The Best Director race for the 2025 Oscars includes some notable directors who have yet to win in the category, as well as some past winners hoping to spring a surprise. The 2025 awards season has a very different group of Best Director contenders than 2024. While Martin Scorsese and Christopher Nolan were the top two choices to win, this new year is a more open competition. There are big-name directors in the mix thanks to massive sequels, but a group of emerging filmmakers in Hollywood are also looking to break into the Academy.
Predicting the five Best Director nominees isn’t a task that exists in a vacuum, as nominations for all categories at the 2025 Oscars play a role in determining which films are coming out on top. It’s often these heavyweight contenders that can propel the credited director into the Best Director race. That adds attention to the Best Picture films slated for 2025 like longs, Dune: Part Two, Emilia Perezand more. The overall nomination potential for those titles is a major factor in On-screen rantNominations for Best Director and Oscar winner 2025 are predicted.
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Director |
Movie |
|
|
1 |
RidleyScott |
Gladiator II |
|
2 |
Jacques Audiard |
Emilia Perez |
|
3 |
Sean Baker |
longs |
|
4 |
Denis Villeneuve |
Dune: Part Two |
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5 |
Brady Corbett |
The brutalist |
6 The next directors in line
Several directors are still in dispute
With plenty of time left before Oscar nominations are announced on January 17, 2025, several directors could still make their way to a nomination. Pedro Almodóvar (The next room), James Mangold (A complete stranger), Greg Kwedar (sing sing), and Edward Berger (Conclave) are among the potential candidates for Best Picture. Robert ZemeckisHere) and Steve McQueen (aerial bombardment) have won in the category before and could gain momentum as the season progresses.
There’s also the group of filmmakers who could score a nomination even if a Best Picture nomination doesn’t accompany the film. Jason Reitman (saturday night), Pablo Larraín (Maria), Luca Guadagnino (queer either Challengers), Coralie Fargeat (The substance), and Chris Sanders (The wild robot) are some directors who remain in the discussion. However, these names will need some excellent campaigns to become stronger contenders for a nomination.
5 Brady Corbet – The Brutalist
Won the Silver Lion in Venice
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Brady Corbet could receive his first Oscar nomination in 2025 thanks to his work in The brutalist. Overseeing a historical epic with a running time of over three hours is no easy task, but reviews of The brutalist show that Corbet navigated the story well and executed it in a way that doesn’t come across as overbearing to the audience. It is a very different film oppenheimer either Flower Moon Killersbut both films are recent examples of the Academy applauding a director’s work on a sprawling epic, so perhaps Corbet can follow in the footsteps of Nolan and Scorsese.
In terms of his winning resume, Brady Corbet already has a potential advantage over his competition thanks to the Venice Film Festival. The brutalistThe festival premiere earned him a Golden Lion nomination, but Corbet won the Silver Lion, the Venetian version of Best Director. He beat hopeful contenders like Luca Guadagnino (queer), Pedro Almodóvar (The next room), Pablo Larraín (Maria), Todd Phillips (Joke: Folie à Deux), Halina Reijn (little girl), Justin Kurzel (the order), and Walter Salles (I’m still here). That already puts him ahead of many colleagues.
It’s worth noting that the Silver Lion isn’t always a direct sign that a director will get a Best Director nomination, let alone win it all. Since 2010, only one director has won the Silver Lion and then earned a Best Director nomination: Jane Campion for The power of the dog. Campion notably won the category in 2022, but the Academy rarely aligns with Venice’s choice for Best Director.
4 Denis Villeneuve – Dune: Part Two
He was rejected for the first film
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Denis Villeneuve remains among the favorites for the Best Director nomination in 2025 after Dune: Part Two. The director has no shortage of followers in Hollywood, but surprisingly he was still rejected from the category in 2022 for the first film. Dune 2 showed Villeneuve becoming an even greater master of his craft, delivering a sci-fi epic for the ages. Academy voters now have the chance to rectify their previous snub and recognize the great work he did on the sequel.
Related Is Dune 2 a Sci-Fi Masterpiece of All Time? 10 Biggest Takeaways from Rave Reviews
Dune: Part Two has been unanimously celebrated by critics, making it a theatrical phenomenon and even a modern science fiction masterpiece.
This would be Denis Villeneuve’s second Best Director nomination if it happens. He was nominated in 2017 for Arrival but lost to Damien Chazelle by The The Earth. Getting the nomination would be a great sign for Dune 2Oscar’s chances overall, but whether he can actually give Villeneuve a win in the category is a different question. If the film were released later this year and Villeneuve’s technical mastery was fresh in voters’ minds, it might have a better chance.
