The 2025 Oscar Nominations are here, and once again, movie-goers are surprised, thrilled, and outraged by the decisions of the Academy. With the most Oscar nominations of 2025 going to the wildly unpopular crowd-least-favorite yet critical-darling Emilia Perez, many have started to take note of what films, actors, and directors are missing out on their just-deserved accolades at this year’s ceremony.
One of the biggest snubs of the 2025 Oscar nominations is Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers. The Italian director won big in 2017 with his hit romance Call Me By Your Name, which catapulted 2025 Best Actor Nominee Timothee Chaletmet to A-list status. Many fans saw Challengers as Guadagnino’s return to glory, noticing similarities between the sexually charged and artistically shot sports drama. Critics and fans alike praised Zendaya for her role as the hyper-confident Tashi Donaldson, yet she also received no nods despite appearing in two of the year’s most talked-about films.
While Zendaya faced another snub following her performance in Dune Part II, the film’s biggest snub at the 2025 Academy Awards is that director Denis Villeneuve did not receive a nomination despite the film receiving a Best Picture nod. In 2022, Dune received ten nominations and went on to bring home six awards, including Best Picture. However, the film’s first installment also failed to recognize the director behind the picture’s success.
While Dune Part II and Emilia Perez are contenders for the most significant award of the night – Best Picture – one film was locked out of the category, leaving many scratching their heads. Sing Sing was one of the year’s best films, with exquisite performances by Coleman Domingo and Clarence Maclin. The moving film follows the real-life experience of Divine G, one of the screenplay’s writers. Though he is nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, the fact that the film was left out of the Best Picture category is one of the biggest snubs of the season.
