, so the Academy will likely do a lot of padding with foreign fare to get the final list to 10.
Speaking of which (or witch), you’ll definitely see Wicked on a fair few lists, even though it has no realistic chance at Best Picture. This is just a side effect of the hype machine and marketing campaigns that have gone on since last year. The film itself is only hovering around 67% on Rotten Tomatoes, which means it’s barely passable, but the overall production has been over-promoted for a while now. There’s a chance that it’ll repeat for Production Design and Costume Design, and there will be a major push to get Supporting Actress for Ariana Grande, but otherwise, it’s safe to assume that the movie is just a placeholder to round out each field.
Cinematography – 16 Films
Ballad of a Small Player
Bugonia
Die My Love
F1
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
Nouvelle Vague
One Battle After Another
Sentimental Value
Sinners
Sirât
Song Sung Blue
Sound of Falling
Train Dreams
Wicked: For Good
This is an odd one, as this is the first time (at least since I’ve been covering the Oscars) that Cinematography has had a shortlist, which per the rules has to be between 15 and 20 films. Another foreign entry here, with Germany’s Sound of Falling, but it appears I’m going to have a lot of viewing to do over the next six weeks, as I’ve only seen about half of these candidates (and only reviewed two so far)
Documentary Feature – 15 Films
The Alabama Solution
Apocalypse in the Tropics
Coexistence, My Ass!
Come See Me in the Good Light
Cover-Up
Cutting Through Rocks
Folktales
Holding Liat
Mr. Nobody against Putin
Mistress Dispeller
My Undesirable Friends: Part 1 – Last Air in Moscow
The Perfect Neighbor
Seeds
2000 Meters to Andriivka
Yanuni
I’ve only seen one of these entries, 2000 Meters to Andriivka. It was also Ukraine’s submission for International Feature, but spoiler alert, it didn’t make the cut. Same goes for Mr. Nobody against Putin, which was Denmark’s submission. A lot of these films are hard to track down, but I’ll do my level best. I’m hoping Mr. Nobody will get another run in the local theatres. It played in September, but I couldn’t make it to a showing. Fingers crossed.
Documentary Short – 15 Films
All the Empty Rooms
All the Walls Came Down
Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud
Bad Hostage
Cashing Out
Chasing Time
Children No More: “Were and Are Gone”
Classroom 4
The Devil Is Busy
Heartbeat
Last Days at Lake Trinity
On Healing Lands, Birds Perch
Perfectly a Strangeness
Rovina’s Choice
We Were the Scenery
Not much to say here, just anxious to see which five make the final cut.
International Feature – 15 Films
Argentina – Belén
Brazil – The Secret Agent
France – It Was Just an Accident
Germany – Sound of Falling
India – Homebound
Iraq – The President’s Cake
Japan – Kokuho
Jordan – All That’s Left of You
Norway – Sentimental Value
Palestine – Palestine 36
South Korea – No Other Choice
Spain – Sirât
Switzerland – Late Shift
Taiwan – Left-Handed Girl
Tunisia – The Voice of Hind Rajab
As of this posting, I have seen 20 films submitted in this category, nine of which have made it this far. Of the other six, Tunisia is literally releasing stateside tomorrow, South Korea’s entry comes out next week, and Jordan’s will run right after New Year’s. Taiwan’s candidate is on Netflix right now. That leaves Argentina and India as the outliers to shortlist completion. I’ll be on the lookout for those two, and in the meantime, I’ll start polishing off batch reviews of the foreign hopefuls that didn’t make the cut before I get into more thorough breakdowns of those that are on the list. Stay tuned.
Live Action Short – 15 Films
Ado
Amarela
Beyond Silence
The Boy with White Skin
Butcher’s Stain
Butterfly on a Wheel
Dad’s Not Home
Extremist
A Friend of Dorothy
Jane Austen’s Period Drama
Pantyhose
The Pearl Comb
Rock, Paper, Scissors
The Singers
Two People Exchanging Saliva
Again, not much to say until the nominees are announced and we get the packaged release, but if nothing else, these are some really intriguing titles. I can only imagine the subject matter and plots for some of these.
Makeup & Hairstyling – 10 Films
The Alto Knights
Frankenstein
Kokuho
Marty Supreme
Nuremberg
One Battle After Another
Sinners
The Smashing Machine
The Ugly Stepsister
Wicked: For Good
An interesting crop here, most notably for how it might align with the eventual Best Picture list. Consider Sinners, One Battle, and Wicked locks, but it looks like there might be a push for Guillermo del Toro’s take on Frankenstein and Marty Supreme as well, the latter coming out right at the tail end of the year.
Original Score – 20 Films
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Bugonia
Captain America: Brave New World
Diane Warren: Relentless
F1
Frankenstein
A House of Dynamite
Jay Kelly
Marty Supreme
Nuremberg
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Sirât
Train Dreams
Tron: Ares
Truth and Treason
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Wicked: For Good
Great, now the Music Branch is foisting Diane Warren on us in the Score category as well. For those who don’t know, Diane Warren put out a documentary about herself this year, which by all accounts is 90 minutes of her telling the world how great she is, while an assortment of musicians and singers also tell us how great she is. This is self-aggrandizing at its worst, and it’s a shame that more worthy artists are left off because the branch has some kind of Faustian bargain with her where they’ll continue to shortlist and nominate her every year until she wins or dies. My money’s eternally on the latter. I will say this, though. I wholeheartedly believe the title. “Relentless” is the proper word to use here, because these people just won’t let this go.
