The first 2025 Oscar shortlists are here
Netflix doc Will & Harper and Ireland's Kneecap are on the shortlists for the 2025 Oscar nominations.
Screenshots: Netflix; Sony Pictures Classics (YouTube)
We’ve been getting a clearer picture of what the Oscars race will look like given all the lead-up award show nominations (like the Golden Globes) that have come out so far. But now we have an even clearer picture with the release of shortlists for 10 categories from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Those categories include Documentary Feature Film, Documentary Short Film, International Feature Film, Makeup and Hairstyling, Music (Original Score), Music (Original Song), Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film, Sound and Visual Effects.
How it works is this: Academy members (in some cases only members from a specific branch, like the Documentary Branch or the Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Branch) narrowed down the pool of films to shortlists of between 10 and 20 nominees. For instance, the shortlist for Documentary Feature Film came from a pool of 169 eligible films. Next, members of the Documentary Branch will vote from the shortlist of 15 films to put forward five nominees.
In certain cases, Academy members were required to meet a minimum viewing requirement to be eligible to vote for the category’s shortlist, and are further required to watch all the shortlisted films in order to vote for the final nominations. In some of the craft categories, like Makeup and Hairstyling and Visual Effects, members of the relevant branches “will be invited to view excerpts and interviews with the artists from each of the shortlisted films” before voting for the final nominations. You can read more about the nitty-gritty voting details for each category here, and check out the shortlists below.
Documentary Feature Film
The Bibi Files
Black Box Diaries
Dahomey
Daughters
Eno
Frida
Hollywoodgate
No Other Land
Porcelain War
Queendom
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Sugarcane
Union
Will & Harper
Documentary Short Film
Chasing Roo
Death by Numbers
Eternal Father
I Am Ready, Warden
Incident
Instruments of a Beating Heart
Keeper
Makayla’s Voice: A Letter to the World
Once upon a Time in Ukraine
The Only Girl in the Orchestra
Planetwalker
The Quilters
Seat 31: Zooey Zephyr
A Swim Lesson
Until He’s Back