The Biggest Snubs of the 2025 Oscar Nominations: Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman and Selena Gomez Shut Out

The 2025 Oscar nominations are here! And when presenters Bowen Yang and Rachel Sennott announced the lucky few who’d be competing for those 8.5-pound gold trophies on Sunday, March 2, there were some expected names (Demi Moore! Adrien Brody!), but many glaring omissions (Selena Gomez! Nicole Kidman!). Read on for the biggest snubs of the day.

Nicole Kidman for ‘Babygirl’

The Oscar winner, 57, gave one of the year’s most dynamic performances as Romy Mathis, a married tech company CEO who begins an affair with a mysterious and manipulative young intern (Harris Dickinson). It’s a juicy role that allows Kidman to show her considerable range: As Romy, she’s tightly-wound one minute and reckless the next. Though Kidman was nominated for a Golden Globe as well as a Gotham Award — and received best actress honors from the National Board of Review — the Academy overlooked her performance in a highly competitive year for Best Actress. This one’s a tough pill to swallow, so we’ll wash it down with a tall glass of milk.

Pamela Anderson for ‘The Last Showgirl’

First came the Gotham Awards nomination, then the Golden Globe nod, which was followed by a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. As awards season continued its march, the former Baywatch actress, 57, kept racking up honors for her turn as Shelly, a Las Vegas dancer who finds herself at a crossroads when her live show is canceled. It’s not a showy performance, but Anderson taps into a vulnerability she’s never before displayed on screen, mesmerizing critics and awards voters alike. Alas, not Oscar voters, who didn't include her in the Best Actress category.

Related: 2025 Oscar Nominations List: Emilia Pérez Leads with 13, Plus Wicked, Demi Moore's The Substance and More

Jamie Lee Curtis for ‘The Last Showgirl’

The tan, leathery skin. The red shag wig. The frosted lipstick. Three years after her tour de force in Everything Everywhere All at Once, Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis once again completely disappears into a character. In The Last Showgirl, she’s Annette, a struggling Las Vegas cocktail waitress who’s a sounding board for her best friend, Sin City entertainer Shelly (Pamela Anderson). It’s a true supporting role, but Curtis, 66, makes a meal of every scene she’s in. Curtis was snubbed at previous awards shows this season, but her surprise Screen Actors Guild nod suggested she might make the cut at the Oscars in the Best Supporting Actress category. Sadly, she didn't.

Marianne Jean-Baptiste for ‘Hard Truths’

Reteaming with Mike Leigh, the director who steered her to her first and only Oscar nomination with 1996’s Secrets & Lies, Jean-Baptiste looked to land her second nod thanks to this tart comedy about a deeply unhappy wife and mother whose insults pack a punch. Jean-Baptiste gives an acerbic and unsettling performance — but one not Oscar voters honored.

Angelina Jolie for ‘Maria’

In Maria, director Pablo Larraín’s drama about tragic opera diva Maria Callas, Jolie, 49, acts with a capital A: she emotes, she sings, she swans around in fabulous costumes. And while promoting the fictionalized biopic — the type that’s normally catnip to Academy voters — Jolie talked about the all prep work she undertook, like taking voice lessons with a coach. Ultimately, though, it wasn’t enough to land her in one of the five Best Actress slots.

Danielle Deadwyler for ‘The Piano Lesson’

Two years after the Academy failed to recognize her fierce performance of a grieving mother in Till, Deadwyler, 42, was once again passed over, this time in the Best Supporting Actress category. In The Piano Lesson, an adaptation of the 1987 August Wilson play, she plays Berniece, one of two siblings fighting over what to do with a family heirloom. Her nuanced performance was widely praised by critics and recognized by the Screen Actors Guild, too.

Clarence Maclin for 'Sing Sing'

Acting newcomer Maclin, who was formerly incarcerated, plays a version of himself in the remarkable true story of the Rehabilitation Through the Arts theater program, held at high security prisons. Though he landed several nominations in the past few months, he was shut out of the Oscars' Best Supporting Actor category. On a bright note, he did earn a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for co-writing 'Sing Sing.'

Related: Emilia Pérez Star Karla Sofía Gascón Makes Oscar History as First Openly Trans Actress to Be Nominated

Selena Gomez for ‘Emilia Pérez’

Though director Jacques Audiard’s ambitious musical crime drama was an Oscar favorite with a whopping 13 nominations, the “Love You to Love Me” singer, 32, who has a pivotal role as the wife of the titular character, didn’t make the cut, despite being recognized by the Golden Globes. Gomez’s costar Zoe Saldaña did earn a Best Supporting Actress nomination, so perhaps Oscar voters felt like one Emilia Pérez actress in the category was enough.

Adam Pearson for ‘A Different Man’

The season’s major awards shows — the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild and now the Oscars — did not acknowledge Pearson’s performance as a man with a facial disfigurement who becomes the object of obsession of another man (Sebastian Stan) cured of the same condition.

Denzel Washington for ‘Gladiator II’

The two-time Oscar winner, 70, was an early awards season favorite, landing on several Oscar nomination prediction lists. But the best supporting actor race proved to be ultra-competitive. So competitive, in fact, that Washington — who earned rave reviews as the scheming villain Macrinus in Ridley Scott’s follow-up to his 2000 epic — was edged out altogether.

Jonathan Bailey for 'Wicked'

Wicked features Bailey, 36, as Prince Fiyero the dreamy love interest of Glinda (Ariana Grande). Despite Bailey being left out of the Best Supporting Actor category, the Jon M. Chu-directed musical fantasy film, based on the 2003 Broadway production of the same name, racked up 10 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actress for Cynthia Erivo and Best Supporting Actress for Grande.

Amy Adams for 'Nightbitch'

Adams, 50, a six-time Oscar nominee, seemed poised to clinch a seventh for Nightbitch. As a married mom to a newborn who slowly turns into a canine when the sun goes down, Adams lets loose in a go-for-broke performance that’s unlike anything she’s done before. In a crowded Best Actress field, however, it wasn’t enough to get Oscar voters’ tails wagging.

Daniel Craig for 'Queer'

Daniel Craig gave one of the most acclaimed performances of the year in director Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, in which the former James Bond actor plays an American expat in 1940s Mexico City who falls in love with a younger man played by Outer Banks star Drew Starkey. The film, which premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, scored acting nominations for Craig, 56, at the Golden Globes, SAG Awards and Critics Choice Awards. He was overlooked at the Oscars.

Moana 2

Despite earning a Golden Globe nomination earlier in the awards cycle, Disney’s blockbuster sequel starring Auliʻi Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson was shut out of the Best Animated Feature category. The first Moana film, released in 2016, scored two Oscar nominations: Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song for “How Far I’ll Go,” which had music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda (who did not return for the sequel).

Read the original article on People