The Academy Awards Are Sunday: Will It Be a Wicked Night?
BU film experts CFA Dean Harvey Young and Betsy Walters (COM'20, GRS'25) share their insights and predictions
Films nominated for this year’s Academy Award for best picture. Unlike last year, when Oppenheimer was the clear favorite to win (and did), this year’s race for Hollywood’s biggest prize seems to be up for grabs. Photos via IMDb
The Academy Awards Are Sunday: Will It Be a Wicked Night?
The show goes on after devastating Los Angeles fires, and BU film experts say Emilia Pérez, The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, and Anora will likely win Oscars
This article was originally published in BU Today on February 26, 2025. By John O’Rourke
EXCERPT
Sunday night, tens of millions of people around the globe will tune in live (or later on various social media platforms) to watch the 97th Academy Awards ceremony, even as cleanup from the devastating Los Angeles wildfires continues just outside the doors of the Dolby Theatre.
To gain some insight into this year’s nominees and what to expect Sunday, BU Today spoke with film scholar Harvey Young, dean of the College of Fine Arts and a College of Arts & Sciences professor of English, and Betsy Walters (COM’20, GRS’25), whose PhD dissertation is about the Academy Awards and their cultural relevance.
Q&A
With Harvey Young and Betsy Walters
BU Today: What surprised you most about this year’s nominations?
Young: I thought there would be more big-budget sequels among the nominees. They dominated the box office. I’m glad that Academy members mostly sought out smaller films.
Walters: It was a bit surprising that Emilia Pérez and the Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown,received as many nominations as they did, and certainly the Brazilian film I’m Still Here, which came on very strong with Best Actress and Best Picture nominations.
BU Today: Who got snubbed this year?
Young: John M. Chu, the director of Wicked. That’s a snub that rankles.
Walters: A lot of people were surprised that Challengers received no nominations, particularly its score. It’s a bit of a surprise to see Fernanda Torres (I’m Still Here) get a Best Actress nomination over some big-name past Oscar winners like Nicole Kidman and Angelina Jolie.
BU Today: OK, let’s turn to your predictions for who will win in the major categories, starting with best picture. Who should win and who will win?
Young: The Brutalist will win. I spent the first 15 minutes of Anora wondering how it was even nominated for Best Picture and the last 20 minutes convinced that it might be the dark horse for Best Picture. For that journey alone, I’ll say that Anora should win.
Walters: Emilia Pérez seemed like the front-runner, but the recent scandals have taken a toll. Anora winning the top PGA and DGA awards suggests that it’s the new front-runner (and I loved it—comedy is a genre that is underrepresented at the Oscars, and it’s hilarious, if also heartbreaking). The Oscars are voted on by preferential ballot, which often means that the films that are broadly popular end up winning—i.e., people choose their very favorite film for No. 1 (which can be polarizing, love-it-or-hate-it type choices), and the No. 2 vote goes to a film that’s a little more well-liked by everyone. The number two film often ends up winning in that case, since it gets more overall support, and that might benefit films like Conclave, A Complete Unknown, or Wicked, which have broader appeal.