GateCrashers

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I’m Still Here (Ainda Estou Aqui), directed by Walter Salles. Still Here is at times dark and horrifying, set in Rio de Janeiro during the Brazilian military dictatorship. Yet, this is a film about resilience and hope in the face of oppression and fascism. It is prescient to our modern time but also shows us there is still a future. Fernanda Torres’s performance as Eunice Paiva is nuanced as Eunice faces the forced deportation of her husband by the military regime. Yet she faces this terrible development with a determination to protect her family and fight for justice against those who wrought such terror on the Brazilian people. The real-life Eunice becomes one of the biggest legal voices against not just the horrors of military dictatorship, but continues her work after the fall of the military regime to protect indigenous rights. I’m Still Here shows us that there is always a way to make the world better, even in the face of life shattering grief. - Patrick Dickerson
Wicked, directed by Jon M. Chu. Wicked is something I have very little memory of. I remember seeing it years ago in my middle school days, but that’s it. Watching this though, a lot of it came rushing back. First and foremost, the performances in this are spectacular. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are absolutely next level. They bring so many layers to these characters that are perhaps some of the most famous characters in fiction. Regardless of the medium, you know who the Wicked Witch or Glinda are. The musical already did an excellent job at giving these characters more depth, but Erivo and Grande do an incredible job at embodying them. There’s a genuine vulnerability to how they approach them that feels genuine. Yes, there’s moments of levity sprinkled throughout (Grande in particular is hilarious in this). But by the end of the film (or Act One), you feel for the journey these two have gone on together. And hey, it’s pretty rad that for the first time in the play’s history, the character of Nessarose is represented by someone who uses a wheelchair in real life. Just cool to see that represented on screen. I’ll admit the film has its faults. For this being a Wizard of Oz film, one of the most impactful films on color being used in cinema, the film’s palette looks like wet mud, and certain elements of the story feel weirdly glossed over (the animal racism, for example). But there’s a joyous feeling I felt leaving the theater. Maybe I’m just a sucker for any big lavish musicals, but when the performances are this good, the songs are still timeless and sung well, a lot of the faults are more than easily forgiven. - Jon Scott
Nickel Boys, directed by RaMell Ross. Nickel Boys is an engrossing Black film that will destroy you by the time the credits roll. Between the use of the first-person perspective that should hopefully make the characters and the story all the more engrossing as "we" experience events as they do or the blossoming camaraderie between our leads Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson... Nickel Boys is a flat-out wonder. All of the Best Picture nominees feature top tier performances, cast, with great narratives, but RaMell Ross’s directorial efforts, with its inviting presence, warmth, and heart, will leave you floored. The human experience of triumph, despair, love, and being a young Black man has never looked better. - Terrence Sage
Dune Part Two, directed by Denis Villeneuve. It's pretty easy to see why Dune: Part Two is a Best Picture nominee. Instead, I'll spend my time here to discuss the quite frankly criminal lack of nominations it's received in the other major categories. Denis Villeneuve's continued lack of a Best Director nom remains baffling, as does his missing out on Adapted Screenplay. Then there's the acting categories. As much as I love Timothée Chalamet's performance as Bob Dylan, his return to the role of Paul Atreides is absolutely his best performance of the year. Add in career-best turns from Zendaya and especially Rebecca Ferguson, and, well, at least Dune: Part Two got a Best Picture nomination, right? - Ethan Chamberlain
The Substance, directed by Coralie Fargeat. It’s no secret that the horror genre has largely been excluded from the prestige Oscars table, but it seems to have been a secret to the Academy that the horror genre has delivered gold after gold after gold in recent years-- even if its members seldom noticed or cared enough to award it its gold statues. Yet here we are, in 2025, and Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance has somehow seeped into the culture enough to score five Oscar nominations and Prestige AcclaimTM from a notoriously gore-phobic awards body, with its blatant, physical parallels to David Lynch’s The Elephant Man and its exploitation nods to Brian Yuzna’s Society. How exactly, amongst so many horror gems of late, did Fargeat’s Frank Henenlotter-esque film become an Oscar contender, you ask? The answer: the pained, resonant, petrifying, and hilarious performance from alleged “popcorn actress” Demi