News

The 97th Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, March 2 at 7 p.m. Et / 4 p.m. Pt. The prestigious ceremony will take place at the iconic Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, continuing the Academy’s rich tradition. The event will be broadcast live on ABC and streamed on platforms like Jio Hotstar, Oscar.com, Oscars.org, and the Academy’s social media handles.

As far as nominations are concerned, Emilia Pérez leads the 2025 Oscar race with 13 nominations, followed closely by The Brutalist and Wicked, each securing 10 nominations. Stay tuned as we update the complete list of 2025 Oscar winners in real time.

Here’s the complete list of the 2025 Oscar nominees and Winners: Best Supporting Actor Yura Borisov (Anora) Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain) – Winner Edward Norton (A Complete Unknown) Guy Pearce (The Brutalist) Jeremy Strong (The Apprentice) Best Animated Feature Film Flow – Winner Inside Out 2 Memoir of a Snail Wallace and...

Attention industryites, the final stretch of awards season is here and it’s all leading up to Hollywood’s biggest night with the 97th annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre. It’s best to pace yourself as the momentum will be building in a big way with a packed schedule of soirees, celebrations and exclusive parties in the coming days. While the below roundup includes many of the typical events — Vanity Fair, Elton John, Madonna, Chanel and Charles Finch, Giorgio Armani and Women in Film are all back with bashes — agencies like UTA have opted to bow out of the party circuit in favor of making donations to L.A. wildfire relief. Here’s all the intel gathered thus far with updates to come throughout the week.

Friday, Feb. 21

Oscar Nominee Spotlight: Breaking the Ceiling — Casting Directors

Academy Museum, 6067 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, 7 p.m.

Casting directors “discuss historic milestones,...

Oscar season is one of the few times that short films get the spotlight. From established filmmakers to exciting up-and-coming talent, the short film categories at the Oscars are always an exciting mix. And, surprisingly, there’s not a single weak link in the 2025 batch, with the least impressive films in each category still having very strong elements.

We at FandomWire have gotten the chance to see all 15 short films nominated for this year’s Oscars across three categories: Live Action, Animated, and Documentary. Below, we will rank each category in terms of our personal preference, as well as tell you what we think will and could win the award.

The Oscar Nominated Live Action Short Films 5. The Last Ranger

Cindy Lee’s The Last Ranger follows a young girl and a nature preserve ranger who are ambushed by poachers. The film is very over-produced with glossy cinematography and an occasionally overbearing score,...

Universal Language, the original and quietly funny Oscar-shortlisted Cannes and TIFF premiering feature by Canadian filmmaker Matthew Rankin debuts on one screen each in New York and LA. Chinese animated juggernaut Ne Zha 2 opens Stateside and Oscar Nominated Shorts are back for a 20th season. Sony Picture Classics’ Becoming Led Zeppelin expands to 1,039 locations from 369 Imax screens and IFC Films jumps Armand to 230 theaters from two. Oscar contenders continue to populate screens.

Oscilloscope’s Universal Language quite likes this window with the Academy Awards a few weeks away. In a crowded market, “this date is great. Once the ceremony comes and goes, there is a rotation of films out of theaters,” says theatrical distribution chief Andrew Carlin.

He calls Rankin a great actor and filmmaker with a particular sense of style and Universal Language a film with “a strangeness to it that defies classification” — a plus for Oscilloscope.

Rankin returned the compliment.

What a shame that “My Year of Dicks,” nominated two years ago, couldn’t have shared company this year with the two animated shorts featuring stop-motion penis. Such is the 2025 slate’s preoccupation with male genitalia that we aren’t entirely sure we haven’t accidentally ingested one of the perception-altering, totally-not-drugs enjoyed by the main character in Nishio Daisuke’s nominated “Magic Candies,” in which a sentient couch begs a young boy to tell his father to stop farting into the cushions. (We’ve all been there.)

Already typically the toughest of the short categories to forecast, this year’s animated shorts contest is even harder than usual because almost none of the benchmarks we typically lean on to help handicap the field are in play this time around. To boot, none of the nominees are backed by Netflix, Pixar, Disney+, or even the one-time quiet heavyweight of this category,...

