What the Oscars Would Look Like if We Were Calling the Shots

After months of anticipation, the 98th Academy Awards will roll out the red carpet for cinema’s best and brightest, bringing the curtain down on a long-drawn-out awards season. The industry has already made some, if not all, of its favourites clear through precursors like the Baftas and the Actor Awards. While pundits attempt to make informed predictions about who will walk away with the Oscar, prognosticators are placing bets on potential snubs and surprises. But winning the gold statuette requires more than just a great piece of filmmaking. More often than not, it entails a multi-million-dollar campaign, a heart-tugging narrative, and luck. Rest assured that none of them has any bearing on our picks.

Ahead, we imagine what the Oscars would look like if we were calling the shots.

BEST PICTURE

Emotionally resonant, patiently paced, and beautifully photographed, Hamnet is far and away the most accomplished film of 2025. Its interrogation of love in the face of loss is devastating and deeply human. Aside from its thematic elements, this period drama showcases an ensemble of filmmakers firing on all cylinders. From the instinctual directing and performances to the intricately tailored production design and costumes, Hamnet recreates a rural Elizabethan life that feels completely lived-in.

Nominees: Familiar Touch / Hamnet / It Was Just an Accident / Marty Supreme / Materialists / No Other Choice / Preparation for the Next Life / Sirât / The Phoenician Scheme / The Things You Kill

BEST DIRECTOR

Wes Anderson’s highly stylised world‑building is undoubtedly a hallmark of his filmography, but so are his detached characters, whose deadpan demeanour often keeps audiences at arm’s length. Then comes The Phoenician Scheme. Operating within his signature style, he manages to navigate oddball comedic tones and deeper themes like familial relationships, redemption, and the corrupting nature of power with aplomb.

Nominees: Alireza Khatami (The Things You Kill) / Celine Song (Materialists) / Chloé Zhao (Hamnet) / Jafar Panahi (It Was Just an Accident) / Wes Anderson (The Phoenician Scheme)

BEST ACTOR

The Best Actor category is not a wasteland for once? Colour me surprised. Joshua Burge’s introspective turn as a man bogged down by helplessness and guilt is particularly noteworthy. Loud in his silence, carefully concealing an internal disarray, Burge offers a more compassionate read on the male loneliness epidemic through his Marty Jackitansky.

Nominees: Dylan O’Brien (Twinless) / Jesse Plemons (Bugonia) / Joshua Burge (Vulcanizadora) / Théodore Pellerin (Lurker) / Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme)

BEST ACTRESS

Jessie Buckley is running away with the competition, and it’s not even close. Turning in a tour-de-force performance as Agnes Shakespeare, a mother grieving the loss of her child, Buckley transforms the silver screen into a mirror of raw human emotion. She holds the audience captive as her soft nature hardens as her story goes along.

Nominees: Eva Victor (Sorry, Baby) / Jessie Buckley (Hamnet) / Kathleen Chalfant (Familiar Touch) / Lea Myren (The Ugly Stepsister) / Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

This is honestly the least inspired (acting) category this year. We had a hard time mustering even three nominees. That said, Jacobi Jupe’s remarkable portrayal of Hamnet is a sight to behold. The 13-year-old delivers a performance beyond his years as he conveys curiosity, mischief, and the kind of vulnerability required to establish the film’s emotional foundation.

Nominees: Adam Sandler (Jay Kelly) / Diego Luna (Kiss of the Spider Woman) / Fred Hechinger (Preparation for the Next Life) / Jacobi Jupe (Hamnet) / Pedro Pascal (Materialists)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Sophie’s storyline might have been shoehorned into Materialists, mistreated as a mere MacGuffin, but Zoë Winters is wonderful in the role. Winters charts the spectrum of emotions—hope, desperation, and shame—of a woman navigating the modern dating landscape so convincingly that it almost turns the movie on its head.

Nominees: Amy Madigan (Weapons) / Glenn Close (Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery) / Jodie Comer (28 Years Later) / Odessa A’zion (Marty Supreme) / Zoë Winters (Materialists)

BEST SCREENPLAY

We have always admired those who could turn a simple idea into complex imagery. That is why Jafar Panahi’s latest stood out to us. Using a roadside accident and reasonable doubt as plot devices, the screenplay expands into a gripping exploration of trauma and justice, culminating in an ending more frightening than any horror fare in recent years.

Nominees: Hamnet / It Was Just an Accident / Marty Supreme / Materialists / The Things You Kill

Now, our picks for the below-the-line categories:

BEST ENSEMBLE

Nominees: Presence / Sirât / Splitsville / The Phoenician Scheme / The Things You Kill

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Marty Supreme / Presence / The Phoenician Scheme / Twinless / Universal Language

BEST EDITING

Marty Supreme / No Other Choice / Splitsville / The Phoenician Scheme / Twinless

BEST SOUND

F1 / Frankenstein / Peter Hujar’s Day / Sinners / Sirât

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Bugonia / Frankenstein / Hamnet / Marty Supreme / Sirât

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

Free (Kpop Demon Hunters) / Golden (Kpop Demon Hunters) / I Lied To You (Sinners) / Love and Obsession (Lurker) / Messy (F1)

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Eternity / Frankenstein / Hamnet / Marty Supreme / The Phoenician Scheme

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Eternity / Frankenstein / Jay Kelly / The Phoenician Scheme / The Ugly Stepsister

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING

28 Years Later / Frankenstein / Keeper / The Smashing Machine / The Ugly Stepsister

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

28 Years Later / F1 / Frankenstein / Keeper / Together

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