The Big Picture · Discussion · Awards · Interview
January 23, 2025/ 97 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins react to the 97th Academy Award nominations before 8 a.m., then game out a two-film Best Picture race between Emilia Perez and The Brutalist. Emilia Perez lands 13, the second-most in Oscar history and the most ever for an international feature; The Brutalist gets 10 and a well-timed AI story; I'm Still Here crashes Best Picture; and Challengers gets shut out of score. They also tally their four-months-early Oscar bet (a 30-30 tie) before Sean's interview with Flow director Gints Zilbalodis.
90 films across 4 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
Snubs, surprises, and WTFsthe stories behind the board
13 nominations, second-most in Academy history and the most ever for an international feature. The hosts read it as chalk, not shock, but note the internet reaction has been sharply negative and that Sean still can't find anyone willing to mount a filmmaking defense of it. It also occupies the Netflix slot, and Netflix's big-number nominees (The Irishman, Maestro, Roma) keep falling short.
10 nominations and the biggest threat to Emilia Perez. The hosts spend a long stretch on the Red Shark News story about AI use in the film: an editor using a tool to correct Adrien Brody's Hungarian pronunciation, and a consultant using Midjourney for the end-credits architectural sketches. They call it a well-executed, old-school campaign smear that probably won't dent Best Picture but could hurt Brody in Best Actor.
10 nominations, mostly craft, plus Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. Sean argues the backlighting and color grading make the practical sets look worse than they are, costing it a real Production Design case; its best shot below the line is Costume Design.
8 nominations, more than either host predicted. James Mangold sneaking into Best Director (matching his DGA nod) is the surprise; they see the crowd-pleasing Dylan biopic slowly creeping up as the throwback 'Oscar movie' of the field.
6 nominations, but the six that matter: picture, director, actress, supporting actor, screenplay, editing. Amanda has had it as her Best Picture pick since August, and the hosts build the ranked-choice case for it as the film almost nobody puts last.
The morning's biggest surprise, in for Best Picture with Fernanda Torres also landing Best Actress 27 years after her mother's Central Station nod. The hosts credit the Golden Globe win and a sustained Brazilian campaign for pushing it past the film they'd been holding the slot for.
The Best Picture nod Sean predicted and wasn't sure would land. He wonders how much of A24's awards muscle shifted from this to The Brutalist; getting in despite no VOD or streaming shows people sought it out in screening rooms.
Five nominations, which the hosts call insane for a body-horror movie. Demi Moore has taken over the Best Actress race from Mikey Madison, and they float The Substance as a plausible No. 2 on Emilia Perez ballots for the go-for-it international voter.
Now relegated to a nice-year congratulations. Edward Berger missing Best Director confirms to Sean that the late Conclave-surge take is dead, though Isabella Rossellini's first-ever nomination lands in Supporting Actress.
Five below-the-line nominations (cinematography, production design, sound, visual effects) plus Best Picture, fewer than the first film. Denis Villeneuve missing Best Director again isn't a shock but still stings the hosts, who'd like a popular, top-tier filmmaker represented there.
In for Adapted Screenplay but shut out of Best Picture, and Clarence Maclin missed Supporting Actor, the performance Sean preferred over Colman Domingo's. He blames a bungled release strategy and thinks a traditional fall rollout would have changed the story.
The snub the hosts kept hearing about all morning: no Original Score nod despite the Golden Globe win. Part of a total Academy cold shoulder to Luca Guadagnino, whose Queer also went home empty.
Completely shut out. Sean skipped I'm Still Here to see it and was bowled over; Marianne Jean-Baptiste was his pick to win Best Actress, and her absence is the loss he keeps circling back to.
A slightly strange Original Screenplay nominee, competent and unflashy in a category the hosts prize for its transgressive picks. Sean's interview with writer-director Tim Fehlbaum runs the following week. He calls it a 'lady's seven,' a good movie he isn't sure why he's arguing about.
Four craft nominations (cinematography, production design, costume design, makeup and hairstyling) but no Best Picture, delivered one at a time in a way that had the hosts texting each other 'is it really happening?'
Sebastian Stan in for Best Actor (for this, not for A Different Man, the performance both hosts preferred) and Jeremy Strong in Supporting Actor. The hosts fold it into the read that this Academy is honoring films responsive to the current American moment.
The 97th nominations, category by categorynominations morning, no winners called yet
The big Oscar bet, four months laterpredictions made September 16th, graded on nominations morning
Both hosts predicted it to win Best Documentary; it missed the category entirely.
Both had it in Best Picture. It got nothing there.
Sean's Best Picture miss, made before anyone had seen how the field would settle.
Both hosts had it in Best Picture; it didn't make the cut.
Amanda's Best Picture miss. She and Sean tallied 30-30 out of 60 points, half right on picks made almost four and a half months before nominations.
Amanda's other Best Picture miss, blanked on nominations morning along with Danielle Deadwyler.
Gints Zilbalodis on 'Flow'
Nominated that morning for both Animated and International Feature. Zilbalodis built it in the free, open-source Blender with a tiny crew, scored it himself before bringing on co-composer Rihards Zaļupe, and blocked the whole thing with a virtual camera in 3D animatics instead of storyboards. The dialogue-free story of a cat learning to trust others grew from a short he made at 15; it's now near the top of the all-time Latvian box office.
Zilbalodis's first feature, which he made entirely alone from age 20 to 24 as an unofficial film school, writing, directing, animating, and scoring it himself.
His last-great-thing pick, a David Lynch film he'd just watched for the first time while revisiting Lynch after the director's death. He took from it Lynch's refusal to over-explain his own work.
Also mentioned raised along the way
The 13-nomination club (Emilia Perez's company) The Curious Case of Benjamin ButtonThe Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the RingWho's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?The Shape of WaterMary PoppinsChicagoForrest GumpShakespeare in LoveFrom Here to EternityGone with the Wind
Netflix's big-number misses The IrishmanMaestroRoma
Also snubbed A Different ManQueerAll We Imagine as Light
Biopic and precursor comparisons Walk the LineBohemian RhapsodyJudyCentral StationParasiteBelfastIncendiesHillbilly ElegyThe Killer
Chalamet and DiCaprio filmographies Call Me by Your NameDuneWhat's Eating Gilbert GrapeThe AviatorBlood DiamondThe Wolf of Wall StreetDjango UnchainedThe RevenantOnce Upon a Time in HollywoodCatch Me If You CanTitanic
Name-checked in passing Blue VelvetThe Dark KnightPat Garrett and Billy the KidEnoElton John: Never Too LateWerwulf
Next week (Dumpuary) Better ManOne of Them DaysFlight RiskWolf ManBack in ActionPresence
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