Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday.
Oscars Commentary (Updated Dec. 6, 2024): We’ve officially entered the thick of awards season, and it feels like the Oscars playoffs are in full swing. The glitz, glamour, and chaos kicked off with the Gotham Awards, setting the tone for what promises to be an unpredictable and heated race. The East Coast ceremony delivered the first shock of the season when A24’s dark dramedy “A Different Man,” starring Sebastian Stan, took home the top prize over the presumptive favorite and buzzy contender “Anora.”
One day later, the New York Film Critics Circle added to the drama by naming Brady Corbet’s historical epic “The Brutalist” as Best Film. This further complicated the narrative when it was nearly shut out of the Independent Spirit Awards the following day, where “Anora” led the nomination tally again alongside the spring indie sleeper “I Saw the TV Glow.”
Meanwhile, the National Board of Review threw its weight behind Universal’s undeniably popular blockbuster “Wicked,” giving Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande an extra prize. That came with acting prizes for Daniel Craig’s work in the cerebral LGBTQ drama “Queer” and Nicole Kidman’s work as a sexually charged CEO in “Babygirl.”
Next up is the Los Angeles Film Critics Awards on Sunday (predictions below) and the Golden Globe nominations on Monday. We’re all just trying to decipher what it could all mean. The newest Oscar projections are also listed, with category pages updated throughout the weekend.
Los Angeles Film Critics Predictions
Best Film: “All We Imagine as Light”
(alt: “The Brutalist” or “Wicked”)
Director: Brady Corbet, “The Brutalist”
(alt: Sean Baker, “Anora” or RaMell Ross, “Nickel Boys”)
Lead Performance: Adrien Brody, “The Brutalist” and Marianne Jean-Baptiste, “Hard Truths”
(alt: Nicole Kidman, “Babygirl” or Fernanda Torres, “I’m Still Here”)
Supporting Performance: Yura Borisov, “Anora” and Ariana Grande, “Wicked”
(alt: Kieran Culkin, “A Real Pain” or Danielle Deadwyler, “The Piano Lesson”)
Screenplay: “The Seed of the Sacred Fig”
(alt. “Anora” or “A Real Pain”)
Cinematography: “Nickel Boys”
(alt. “Dune: Part Two” or “The Girl with the Needle”)
Editing: “The Substance”
(alt. “The Brutalist” or “Challengers”)
Music Score: “The Brutalist”
(alt. “Queer” or “The Wild Robot”)
Production Design: “The Brutalist”
(alt. “Nosferatu” or “Wicked”)
Foreign Language Film: “I’m Still Here”
(alt. “All We Imagine as Light” or “The Seed of the Sacred Fig”)
Documentary/Non-Fiction Film: “No Other Land”
(alt. “Black Box Diaries” or “Daughters”)
Animation: “Flow”
(alt. “Memoir of a Snail” or “The Wild Robot”)
New Generation Award: RaMell Ross, “Nickel Boys”
(alt. Malcolm Washington, “The Piano Lesson” or Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio, “In the Summer”)
Best Picture
“Anora” (Neon)
“The Brutalist” (A24)
“A Complete Unknown” (Searchlight Pictures)
“Conclave” (Focus Features)
“Dune: Part Two” (Warner Bros.)