Moore. Women everywhere (and Academy voters) saw themselves when Moore’s Elisabeth Sparkle stared at herself in the mirror, furiously smearing her fresh lipstick across her face, disgusted in her perceived fleeting youth and beauty, as her date eagerly awaited her response. Fargeat undoubtedly ripped that moment from her own well of life experiences and penned it onto the page, but it was Moore’s own emotional extraction from decades in Hollywood and its ageist standards that elevates this scene to a different level. While the Academy may love a comeback story, it’s really Demi Moore’s sincere performance and genuine enthusiasm for the film and its commentary that makes The Substance extraordinary. And if the gold statue is indeed given to Ms. Moore this Sunday, it will not only be for her. It’ll be for Toni C. It’s for Lupita N. It’s for Olivia H. It’s for Neve C. It’s for Heather L. It’s for Mia G. It’s for Melissa B. You may not be able to escape from yourself, and the Oscars may no longer be able to escape modern horror. - Julieann Stipidis
The Brutalist, directed by Brady Corbet. The Brutalist certainly tries its hardest to become a new epic, clocking in at 3 hours and 20 minutes. And there is certainly a lot of this movie working in its favor, including the incredible score and a stellar performance from Adrien Brody. However, it often fails to meet the moment, leaving us with extended sequences that fizzle into nothingness. The dialogue too feels blunt and ham-fisted in a way that makes it seem at times like a caricature of the types of movies it is supposed to emulate. Ultimately, however, the use of AI to improve the actors’ Hungarian accents and to create the epilogue sequence of Tóth’s designs across his career should disqualify this movie from entering the cultural canon. - Patrick Dickerson
Conclave, directed by Edward Berger. Growing up going to Catholic school, my religion classes were taught with the same importance as reading and math. Most of these lessons were about what happens in the Bible and how to be a good member of the Church, except there was one unit solely focused on the structure of the Catholic Church. Part of these schools’ mission is to create more leaders within the Church, after all. For the enterprising boys among us, they would need to know how to climb up the ranks. Those boys grew up to be lawyers or doctors or some other respectable white collar worker, but it’s not hard to imagine Conclave as an alternate universe where they may have pivoted to another kind of white collar. Though Berger’s film seems intended to appeal to prestige sensibilities, it also found a niche within the community of lapsed Christian/Catholic online queers. From John Paul Brammer’s PopeCrave essay to the edit lovingly titled “LET’S HAVE A CONCLAVE,” the preposterous situation of voting for the next pope is filtered through the lens of reality TV drama. It’s not quite what the film is like - death of the author and all that. Still, there’s no denying the unintentional parallels with lines like “you will NEVER be pope” and a right-wing vaping cardinal. The Vatican actually being inhabited by people who would surely go to Hell is divine schadenfreude. - Rachel
Emilia Pérez, directed by Jacques Audiard. I did not watch Emilia Pérez. Even before the controversy and memes surrounding the film came out, it simply did not look to be that good. They should’ve nominated I Saw the TV Glow instead. But, knowing the track record of the Oscars, it’ll soon join the ranks of Crash and Green Book as winners who everyone agrees are the wrong choice for winning best picture. - Sean Dillon
Anora, directed by Sean Baker. Anora is a reverse Cinderella story if there ever was one. Ani thinks she has found the one in super rich visiting Russian Ivan, as they go on a whirlwind romance that quickly leads to their marriage in a Vegas chapel. But when Ivan’s oligarch parents find out about the situation, the Cinderella story completely shatters. Mikey Madison’s spectacular turn as the titular Anora is just one of a number of great performances in the movie. Yura Borisnov’s kind, soft-mannered Igor is a particular standout and captivates the audience every time he is on screen, even when he only has a handful of words to say. And it helps that he is nice to look at too… - Justin Angebrandt
A Complete Unknown, directed by James Mangold. On the surface, James Mangold’s return to the music biopic genre could seem like any other that’s released since Walk the Line 20 years ago, but by focusing A Complete Unknown on a specific period in Bob Dylan’s life, when the man went electric, and acting more as an ensemble piece about the music culture of the time, it distinguishes itself from the run-of-the-mill fair of prior years. With Mangold’s assured direction, Timothée Chalamet’s spirit-capturing performance as Dylan that he completely vanishes into, Edward Norton’s warm, caring, heart-of-the-film Pete Seeger, and Monica Barbaro’s captivating, star-making turn as Joan Baez, A Complete Unknown is not only deserving of every nomination it’s received, but also winning. - Ethan Chamberlain