From The Apprentice to Wicked, the 2025 Oscar nominations are the most political ever

The nominees for this year’s film industry’s biggest awards represent a variety of genres and styles. But many are connected by a common thread. They take on controversial topics with ferocious energy.

There are some great films nominated for the Academy Awards this year, from sparkling Broadway musicals to unflinching farces about strippers to a memorable period piece set in a Florida reform school. From afar, it might seem that Academy voters covered just about every genre and mood that movies had to offer. But if you look closely, it’s surprising how many of the candidates have something in common. In their own way, these films take on contemporary issues with enough ferocious energy to make them one of the most political picks in Oscar history.

in the case of apprenticethe political dimension is unavoidable. Ali Abbasi’s film is a controversial biopic of newly minted President Donald Trump, centering on his years as an aspiring real estate mogul in New York. october trump criticized the movie as a “cheap, defamatory, politically disgusting hatch job”. The Academy seemed to like the movie. The Apprentice received two acting nominations for Sebastian Stan, who plays The Tramp, and co-star Jeremy Strong, who plays the mentor. roy cohn.

Other candidates are less political. In fact, many of them are good at approaching politics from unexpected angles, but rarely timid in making points that may cause some viewers. Which movie has the most Oscar nominations this year? emilia pereza French musical directed by Jacques Audiard. Its 13 nominations include Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay, while its star, Carla Sofia Gascon, won Best Actress, quite a statement in the week that Trump signed the order. She is the first trans woman nominated for an Oscar. declare that there are only two genders Recognized in the United States and cannot be changed. Moreover, the Oscar-nominated Elmal, whose standout song and dance number is an angry indictment of corrupt politicians and other grandeurs.

I’m still doing amazingly well here too. Walter Salles’ Brazilian drama was nominated in the major best picture category, as well as the best international picture category that most commentators had expected. And its star, Fernanda Torres, was nominated for best actress. These accolades provide a huge publicity boost for the film, a thoughtful treatise on the importance of being strong-willed and tireless in the face of totalitarian regimes.

With its own brighter colors and crowd-pleasing fashion, evil There are similar themes. Nominated in 10 different categories, including Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Original Score, this is a film that seems to be a lesson in treating the less privileged with kindness. But like the movie it’s a prequel, wizard of ozit has provocative things to say about the nature of power in its depiction of wizards as selfish rulers who use fear and deceit to control the population.

And it continues. Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist garnered 10 nominations, including best picture, best director, and best actor, but it also follows the story of a Hungarian Jew struggling to establish himself in the United States after World War II. It’s about the architect and Sean Baker’s Anora, which has six nominations. Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, and more about sex workers in New York today. But both put a provocative spotlight on immigrant experiences and the entitlements of the ultra-wealthy.

Ramel Ross’s nickel boysadapted from the novel by Colson Whitehead and recognized for best photography and best adapted screenplay, it doesn’t feel like a standard period drama thanks to its bold use of first-person perspective. Well, the subject is America’s racist past. The past echoes today. Greg Kwedar singan adaptation of the screenplay with a nod to star Colman Domingo, also tells the true story of a theater group for incarcerated men. While it doesn’t mention racism at all, its characters are almost all black and working class, which says a lot about the realities of our prisons. 2020 Pew Research Center At the end of 2018, there were 2,272 prison inmates per 100,000 black men, compared to 392 prisoners per 100,000 white men.

flat Dune: Part 2 – Nominated for five awards, including Best Picture, it’s more Nottier on subjects of religion and leadership than your average science fiction blockbuster. Most years, one or two overtly political films get Oscar nominations, such as 2023 and 2024’s grieving anti-capital satire Triangle, and Martin Scorsese’s exploitation of Native Americans, Murder of the Moon of Flowers. Considering the darkness. In 2025, such films are the rule rather than the exception.

The question now is whether these political nominations will translate into political awards ceremonies. Traditionally, Oscar acceptance speeches are made with more diversity on film sets, as Frances McDormand did in 2018 when she accepted the best actress award at three billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri. I’m more shy about things that are argumentative than asking for them. , they can get a mixed reception, as Michael Moore did when he criticized George W. Bush in his acceptance speech for Bowling, the 2003 winner of the Best Documentary Award. But this year, it feels different. The most thrilling part of the March ceremony may not be able to see who wins, but hearing what they say when they do.