2025 Oscars: Directing and Screenplay Races


 The 97th Academy Awards take place on Sunday, March 2. The nominations were announced on January 23. In the run up to this year's awards, I'm looking at different races. Today, it's the races for director and screenplay.

Best Director Nominees:

  • Sean Baker, Anora
  • Brady Corbet, The Brutalist
  • James Mangold, A Complete Unknown
  • Jacques Audiard, Emilia Perez
  • Coralie Fargeat, The Substance
About: This is a strong field with five directors whose films are nominated for Best Picture. But who comes out on top? It feels like an open field, though Mangold would probably be more of a Dark Horse winner. Baker and Anora have fans, as do Corbet and The Brutalist. Fargeat did some amazing work with The Substance, but feels more likely in a writing category. I think the winner here might be Audiard. His film led the Academy Awards with 13 nominations and had some great visuals. I like him to get the award.

Best Adapted Screenplay Nominees:
  • James Mangold and Jay Cocks, A Complete Unknown
  • Jacques Audiard, Emilia Perez
  • Peter Straughn, Conclave
  • RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes, Nickel Boys
  • Greg Kwedar and Greg Bentley, Sing Sing
About: There are a lot of deep films in this group and a lot of potentially worthy winners. I would love to see Sing Sing honored, but that feels like a long shot. I think the front-runner here is Straughn. I like what he did with Conclave and I think it gets the nod here.

Best Original Screenplay Nominees:
  • Sean Baker, Anora
  • Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold, The Brutalist
  • Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain
  • Moritz Bender and Tim Fehlbaum, September 5
  • Coralie Fargeat, The Substance
About: This is an interesting category with three of the films nominated for Best Picture as well. I think Fargeat will have some momentum here. She did some interesting things with her film, and could be the Dark Horse to capture the award. But I think Eisenberg is the front-runner at this point. I think the film was brilliant and incredibly moving. He's my pick for the win.

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