On Sunday, March 2nd, 2025, the 97th Academy Awards will air from 7:00 to 10:00 pm ET. This is one of the biggest nights of the year for Hollywood and its stars. Talent recognizing talent, actors and actresses solidifying their legacies with an award of the highest honor, and acceptance speeches that will most likely go on for too long. In order to stay in the loop this year, here are some fun facts and information to know before the ceremony even begins!
Millions of people will tune in to the ceremony on March 2nd, listen to the results, and become frustrated at them, without even knowing how the voting even works. All of the voting is done through the Academy of Arts and Sciences. The nominations are decided by Academy members who work within those fields. For example, film editors nominate other film editors, directors nominate other directors, and so on. However, all members of the Academy get to vote on the winners. For almost all of the categories, it is straightforward, whoever gets the most votes wins. However, in the “Best Picture” category, Academy members rank each nominee from their favorite to least favorite of the bunch. If a movie receives over 50% of the votes, it wins, if not, the lowest rated movie will be eliminated from the race, and those who had that movie as their first pick, their votes will be moved to whatever movie was next on their list, until there is a clear winner.
There is always some record to be broken at every year’s Academy Awards and this year is no different. A Complete Unknown (2024) star, Timothee Chalamet, has become the third actor to have been nominated for two Oscars before the age of 30. Chalamet is nominated this year for A Complete Unknown (2024) and was previously nominated in the 90th Academy Awards for Call Me By Your Name (2017). The last actors to do this were James Deans for East of Eden (1955) and Giant (1956) and Mickey Rooney for Babes in Arms (1939) and The Human Comedy (1943). If Chalamet wins this year, he will become the youngest Best Actor Winner ever. This is interesting because the person who currently holds the title, Adrien Brody, who won for The Pianist (2002) at the age of 29, is also nominated this year for his role in The Brutalist (2024).
One of the biggest internet discourses surrounding the Oscars this year surrounds Emilia Perez (2024). The movie dominated almost every category it was nominated for at the 82nd Golden Globes. Before that night, hardly anybody had even heard of this movie, but many surely did after the fact and not in a good way. The film has a 6/10 rating on IMDB and 74% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Even users of the app, Letterboxd, have given it an average rating of 2.4/5. Yet, despite all of this, Emilia Perez (2024) joins some of the most iconic movies of all time as one of the most nominated movies in Oscars history, with 13 total nominations. Many people strongly disagree with this, while many strongly agree. Either way, this is definitely going to be a hot topic on awards night that will be talked about for years after, regardless of the outcome.
The race to win an Oscar has been tight this year. The internet is buzzing even since the nominations have been announced. Will Cynthia Erivo beat out Demi Moore’s performance in The Substance (2024) with her portrayal of Elphaba in Wicked (2024)? Is Sean Baker going to win the Oscar for Best Directing with his movie Anora (2024) or will it go to Brady Corbet for The Brutalist (2024)? Will Dune: Part Two (2024) win “Best Picture” unlike its predecessor, Dune (2021)? These questions have yet to be answered, but they surely will be during the most magical night of the year. Who will be this year’s “best?” Let’s find out on March 2nd, 2025 at 7 pm, during the 97th Academy Awards.