A few years ago, if you had asked me about the short film categories at the Oscars, my response probably wouldn’t have been very positive. However, thanks to some well chosen additions to its voting members, the Academy has made noticeable improvements – especially in the Best Animated Short Film category. Once dominated by major studios, recent years have seen a rise in independent productions breaking through to the nominee stage. While the winners have remained somewhat predictable, could 2025 be the year a festival favourite takes the prize? We’ve already spoken with the directors of Wander to Wonder and Yuck!, two strong contenders in this year’s race. Now, we’re joined by another: Nicolas Keppens, the filmmaker behind Beautiful Men. One of my standout shorts from the 2024 festival circuit, Beautiful Men explores male insecurities in a fresh and unexpected way – marking Keppens’ first foray into stop-motion animation.

[The following interview is also available to watch at the end of this article.]

As...

Final voting is February 11-18, 2025. The 97th Oscars telecast will be broadcast on Sunday, March 2, and air live on ABC at 7 p.m. Et/ 4 p.m. Pt. We update our picks throughout awards season, so keep checking IndieWire for all our 2025 Oscar predictions.

The State of the Race

The Best Animated Short nominees are “Beautiful Men,” “In the Shadow of the Cypress,” “Magic Candies,” “Wander to Wonder,” and “Yuck!” These are the Oscar shortlist survivors, which represent five countries (but not the U.S.) and boast mostly 2D and stop-motion over CG.

“Wander to Wonder” and “In the Shadow of the Cypress” are the close favorites, followed by “Beautiful Men” and “Yuck!.” All received Annie Award nominations for short or special production.

“Wander to Wonder”: When the creator of an ’80s children’s TV series dies, the three tiny stars are all alone in the studio. They struggle to...

The 2025 Oscar nominations were announced on Thursday to the usual surprised and offended audience.

The announcement was delayed by a few days due to the wildfires spreading across Los Angeles, but Rachel Sennott and Bowen Yang shared the news live on Jan. 23 from the Film Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. The award show is slated to take place as planned, airing on March 2.

Emilia Pérez beat out the other features with 13 nominations; it was closely followed by Wicked and The Brutalist, which each have ten.

Following a Mexican drug lord transitioning gender, Emilia Pérez‘s 13 nominations set a new record for a non-English-language film. Star of the film Karla Sofía Gascón was also submitted for best actress, making her the first openly transgender actress to be nominated.

Following Emilia Pérez, Wicked and The Brutalist are Conclave and A Complete Unknown, which were each mentioned eight times. These films will compete...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has unveiled the nominations for the 97th Academy Awards (Oscars), set to honour the outstanding films of 2024. Originally delayed due to the Los Angeles wildfires, the announcement was made on January 23, from the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

Brady Corbet’s ‘The Brutalist’ leads the pack with multiple nominations, lauded for its ambitious narrative chronicling the life of an immigrant architect in mid-20th-century America.

The Best Actress category has drawn significant attention, with Demi Moore (The Substance) and Karla Sofía Gascón (Emilia Pérez) leading the conversation. Moore’s performance has been hailed as one of the best of her career, while Gascón’s nomination is historic, representing a landmark moment for transgender actors in Hollywood.

In the Best Actor category, Colman Domingo (Sing Sing) stands out for his deeply moving portrayal of a prison inmate seeking redemption.

‘Conclave,’ a gripping...

Updated: Jan. 17, 2025

Trying to figure out what will get nominated in the three short-film categories at the Oscars is one of the hardest things to forecast. Fear not, we are here to help! Below are all 15 films that made the Academy Awards shortlist for Best Animated Short along with descriptions and embedded videos and/or links where available.

Some of the subjects covered by this year’s batch of cartoon shorts are a group of bald brothers confronting their flaws while all seeking hair transplants, a troubled captain attempting to raise his daughter, the brutality of Isis on Coptic men in Africa, and a young boy curious about kissing.

Here is your 2025 Oscars Best Animated Short cheat sheet, ranked based on Gold Derby’s current combined odds:

“Beautiful Men” – 4/1 odds

While staying at a hotel in Istanbul while they all await hair transplants, three bald brothers struggle with their self-confidence.

With November marking the return of the UK’s only Oscar-qualifying animation festival, we’re once again diving into the Manchester Animation Festival programme to highlight must-sees for attendees and flag standout shorts for those following along from afar. With a mixture of recognisable names and exciting new talents, Maf once again promises to be one of the highlights of the festival calendar. This year’s festival offers a range of features, talks, and events, but we’ve zeroed in on the short films and selected eight must-see titles for you to check out:

A Crab in the Pool – Alexandra Myotte & Jean-Sébastien Hamel

Synopsis: In a run-down neighborhood, Zoe and her little brother Theo are left to fend for themselves.

