AwardsWatch Podcast Ep. 271 – 2025 Oscar Nominations Reactions

2025 Oscar nominations for the 97th Academy Awards have been revealed and on episode 271 of the AwardsWatch podcast Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson is joined by Executive Editor Ryan McQuade and Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello to break down everything that went down.

From the field best 13 nominations for Emilia Pérez (is this finally their Oscar Best Picture win?) to how The Brutalist, Wicked and Anora played out, the gang look at who is the frontrunner as we enter the second phase of awards season, who falls and our favorite nominations of the day. We try and crack some of those ‘5th spot’ nominations like Fernanda Torres over Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Sebastian Stan over Daniel Craig and much more.

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You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 57m. We’ll be back next week to talk about our favorite Steven Soderbergh films and our thoughts on his newest, Presence.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro)

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

Latest posts by Erik Anderson (see all)

• FINAL 2026 Oscar Predictions: BEST CASTING - January 12, 2026
• FINAL 2026 Oscar Predictions: ANIMATED FEATURE - January 12, 2026
• Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) Nominations: ‘Sinners’ Leads with 16 - January 12, 2026