The plans for Dune 3 It could also hurt Villeneuve’s chances of winning. Dune 2 I was previously receiving comparisons with The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and how the Academy showered Peter Jackson’s film with nominations and awards as a means of celebrating the entire trilogy. From Dune 2 Now confirmed that it won’t be the end of Villeneuve’s time on Arrakis, the Academy could wait until the trilogy is over to give him similar recognition to one of Hollywood’s best modern franchises.
3 Sean Baker – Longs
He directed a favorite for Best Picture
Near
longs It’s believed to be a favorite to win the Best Picture Oscar in 2025, so it should come as no surprise that director Sean Baker is seriously in the running for Best Director. It’s been at the top of the awards race for a few years now, thanks to films like Tangerine, The Florida projectand red rocket. But after those films only earned one Oscar nomination between them, longs It appears to be the film the Academy will take most seriously, which should include a nomination for Sean Baker for Best Director.
The arguments in favor of Sean Baker’s nomination and possible victory currently depend largely on longsHis standing in Oscar circles and a pretty big win at Cannes. longs won the Palme d’Or, the festival’s highest award. This is notable to Baker because the directors of three of the last four Palme d’Or-winning films earned Oscar nominations: Bong Joon-ho (Parasite), Ruben Östlund (sadness triangle), and Justine Triet (Anatomy of a fall). Of those three, Bong Joon-ho was the only one to win Best Director at the Oscars.
The main reason you could win is if longs is the definitive winner for Best Picture. The Oscar winners for Best Director and Best Picture have tied films in three of the last five years, including the last two years with Everything everywhere and at the same time and oppenheimer. The Academy can often split categories to give love to two different titles, but Sean Baker could win by longs if the recent trend continues.
2 Jacques Audiard – Emilia Pérez
Emilia Perez
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Yeah longs is the favorite for Best Picture and the Academy decides to divide Film and Director into two different films, then Jacques Audiard’s work in Emilia Perez could be the one who would benefit. After debuting at Cannes and being acquired by Netflix, the film gained momentum through screenings at Telluride and Toronto. Much attention has been paid to the work of the three protagonists, but Audiard’s direction has not gone unnoticed, placing him squarely in the race for Best Director at the 2025 Oscars.
Audiard currently does not have many precursors to help him overcome the competition for a victory, nor does he have a strong history with the Academy. his movie the prophet It was nominated for Best International Feature Film in 2010, but its direction was not directly recognized. That makes his selection here more of a show of faith in Emilia Perez as a legitimate Oscar contender across the board.
With Emilia Perez Possibly best positioned to win Best Supporting Actress for Zoe Saldaña, Jacques Audiard could be an opportunity to further recognize the film. It might also help that Netflix is backing the movie now. The streaming service has helped Jane Campion, Martin Scorsese, Alfonso Cuarón, Adam McKay and David Fincher earn Best Director nominations in recent years. As Netflix’s biggest awards contender in 2025, the push for Emilia Perez It should be expansive and keep Audiard in the race.
1 Ridley Scott – Gladiator II
Ridley Scott could finally win best director
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Ridley Scott is our predicted winner for Best Director at the 2025 Oscars thanks to Gladiator II. The historical epic returns the director to a world in which he has already had success at the Academy. the original Gladiator It won five of 12 nominations, but Scott’s nomination for Best Director was one of the categories in which the film fell short. Now that he’s back in ancient Rome, it should be time for the Academy to give him his fourth Oscar nomination for Best Director overall.
Ridley Scott was nominated for Best Director for Thelma & Louise, Gladiator and Black Hawk Down
The lack of an Oscar for Best Director is a glaring omission in Ridley Scott’s career. That void is one that the Academy could now try to fill thanks to Gladiator IIassuming it lives up to expectations. Scott has called it one of his best films, so an Oscar nomination for his direction would make sense if voters agree with his assessment. Even if they don’t, there might be a need to give Ridley Scott the Best Director award as a legacy award that symbolically represents all the great work he has done throughout his career.
Choosing Ridley Scott as Best Director for Gladiator II It’s a risk since no one has seen the film to validate the belief that his direction is worthy of this recognition. That means his position in the Best Director race at the 2025 Oscars could change dramatically after the film’s release and as reactions and criticism emerge. Since Scott’s recent films have shown no real signs of him slowing down, confidence that Gladiator II could be worthy of this nomination remains high.