Why to Watch: A regular fixture on the festival scene over the last couple of years, winning awards at Ottawa, SXSW and more, A Crab in the Pool might seem...

The 32nd Hamptons International Film Festival (Hiff) has officially unveiled its 2024 winners.

The festival, which took place from October 4 through October 14, marked the U.S. premiere of John Crowley’s “We Live in Time,” with screenings of “Nightbitch,” “A Real Pain,” “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point,” and R.J. Cutler’s Martha Stewart Netflix documentary “Martha” among the acclaimed features.

Now, IndieWire can exclusively announce the films that the Hiff jury and audience members selected for the top awards. “Armand,” also Norway’s 2025 Oscar submission, won the Hiff Award for Best Narrative Feature. “Armand” stars “A Different Man” and “Worst Person in the World” breakout Renate Reinsve as a mother of a seemingly disturbed six-year-old; the film debuted at Cannes before screening at Hiff. “Armand” is directed by Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel, the grandson of Liv Ullmann and Ingmar Bergman. IFC Films has U.S. distribution rights for “Armand.”

“’Armand’ is...

Although 2024 marks another year where I won’t make it to SXSW in person, I’m lucky enough to have access to the majority of short films screening at the festival, and so have binge-watched my way through them over the last week. Animation undoubtedly reigns supreme this year, with half of my 10 favourites being animated pieces, but as always at SXSW, there’s a diverse programme of films, from moving docs to Wtf classics.

Here are the 10 titles that caught my attention in the 2024 line-up:

A Crab in the Pool – Alexandra Myotte & Jean-Sébastien Hamel

A truly surprising short, A Crab in the Pool initially sucks you in with its strange introduction to the world of two siblings left to fend for themselves on a hot summer’s day, before leaving you reeling from the gut-punch impact of its narrative. Reminiscent of a contemporary Mike Judge animation, but with a surreal twist,...

Mubi has announced its lineup of streaming offerings for next month and amongst the highlights is a tribute to Tilda Swinton, featuring I Am Love and a trio of early films: Cycling Frame, The Box, and Egomania: Island Without Hope. There’s also a handful of notable festival favorites and new releases from the past year or so, including Maureen Fazendeiro and Miguel Gomes’ The Tsugua Diaries, Charlotte Gainsbourg’s Jane by Charlotte, Ted Fendt’s Outside Noise, Émilie Aussel’s Our Eternal Summer, and Kofi Ofosu-Yeboah’s Public Toilet Africa.

Also including films by Takashi Miike, Fatih Akin, Zhang Yimou, Albert Maysles, Andrew Dominik, Rick Alverson, and more check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.

August 1 – Ichi the Killer, directed by Takashi Miike | Takashi Miike: A Double Bill

August 2 – Nest, directed by Hlynur Palmason | Brief Encounters

August 3 – Our Eternal Summer, directed by Émilie Aussel | Festival Focus:...

Wildebeest Trailer — Nicolas Keppens and Matthias Phlips‘ Wildebeest (2018) short film has been released by Ghent and Vimeo. The Wildebeest trailer stars Chris Boni, Sam Louwyck, Wilson Adje Gilles, and Annelore De Donder. Crew Nicolas Keppens and Matthias Phlips wrote the screenplay for Wildebeest. Koen Baeyens was the voice acting director for the short [...]

Continue reading: Wildebeest (2018) Short Film: A Middle-aged couple are Left Behind in the Wilderness during a Safari Trip...

"We keep our clothes on when we're on holiday!" Time for something a bit strange and wild. Wildebeest is an animation + live-action short film from Belgium by filmmakers Nicolas Keppens and Matthias Phlips. Going on a safari is a dream for many. For middle-aged couple Linda and Troyer, it turns into a horribly real adventure when they get left behind in the wilderness. With the voices of Chris Boni and Sam Louwyck as Linda and Troyer. "Both are based on a type of citizen we often met in the streets of our hometown near Ghent, Belgium. They could have been neighbors," the filmmakers explain. This is extra kooky and funny but there's a sweet side to it that makes it all worthwhile by the end. I dig the Gary Larson-esque character designs, they're a perfect fit for the savanna. To turn on subtitles - click the [Cc] button in the right corner.

