Ranking the Best Picture Nominees by how much I like the Letterboxd Review I wrote for each film
It’s my favourite time of year: Awards Season! Ever since I was a little girl I have dreamed about watching every movie nominated for the 2025 Academy Award for Best Picture. This year, that dream finally came true. I’m just kidding, the only movie of this year’s bunch that little Dani would have dreamed about was Wicked—but I have always loved watching the ceremony and keeping up to date with which films are being recognized, celebrated, snubbed, overhyped, or underrated. And this year I did manage to watch all 10 nominees for the final award of the evening, plus all the nominated films in acting, screenplay, score, sound, production design, and both animated and live action shorts categories—sorry documentary shorts, I ran out of time! Of all 50 films nominated this year, I’ve seen 31, with at least one film in each category except for documentary shorts (again, sorry!!)
While 62% isn’t a grade I would normally celebrate, I am pretty pleased! Plus if you run the numbers, which I did, there are 120 nomination “spots” across 23 categories, and by watching 31 nominated films, I have watched 91 of the 120 nominated performances, bringing me to 75.83%. Category wise, I have a horse in 22/23 races (one last time: I’m sorry documentary shorts!)
All of this to say, the following is not a ranking of the 10 nominated films in the Best Picture category, rather it is a much stupider ranking based on how proud I am of my own Letterboxd review of each movie. Yes, I’ve at last arrived to the Letterboxd party and will not claim to have been ahead of the curve.
Reminder: this is not a ranking based how much I enjoyed the movie, it’s based on how much I hope you will enjoy my review.
Spoiler alert: If you like to go into a movie without knowing literally anything, this probably isn’t the pre-Oscar’s read for you, but what would be?
10: Wicked
Really, I couldn’t think of more to say? Listen, I know this movie isn’t perfect, but it gets so many stars because it made me so happy. Also I thought it was good and, despite all the discourse about the colouring, I thought there were some genuinely inspired choices in that regard (i.e. when Elphaba puts on the hat in Defying Gravity and looks the greenest we’ve seen her thus far…I got chills!)
I’ve watched it twice thus far and am so excited for part 2. But all this to say, bland Letterboxd review.
9: Nickel Boys
This one was and still is so hard to talk about because it truly is unlike anything I’ve seen before—which I think is the resounding sentiment from all who have watched RaMell Ross’s debut narrative feature. I think maybe it boils down to a central question the film’s unique POV style forces audiences to ask, which is: How do you legibly communicate psychological trauma that itself obscures your psyche? How do you make sense of senseless violence? I’m glad this film was nominated for Best Picture and Adapted Screenplay. I would love to read the novel it is based on, and I imagine the film will hit even harder upon rewatch.
But in terms of my initial review, did I really have to make a Mulaney reference? (Though I am still puzzled about the horse’s meaning. If you have thoughts on this please share them)
8: A Complete Unknown
I’ll be honest I don’t have much more to say about this one—I liked it!
In terms of my review: points for referencing Club Chalamet, minus points for using “Bob Dylan” as a descriptor because you couldn’t think of anything else to say.
7: Emilia Pérez
Guys what else is there to say about this one? I’m bored. Next!
6: Conclave
I kind of lost my train of thought in this review, but I did enjoy writing it as did I enjoy watching Conclave. More thoughts did not form coherently in the near future, nor are they really forming now. I was talking to my coworker about this and she said that he flies at the end, which I did not catch…
5: Anora
Nice use of the word “bildungsroman” immediately following a less pretentious description of the film that means the same thing. I feel like this film I prefer to talk about then write about, in part because much ink has already been spilled about Sean Baker’s most accessible and mainstream film (I loved Broey Deschenel’s video essay about it), but also because I have way too much fun trying to channel Ani’s accent. The amount of times I’ve held up my hand and said “tha-ree kah-ritz” is more than I’m willing to admit.
4: I’m Still Here
Stream of consciousness that gets across a lot of what I loved about this movie. Can’t wait to rewatch it.
3: The Brutalist
Very rambly, but I meant what I said!
2: Dune Part Two
Listen, I might be a Dune-head. I’m Dune-pilled. I watched this in the morning before work and couldn’t stop thinking about it the rest of the day. Not to make everything about gender but as someone who isn’t well-versed in sci-fi/fantasy genres, it was incredibly interesting to see a universe where the respected spiritual/fantastical leaders are women. how do people understand and engage with the concept of a “reverend mother” both canonically and metatextually; all in all I want to know who and what is out there discussing the gender politics of the Dune universe. Also the direction/visual effects/score/performances/cinematography/production design/editing/everything is incredible stunning showstopping etc etc.
My review: short and sweet, unlike the movie, but true—it was very hard to not shout “Motherrrr” whenever any Bene Gesserit gal or Chani was on screen. Okay, fine, it was also hard to not say “Motherrrrr” whenever Paul Atreides did something cool, which was often.
1: The Substance
I’ve saved the longest for last. Yes it’s rambly, yes it’s a bit too much, yes I go off on several tangents, and yes the review, like this description of the review’s flaws, is redundant. In the words of my pick for Best Supporting Actress: yes, and?
Only things left to say that I didn’t include were:
(In the cadence of a PopCrave tweet) Monstro STUNS in grotesquely reconfigured archival dress initially worn by Sue
“You’ve Got to Pump it Up” was stuck in my head for days after watching this film. And now it’s stuck in my head again. Almost as sticky as those “Pump Up the Jam” needle drops in Cunk on Earth.
Last minute picks and predictions:
I think Best Picture will go to Conclave or Anora. Wild Card pick is Emilia Pérez, since the awards bodies seem to love it so much. I think my personal favourite is Anora (don’t look too closely at the stars in my reviews) but I would be happy with Conclave or Dune Part Two, and my underdog favourites (as in, I don’t think this will win but it would be genuinely so cool if they did) are Nickel Boys and I’m Still Here.
As for the other categories, I think I’ll update this post with my ballot, both what I think will win and what I think should.
Ultimately, I just hope that all teams have fun, because I certainly did.
I hope you enjoyed reading this and I hope you remembered to leave out a bowl of popcorn last night for Conan O’Brien.
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