Oscars 2025

Once more the clue is in the statement - SOME people didn't like it. You'll always find critics for popular art. Many in the trans community loved it. Many hated it. To extrapolate the few negative critics as speaking for an entire community is insulting to those within the community who have their own individual opinions. A simple comparison would be you speaking on behalf of all Irish people and state that we as a community dislike the movie simply you and some others may not like it. It's patronising to people, and frankly a tad foolish.

In terms of Best International Film the movie in that category with most general nominations ALWAYS wins it. Always. All Quiet on the Western Front, Parasite, Roma, The Zone of Interest, etc. But for Gascón's comments the same would have happened this time. Overwhelming favourite with bookies until their disclosure and it'll be the same in terms of weight of nominations in 2026.

In terms of Best International Film name a winner in that category that lacked the most general nominations.

There's criticism of every last awards-nominated movie. Anora, The Brutalist, Substance and others got plenty of it this year. A few critics do not a community make. Best not to use your post to speak for entire communities.

Maybe they're awaiting thr third part before handing out gongs as with Lord of the Rings? The first two Dunes were pretty spectacular and hopefully the awards come in March 2027, looks like being released in 18 months.

I only watched Anora there on Saturday just before the Oscars but found its central performance really powerful. Bounced between uproariously funny to quietly devastating, with characters saying a ton by a simple look between them.

First 40 minutes were pretty rough to sit through tho, despite being pretty vital to the structure of the story. Anyway after Florida Project just getting a single nomination I'm happy to see a really big night of wins for Sean Baker.

Also wrt its ending it really does complete the film, layers of ambiguity that keep it lodged in your brain after watching, ensuring that IMO it will be one of those films which ages really well as a BP Win. Not easy to forget

That's a lot of the point of Sean Baker's approach to filmmaking… was the same in Tangerine and Florida Project. Often we see these sorts of characters sanitised with this 'hooker with a heart of gold' stuff, Pretty Woman style. Baker's films are more honest, they show more flawed and raw characters, and also the circumstances and environments that explain these behaviours and emotional defence mechanisms — all within a compelling narrative. Tbh I love this approach, and it's exactly what makes that final moment of genuine vulnerability all the more earned and impactful.

I can see how some audiences might prefer to have a more straightforwardly narrative and character presentation, but for me at least it's a feature rather than a bug and is what makes his version of otherwise well-trodden stories a bit different and more interesting than we normally see.

I get that but at the same time I expect something more then expose of a real hookers reality in a totally unlikeable way as best film of the year.
Say compare this style of presenting harsh reality vs Jimmy Mcgoverns work. He gets you into the position of the characters. You feel them and their troubles even if they are a million miles away from your own reality. This woman was just a horrible skank as I said who was tough to sit through. And the payoff of watching her get on a guy at the end and then cry at her grim reality is nowhere near enough of an emotional payoff to give this such an award. I need more then that.

Nosferatu should have been in the list for best film.

I fully agree. We can look back at how Godfather I and II fared at the awards, each hugely successful based entirely on merit, though at the time of the first there was no confirmation there'd be a second. LOTR and Dune announced their trilogies in advance so the Academy decided to wait. Hugely unfair as the third Dune might be a mess and the series ends up with sod all. I doubt it though.

I dont think she needs to be redeemed but there is nothing redeeming about her. She’s vulgar in extreme. Would you like to be around a girl who screamed and cursed non stop at everything and was generally fairly psychotic. The reality of this would be terrible.

And ask for the term skank, there was a lot worse in the film then that. There is also the question of damning words that make you uncomfortable in artistic format which is the ultimate irony is it not? The art itself can do or say whatever it wants but the commentary cant? Dangerous territory.

The reality is she was a nasty girl without any self respect, even in the court room she spoke in the lowest form possible. So for me if that was a person that I knew in real life likely that would be my opinion of her. I dont hold out any fantasy of this type of person being salt of the earth. Cynical and not very nice yes, one might even say I’m an *sshole but I believe synopsis is closer to reality certainly then any positive assessment of the character.

All those points are fair. But do you think this film is that good really, as opposed to say just a decent enjoyable film? You dont think that this being voted by the peers as the best thing made this year is not a drop in the standards or do you think it stands up to what was winning 20,30,40 years ago?

Its hard to argue with it being the best hollywood film this year since the rest is nothing to shout about. Although have not seen Emilia Perez.
But otherwise I think its a very generous assessment from you there! Maybe I’m missing something…but I cant see any greatness in it to make it so worthy.

Regarding the Best Cinematography award, I see The Brutalist won it. I was a little surprised that Nosferatu didn't win it, because I've seen both films and thought that Nosferatu was amazing in terms of cinematography. Admittedly, I don't know a lot about the art of cinematography, but I just thought that Nosferatu looked amazing and conjured up a really immersive and atmospheric experience.

Do you people agree?

I really liked Anora and gave it a personal 8/10 rating on IMDB. I didn't find it problematic morally at all. However, if this is the Best Picture of 2025, I'm not impressed with this Best Picture award and/or the current state/quality of films on offer in 2025. In the back of my mind I've got Elon Musk's X post about DEI influencing the Oscars so perhaps that has something to do with it, or perhaps not. But while I think Anora is a very good film, and very enjoyable, I don't think it was that great and during one or two points in it I was thinking "WTF is going on here, this isn't good" (there were a couple of absurd bits).

The porn claim also doesn't really stand up when you consider plenty of critically acclaimed European movies do have unsimulated sex. It doesn't make them pornographic though, porn only really applies if something is devoid of artistic merit etc. I also wouldn't say Anora had particularly shocking levels of sex or anything .

This is something I have been thinking about lately: it seems to be very rare for a film to get an 18 cert in Ireland this last few years. Is there a list online where you can see the ratings of Irish films and maybe compare them to other countries?