What Are The Oscar Shortlists?

Big news for culture vultures this morning: the Oscar nominations are in. Wait… Hang on… No, not quite. The Oscar shortlists are in. Here’s what that means.

What Are The Oscar Shortlists?

The Oscar shortlists are lists of potential nominees for 10 key categories in the Academy Awards. The 2024 list indicates potential nominees for the 97th Academy Awards, which will take place on Sunday 2 March 2025. The 10 shortlists are revealed by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (or ‘the Academy’ for short) ahead of the official nominees lists, which will be announced on Friday 17 January 2025.

While not all categories have a shortlist – including big-hitting categories like Best Picture, Best Director and all acting awards – the Oscar shortlists act as an early indicator as to which films have garnered favour and support among members of the Academy, and may well be overlooked. The 10 categories with a shortlist are:

• Documentary Feature Film
• Documentary Short Film
• International Feature Film
• Makeup and Hairstyling
• Music (Original Score)
• Music (Original Song)
• Animated Short Film
• Live Action Short Film
• Sound and Visual Effects

Jack Quaid, Florence Pugh, Ellen Mirojnick, Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Ludwig Göransson, Charles Roven, Robert Downey Jr., Luisa Abel, Emma Thomas, Hoyte van Hoytema, Ruth De Jong, Christopher Nolan, Josh Hartnett, Ashley Everett and Claire Kaufman accept the Oscar® for Best Picture during the live ABC telecast of the 96th Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 10, 2024. (Trae Patton / ©A.M.P.A.S.)

Who Decides The Oscar Nominations?

The Academy and its 10,500 global members decide the Oscar nominations. Made up of the most accomplished film industry artists and leaders from across the globe, the Academy members vote for who they think should be nominated for the Oscars from the shortlists, with the top votes collated into the official nominees. For the 97th Academy Awards, voting will open on Wednesday 8 January and close on Sunday 12 January 2025, before the results are announced the following Friday. Once the official nominees are locked in, members will be able to vote for their winners from 11–18 February 2025.

Each award has a specific ‘branch’ of Academy members eligible to vote. For example, members of the Academy’s Documentary Branch vote on to determine the shortlist and the nominees for Documentary Feature Film and Documentary Short Film, the Academy’s Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Branch vote on the Makeup and Hairstyling category, while all branches are invited to vote on the likes of International Feature Film and Live Action Short Film. However, in order to vote, members must meet a minimum viewing requirement. Now the shortlisting round has passed, only members who have watched all of the shortlisted films will be eligible to vote on who should be nominated.

97th Academy Awards Shortlists

Documentary Feature Film

• The Bibi Files
• Black Box Diaries
• Dahomey
• Daughters
• Eno
• Frida
• Hollywoodgate
• No Other Land
• Porcelain War
• Queendom
• The Remarkable Life of Ibelin
• Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
• Sugarcane
• Union
• Will & Harper

Documentary Short Film

• Chasing Roo
• Death by Numbers
• Eternal Father
• I Am Ready, Warden
• Incident
• Instruments of a Beating Heart
• Keeper
• Makayla’s Voice: A Letter to the World
• Once upon a Time in Ukraine
• The Only Girl in the Orchestra
• Planetwalker
• The Quilters
• Seat 31: Zooey Zephyr
• A Swim Lesson
• Until He’s Back

Selena Gomez as Jessi in Emilia Pérez. (Netflix)

International Feature Film

• Brazil, I’m Still Here
• Canada, Universal Language
• Czech Republic, Waves
• Denmark, The Girl with the Needle
• France, Emilia Pérez
• Germany, The Seed of the Sacred Fig
• Iceland, Touch
• Ireland, Kneecap
• Italy, Vermiglio
• Latvia, Flow
• Norway, Armand
• Palestine, From Ground Zero
• Senegal, Dahomey
• Thailand, How to Make Millions before Grandma Dies
• United Kingdom, Santosh

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Makeup & Hairstyling

• The Apprentice
• Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
• A Different Man
• Dune: Part Two
• Emilia Pérez
• Maria
• Nosferatu
• The Substance
• Waltzing with Brando
• Wicked

Ariana Grande in Wicked

Music (Original Score)

• Alien: Romulus
• Babygirl
• Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
• Blink Twice
• Blitz
• The Brutalist
• Challengers
• Conclave
• Emilia Pérez
• The Fire Inside
• Gladiator II
• Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1
• Inside Out 2
• Nosferatu
• The Room Next Door
• Sing Sing
• The Six Triple Eight
• Wicked
• The Wild Robot
• Young Woman and the Sea

Moana 2 (© Disney)

Music (Original Song)

• ‘Forbidden Road’ from Better Man
• ‘Winter Coat’ from Blitz
• ‘Compress/Repress’ from Challengers
• ‘Never Too Late’ from Elton John: Never Too Late
• ‘El Mal’ from Emilia Pérez
• ‘Mi Camino’ from Emilia Pérez
• ‘Sick In The Head’ from Kneecap
• ‘Beyond’ from Moana 2
• ‘Tell Me It’s You’ from Mufasa: The Lion King
• ‘Piece By Piece’ from Piece by Piece
• ‘Like A Bird’ from Sing Sing
• ‘The Journey’ from The Six Triple Eight
• ‘Out Of Oklahoma’ from Twisters
• ‘Kiss The Sky’ from The Wild Robot
• ‘Harper And Will Go West’ from Will & Harper

Animated Short Film

• Au Revoir Mon Monde
• A Bear Named Wojtek
• Beautiful Men
• Bottle George
• A Crab in the Pool
• In the Shadow of the Cypress
• Magic Candies
• Maybe Elephants
• Me
• Origami
• Percebes
• The 21
• Wander to Wonder
• The Wild-Tempered Clavier
• Yuck!

Live Action Short Film

• Anuja
• Clodagh
• The Compatriot
• Crust
• Dovecote
• Edge of Space
• The Ice Cream Man
• I’m Not a Robot
• The Last Ranger
• A Lien
• The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent
• The Masterpiece
• An Orange from Jaffa
• Paris 70
• Room Taken

Sound

• Anuja
• Clodagh
• The Compatriot
• Crust
• Dovecote
• Edge of Space
• The Ice Cream Man
• I’m Not a Robot
• The Last Ranger
• A Lien
• The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent
• The Masterpiece
• An Orange from Jaffa
• Paris 70
• Room Taken

Gladiator II (Paramount Pictures)

Visual Effects

• Alien: Romulus
• Better Man
• Civil War
• Deadpool & Wolverine
• Dune: Part Two
• Gladiator II
• Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
• Mufasa: The Lion King
• Twisters
• Wicked

When Are The 2025 Oscars?

The 97th Academy Awards will return to Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre on Sunday 2 March 2025. The ceremony will begin at 4pm Pacific Time (midnight here in the UK). The ceremony will be hosted by Conan O’Brien.

Looking for the Oscar nominations? You’ll have to wait a little while longer: all of the nominees will be revealed by the Academy on Friday 17 January 2025.