“Emilia Pérez” (Netflix)
“Gladiator II” (Paramount Pictures)
“Hard Truths” (Bleecker Street)
“Sing Sing” (A24)
“Wicked” (Universal Pictures) ***
Director
Jacques Audiard
“Emilia Pérez” (Netflix)
Sean Baker
“Anora” (Neon)
Edward Berger
“Conclave” (Focus Features)
Jon M. Chu ***
“Wicked” (Universal Pictures)
Brady Corbet
“The Brutalist” (A24)
Actor
Adrien Brody ***
“The Brutalist” (A24)
Timothée Chalamet
“A Complete Unknown” (Searchlight Pictures)
Daniel Craig
“Queer” (A24)
Colman Domingo
“Sing Sing” (A24)
Ralph Fiennes
“Conclave” (Focus Features)
Actress
Cynthia Erivo ***
“Wicked” (Universal Pictures)
Karla Sofía Gascón
“Emilia Pérez” (Netflix)
Marianne Jean-Baptiste
“Hard Truths” (Bleecker Street)
Angelina Jolie
“Maria” (Netflix)
Mikey Madison
“Anora” (Neon)
Supporting Actor
Yura Borisov
“Anora” (Neon)
Kieran Culkin ***
“A Real Pain” (Searchlight Pictures)
Clarence Maclin
“Sing Sing” (A24)
Guy Pearce
“The Brutalist” (A24)
Denzel Washington
“Gladiator II” (Paramount Pictures)
Supporting Actress
Danielle Deadwyler
“The Piano Lesson” (Netflix)
Ariana Grande
“Wicked” (Universal Pictures)
Saoirse Ronan
“Blitz” (Apple Original Films)
Isabella Rossellini
“Conclave” (Focus Features)
Zoe Saldaña ***
“Emilia Pérez” (Netflix)
Original Screenplay
“Anora” (Neon) ***
Sean Baker
“The Brutalist” (A24)
Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold
“Hard Truths” (Bleecker Street)
Mike Leigh
“A Real Pain” (Searchlight Pictures)
Jesse Eisenberg
“The Seed of the Sacred Fig” (Neon)
Mohammad Rasoulof
Adapted Screenplay
“Conclave” (Focus Features) ***
Peter Straughan
“Nickel Boys” (Amazon MGM Studios)
RaMell Ross, Joslyn Barnes
“The Room Next Door” (Sony Pictures Classics)
Pedro Almodóvar
“Sing Sing” (A24)
Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Clarence Maclin, John “Divine G” Whitfield
“Wicked” (Universal Pictures)
Winnie Holzman, Dana Fox
Animated Feature
“Flow” (Janus Films and Sideshow)
“Inside Out 2” (Pixar)
“Memoir of a Snail” (IFC Films)
“Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” (Netflix)
“The Wild Robot” (DreamWorks Animation) ***
Production Design
“Blitz” (Apple Original Films)
“Dune: Part Two” (Warner Bros.)
“Gladiator II” (Paramount Pictures)
“Nosferatu” (Focus Features)
“Wicked” (Universal Pictures) ***
Cinematography
“The Brutalist” (A24)
“Dune: Part Two” (Warner Bros.) ***
“Maria” (Netflix)
“Nickel Boys” (Amazon MGM Studios)
“Nosferatu” (Focus Features)
Costume Design
“A Complete Unknown” (Searchlight Pictures)
“Dune: Part Two” (Warner Bros.)
“Gladiator II” (Paramount Pictures)
“Maria” (Netflix)
“Wicked” (Universal Pictures) ***
Film Editing
“Anora” (Neon)
“The Brutalist” (A24)
“Conclave” (Focus Features) ***
“Dune: Part Two” (Warner Bros.)
“Wicked” (Universal Pictures)
Makeup and Hairstyling
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” (Warner Bros.)
“A Different Man” (A24)
“Dune: Part Two” (Warner Bros.)
“The Substance” (Mubi)
“Wicked” (Universal Pictures) ***
Sound
“Blitz” (Apple Original Films)
“A Complete Unknown” (Searchlight Pictures)
“Dune: Part Two” (Warner Bros.)
“Gladiator II” (Paramount Pictures)
“Wicked” (Universal Pictures) ***
Visual Effects
“Better Man” (Paramount Pictures)
“Dune: Part Two” (Warner Bros.)
“Gladiator II” (Paramount Pictures) ***
“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” (20th Century Studios)
“Wicked” (Universal Pictures)
Original Score
“The Brutalist” (A24) ***
“Conclave” (Focus Features)
“Emilia Pérez” (Netflix)
“The Room Next Door” (Sony Pictures Classics)
“The Wild Robot” (DreamWorks Animation)
Original Song
“Forbidden Road” from “Better Man” (Paramount Pictures)
“El Mal” from “Emilia Pérez” (Netflix) ***
“The Journey” from “The Six Triple Eight” (Netflix)
“Kiss the Sky” from “The Wild Robot” (DreamWorks Animation)
“Harper and Will Go West” from “Will and Harper” (Netflix)
Documentary Feature
“Dahomey” (Mubi)
“Daughters” (Netflix) ***
“No Other Land” (ImmerGuteFilme)
“Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” (Kino Lorber)
“Sugarcane” (National Geographic Documentary Films)
International Feature
“Dahomey” from Senegal (Mubi)
“Emilia Pérez” from France (Netflix) ***
“Kneecap” from Ireland (Sony Pictures Classics)
“I’m Still Here” from Brazil (Sony Pictures Classics)
“The Seed of the Sacred Fig” from Germany (Neon)
Source : https://variety.com/lists/2025-oscars-predictions/international-feature-6/