Original Song – 15 Songs from 13 Films
“As Alive As You Need Me To Be” – Tron: Ares
“Dear Me” – Diane Warren: Relentless
“Dream As One” – Avatar: Fire and Ash
“Drive” – F1
“Dying to Live” – Billy Idol Should Be Dead
“The Girl in the Bubble” – Wicked: For Good
“Golden” – KPop Demon Hunters
“Highest 2 Lowest” – Highest 2 Lowest
“I Lied to You” – Sinners
“Last Time (I Seen the Sun)” – Sinners
“No Place Like Home” – Wicked: For Good
“Our Love” – The Ballad of Wallis Island
“Salt Then Sour Then Sweet” – Come See Me in the Good Light
“Sweet Dreams of Joy” – Viva Verdi!
“Train Dreams” – Train Dreams
I’m going to hold out a modicum of hope that Diane Warren doesn’t get nominated this time around. We’ve already seen “Dear Me” left off the Original Song lists for the Golden Globes and Critics’ Choice Awards. I pray the Music Branch of the Academy sees reason. Also, I hate when movie musical adaptations tack on songs in hopes of an Oscar, so boo to Wicked for doing it twice here. It’s especially lame considering the perfectly cromulent Shakira track from Zootopia 2 was left off in favor of naked baiting.
Sound – 10 Films
Avatar: Fire and Ash
F1
Frankenstein
Mission Impossible – The Final Reckoning
One Battle After Anoter
Sinners
Sirât
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
Superman
Wicked: For Good
It appears that I really need to go back and watch F1 now. I skipped it because from the previews it just looked like a feature-length commercial for a racing circuit I couldn’t give a fuck about. But apparently there’s some quality there. I think it’s on AppleTV, so I’ll have to commandeer my roommate’s login upstairs, because I refuse to give Tim Cook money.
Visual Effects – 10 Films
Avatar: Fire and Ash
The Electric State
F1
Frankenstein
Jurassic World Rebirth
The Lost Bus
Sinners
Superman
Tron: Ares
Wicked: For Good
It really doesn’t matter who gets nominated here. We know Avatar is going to win. Though I do have to let out a genuine guffaw for two of the entries here. First, The Electric State was a lock to be the worst film of 2025 in most people’s eyes until Ice Cube did an Amazon commercial with War of the Worlds as a backdrop. Second, while I haven’t seen Wicked: For Good yet, I remember the last film and the god-awful CGI goats and bear nurses, along with Elphaba’s magical expanding cloak in the climax that grew to three times her size. Get the fuck outta here if you think these are somehow good effects. No way they’ve actually improved this time around.
***
Okay, that does it for the shortlisted categories. But as I do each year, this is where I also include the list of accepted submissions for Animated Feature. There were 35 eligible films this year, which makes you wonder why there’s not a shortlist at this point. Here now is the complete slate.
Animated Feature – 35 Films
All Operators Are Currently Unavailable
Arco
The Bad Guys 2
Black Butterflies
Boys Go to Jupiter
Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc
ChaO
Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing
David
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle
Dog Man
Dog of God
Dragon Heart – Adventures Beyond This World
Elio
Endless Cookie
Fixed
Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie
In Your Dreams
KPop Demon Hunters
The Legend of Hei 2
Light of the World
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
Lost in Starlight
A Magnificent Life
Mahavatar Narsimha
Night of the Zoopocalypse
Olivia & Las Nubes
100 Meters
Out of the Nest
Scarlet
Slide
The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants
Stitch Head
The Twits
Zootopia 2
Okay, there’s a lot to unpack here. So far, I’ve seen 22 of these features. There are several that I have no release information for, including Slide, which is Bill Plympton’s latest, and I think I might have seen that one as a work-in-progress during some festival I covered a couple years ago. What amazes me is how many animated films are NOT on this list. Just from what I’ve seen this year, there are six movies that aren’t represented here. Some of them were pretty bad (Sneaks), but there were also legitimately good ones like Ne Zha 2 (which became an international hit; surprisingly China didn’t submit it for International Feature like the previous film) and Hola Frida! Hell, there are two biblical films on this list, and yet the one I saw (The King of Kings) wasn’t put forward, even though it’s from the same studio as David.
It almost makes it feel like it’s not worth trying to track all these down, but I’ll still do my best. I love animation too much to stay mad at it. Anyway, of the remaining 13, I have leads and information on nine of them. The other four I’ll need help on. If you have any release information or access to ChaO, Colorful Stage, Olivia & Las Nubes, or Slide, please reach out and let me know. I want to complete this list so, so badly, and I’ve gotten achingly close so many times. Let this be the year where the journey completes!
Join the conversation in the comments below! How many of these films have you seen? Which category intrigues you the most? Just how much longer are we going to have to humor Diane Warren? Let me know! And remember, you can follow me on Twitter (fuck “X”) as well as Bluesky, subscribe to my YouTube channel for even more content, and check out the entire BTRP Media Network at btrpmedia.com!
I Actually Paid To See This 