Oscar Nominations Snubs and Surprises: ‘Challengers’ Shut Out, Selena Gomez and Denzel Washington Miss and ‘Nosferatu’ Overperforms

Oscar Nominations Snubs and Surprises: ‘Challengers’ Shut Out, Selena Gomez and Denzel Washington Miss and ‘Nosferatu’ Overperforms

The 2025 Oscar nominations saw a number of big names and Oscar favorites (Angelina Jolie, Denzel Washington, Nicole Kidman, Selena Gomez, Zendaya, Luca Guadagnino and the rest of the Challengers team) miss out on recognition this year.

Indeed, Challengers, despite being in the awards conversation all season, with Golden Globe nominations for the film and star Zendaya and winning at the Globes for best score for Oscar faves Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, failed to receive a single Oscar nomination on Thursday morning.

Challengers director Luca Guadagnino also saw his other awards hopeful film, the Daniel Craig-starrer Queer, fail to receive any nominations, including for Craig who was seen as a possible best actor nominee though he was notably snubbed by the BAFTAs.

Also snubbed by the BAFTAs but still was a possible nominee is two-time Oscar winner Washington, who was left out of the best supporting actor category for his work in Gladiator II, which only earned one nomination.

The Angelina Jolie-starrer Maria was another expected nominee in multiple categories that only received one nomination, for Oscar fave Ed Lachman’s cinematography.

Joining Challengers and Queer in receiving no nominations Thursday morning despite pundits predicting some nods are the Nicole Kidman-starring Babygirl, which was racking up nominations and awards earlier this season and like Challengers is an erotic thriller; The Last Showgirl, as stars Pamela Anderson and recent Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis landed SAG Awards nominations; Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths, including its star Marianne Jean-Baptiste, seen as a likely nominee roughly 30 years after she was nominated for Secrets and Lies after receiving acclaim from other organizations this season; and Ireland’s Kneecap, missing out on a best international feature nomination despite its strong performance with the BAFTA nominations.

While those films underperformed, Robert Eggers’ vampire film Nosferatu received more nominations than expected with four nods (for cinematography, costume design, makeup and hairstyling and production design).

Elsewhere in the best picture category, Sing Sing, September 5 and A Real Pain all missed out on nominations, despite the latter two landing Producers Guild Awards nominations, while Nickel Boys and I’m Still Here were surprise best picture nominees.

Meanwhile, after Denis Villeneuve’s Dune performed well with the Film Academy, expectations were high for Dune: Part 2, but the sequel missed out on some categories where experts expected it to get nominated including adapted screenplay, costume design, makeup and hairstyling and editing. However the film landed a best picture nom.

In the best supporting actress category both The Substance‘s Margaret Qualley and Emilia Pérez‘s Selena Gomez missed out on expected nods while A Complete Unknown‘s Monica Barbaro got a nomination for her role as Joan Baez.

For best supporting actor, Sing Sing‘s Clarence Maclin was a surprise omission as The Apprentice‘s Jeremy Strong made the cut.

And though their films earned nominations, directors Edward Berger (Conclave), Jon M. Chu (Wicked) and RaMell Ross (Nickel Boys) missed out on best directing nominations.