The Annency International Animation Film Festival announced Saturday evening the winners of its major awards.

Flee, Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s hand-drawn animation telling the true story of a man’s extraordinary journey as a child refugee from Afghanistan, won top honors by nabbing the Annency Cristal for a feature film. Deadline’s Todd McCarthy said Rasmussen “puts you through it in a way that illustrates, instructs, makes you look inward and ask whether you’d have what it takes, if you could tough it out and survive in a cold, hostile world.”

Riz Ahmed and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau will voice the lead roles in an English language version of the film, which will debut later this year, and the pair are also executive producers on the pic.

My Sunny Maad, the debut feature of Oscar-nominated director Michaela Pavlátová, won this year’s Jury Award. The film follows a young Czech woman...

Bad Luck Banging or Loony PornCOMPETITIONGolden BearBad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (Radu Jude) (Review)Silver Bear — Grand Jury PrizeWheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Ryusuke Hamaguchi) (Review)Silver Bear — Jury PrizeMr. Bachmann and His Class (Maria Speth) (Review)Silver Bear for Best DirectorNatural Light (Dénes Nagy)Silver Bear for Best Leading PerformanceMaren Eggert (I'm Your Man)Silver Bear for Best Supporting PerformanceLilla Kizlinger (Forest — I See You Everywhere)Silver Bear for Best ScreenplayIntroduction (Hong Sang-soo)Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic ContributionYibrán Asuad (A Cop Movie)ENCOUNTERSAward for Best FilmWe (Alice Diop) (Review)Special Jury AwardTaste (Lê Bảo) (Review)Award for Best DirectorRamon and Silvan Zürcher (The Girl and the Spider) (Review)Denis Côté (Social Hygiene)Special MentionRock Bottom Riser (Fern Silva)GENERATIONGrand Prix for Best Film (Kplus)Summer Blur (Han Shuai)Special Mention (Kplus) A School in Cerro Hueso (Betania Cappato)Grand Prix for Best Film (14Plus)The Fam (Fred Baillif...

Special mentions went to ‘Cryptozoo’ and ‘A School In Cerro Heuso’.

Fred Baillif’s Swiss feature The Fam and Han Shuai’s Chinese drama Summer Blur have won the grand prix awards in the Berlinale’s Generation strand.

Special mentions were given to Dash Shaw’s US animation Cryptozoo and Betania Cappato’s Argentinian autism drama A School in Cerro Hueso.

The Fam won the grand prix for best film, which includes a cash prize of €7,500, in the Generation 14plus competition.

The drama centres on the residents and staff of a Geneva residental care home for teenage girls, and director...

The Berlin Film Festival has unveiled the lineup of 20 shorts from 17 countries which will compete for the Golden and Silver Bear awards for short films.

The festival said the films “daringly confront the present and rewrite the past,” while imagining “a new tomorrow” in many different ways. “There is longing to understand and to be understood (running) through the selection,” said the fest.

Among the films selected, some explore colonial history, such as “Motorcyclist’s Happiness Won’t Fit Into His Suit,” “Strange Object,” “One Hundred Steps;” others tackle political violence, such as “International Dawn Chorus Day,” and right-wing terror, like “Your Street.”

“A Love Song in Spanish” and “My Uncle Tudor,” meanwhile, confront trauma within people and their families. “Vadim on a Walk,” “Glittering Barbieblood,” “One Thousand and One Attempts to Be an Ocean” look at society; or “Rehearsal” looks at institutions.

Some of the more philosophical and spiritual...

Madrid — Over Oct. 4-7, the city of Segovia will host 3D Wire, Spain’s premier platforms for upcoming animation, video games, 3D and Ar content produced on the Iberian Peninsula, across Latin America and beyond.

This year’s market will see more than 1,000 industry professionals visit the historical Roman city best known for its extremely well preserved aqueducts. Segovia seems an ideal place to host an animation festival; the Alcazar de Segovia Castle is said to have inspired Walt Disney and the logo that accompanies so many of the artform’s most iconic productions.

Attendees will be invited to participate in presentations, screenings, round tables and conferences; a number of prizes will be awarded to upcoming projects; there will be a competition for animated short films. The official competition is broken up into domestic and international sections with the former featuring seven animated shorts, while the rest of the world contributes 26 – five from the U.