On Sunday, March 15t the biggest names of 2025’s fantastic cinematic year gathered at the 98th Academy Awards. This past year was one of the most competitive years for actors, directors, writers, and designers. From the satirical masterpiece One Battle After Another to the haunting yet culturally significant Sinners, here are my thoughts on some of the nominations, the winners, and the losers.

Despite my self-proclamation as a “cinema lover”, I did not see many movies last year. However, I did see many of the ones that counted. Of the movies I watched, Sinners is without a doubt the one that had the greatest impact on my 2025 cinematic year. Ryan Coogler’s outstanding writing and directing work in the supernatural thriller has made an undeniable impact on the horror genre. The mix of black culture through music and traditions, plus the unexpected vampire element, surprised me in theaters. 

Other than Sinners, the movies Hamnet, One Battle After Another, and Sentimental Value were the best contenders for Best Picture. Movies like Marty Supreme, Bugonia, and Frankenstein were widely discussed —especially Marty Supreme, with its huge social media presence (aka the Marty Supreme jacket many celebs wore and posed in). After viewing these movies and reviewing them, these movies do not scream “I am worthy of winning Best Picture”, but I do think both movies had an amazing story, cast, and writing. 

I might be a bit biased against Timothee Chalamet, as in a recent town-hall-style interview he did with Matthew McConaughey, he made a cheap shot at ballet and opera artists. His rebrand from an aesthetic French-American actor who is deep and strives for greatness to an actor who brings down other art forms while also using black culture to promote his movie did not sit well with me. 

The Best Actor and Actress awards were very competitive this year. Michael B. Jordan was up for Best Actor, and I was rooting for him hard. Again, I loved Sinners; his performance was phenomenal as the “Smokestack” twins, and I think he deserved this award over every actor in the category after his hard work for this movie and throughout his career. Out of the 87 actors who have won in the category, Jordan was the sixth Black actor to win this award, continuing to trailblaze for aspiring Black actors in the industry.

For Best Actress, this category had only one clear winner to me, and that was Jessie Buckley. I just finished watching Hamnet, and Jessie Buckley stunned me, so her win on Sunday did not shock me, but I was so inspired to see her receive her first Academy Award. 

The Best Supporting Actor category was stacked with amazing performances, including Delroy Lindo for Sinners, Benicio Del Toro and Sean Penn for One Battle After Another, Jacob Elordi for Frankenstein, and Stellan Skarsgård for Sentimental Value. Now… this was one of the categories I had high hopes for– because I hoped it was going to go to anyone but Sean Penn. Not only was his performance not the best in the category, but the controversy surrounding him in general also turned me off from his win and him as a person. 

Ryan Coogler and Chloe Zhao’s directorial work this last year was insanely impressive. I won’t ramble on about Hamnet or Sinners since it should be pretty clear how I feel. After the awful BAFTA incident with Delroy Lindo and Michael B Jordan, I was rooting for a Sinners sweep more than ever. Chloe Zhao, on the other hand, represents so much for women, Asian directors & filmmakers, and artists of color in general. While she has already won Oscars for her highly prestigious 2020 film Nomadland, Hamnet’s directing is an especially beautiful auditory experience that goes hand-in-hand with her directing. 

However, Paul Thomas Anderson took home the Oscar for Best Directing. I really can not be mad at this choice. He was the clearest winner to me other than Coogler and Zhao, and he’d already been sweeping the screenplay and director awards this season. Overall, definitely not the worst choice (cough cough, Josh Safdie).

Best Animated Feature is another category that I was quite excited for. It did not take being a movie expert to know which film was going to win. Out of the nominated movies (Zootopia 2, Arco, Elio, KPop Demon Hunters, and Little Amelie or Character of Rain), it was clear that Kpop Demon Hunters was going to win. The film was a huge international success and inspired many young kids around the world. Personally, “Golden”, a very popular song from the movie, seemed to follow me everywhere I went, so I did eventually get sick of the music from the movie. I can not deny the beautiful message.

However, my acknowledgement of KPop Demon Hunters’ success and message did not extend to “Golden” winning the Best Original Song category. I can confidently say that “Golden” is not even the best song in the soundtrack. I’d say “What it Sounds Like” holds the most meaning, and many fans of the movie agree. But this was not the most disappointing aspect of “Golden” winning the Oscar. It was the absolute snub for “I Lied to You”, another nominated song from Sinners. If you could not tell by now, we’re riding at dawn for these Sinners snubs.

“I Lied to You” is not just a beautiful song lyrically; the visual from the movie and the live Oscars performance have blown the audience away. It brings the past, present, and future spirits of song and dance together to celebrate Black and Asian culture. This scene in Sinners is hands down one of the most artistic and well-thought-out scenes I’ve ever seen in a movie. Miles Caton’s powerful voice, the mix of old-timey acoustics and futuristic hip-hop sounds, the minute details in costume design– this song truly solidified my belief that music is a gateway into the soul and lineage. So, I was a bit frustrated watching this song lose.

Other wins of the night, such as Autumn Durald Arkapaw for Best Cinematography (first woman and Black cinematographer to win by the way!), Frankenstein for Best Costume Design, Sinners for Best Original Score (Ludwig Goransson, the man you are), and F1 for Sound are more wins that I was thrilled to watch.

Overall, the wins this year were pretty well-deserved all around, as it was hard for me to make a solid decision on many of the nominations. I have high hopes for this next cinematic year, and hopefully, it can live up to the masterpieces we got to see in 2025.