40. The Only Girl in the Orchestra (Best Documentary Short)

On the surface, there’s nothing objectionable within The Only Girl in the Orchestra. It’s a competently made biodoc of Orin O’Brien, the first female member of the New York Philharmonic, and one of the most celebrated double bass players alive. She details her life as a child of movie stars George O’Brien and Marguerite Churchill, and her aversion to the spotlight. But the film rarely explores anything else below the surface, and once we see that its director is O’Brien’s niece, it’s understandable why. Those outside the modern orchestra sphere have likely never heard of Orin O’Brien, but The Only Girl in the Orchestra doesn’t offer much to help us remember her long after the film ends.

39. Wander to Wonder (Best Animated Short)

Where to even start with Wander to Wonder. Partially a stop-motion exercise in freedom and mortality, and partially a pitch-black comedy, the film is easily the strangest of the bunch of nominees. What begins as a dark spoof in Mister Rogers’ Land of Make Believe quickly descends into a kind of Lord of the Flies situation as the puppets fight for survival. Thankfully the film never feels like an excuse to be weird simply for the sake of being weird, but its story doesn’t elevate much beyond its high-concept premise.

38. Memoir of a Snail (Best Animated Feature)

Memoir of a Snail has its defenders, those who see it as a stop-motion testament to optimism in the face of adversity. But this optimist sees it mostly as an exercise in misery, as two siblings are split apart and endure a lifetime of hardships and trauma until the inevitably heartwarming conclusion. Adam Elliot’s first feature film since 2009’s Mary and Max is lovingly crafted – as all stop-motion animated films are – and features a wonderful Sarah Snook vocal performance, but I just couldn’t get myself to see the brighter side of this often dour story.

37. Porcelain War (Best Documentary Feature)

We all have to find ways to survive when times get tough, and Porcelain War shows both sides of that coin when depicting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Whereas some use art to create and escape the horrors occurring on their doorsteps, some have to take up arms and fight back. But what should be a celebration of humanity’s artistic spirit almost gets drowned out by a borderline pro-war message, as a bulk of the film’s runtime is spent on the front lines watching a civilian military group fight back. Though I appreciate a new take on the depressingly, increasingly voluminous number of documentaries on the war in Ukraine, Porcelain War can’t seem to agree on a potent message worth championing.

36. The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent (Best Live Action Short)

Perhaps some level of familiarity helps to appreciate The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent because it otherwise feels like an exercise in futility. Based on the true story of a Serbian tragedy aboard a train, director Nebojša Slijepčević points a finger at the audience as a paramilitary group comes in to round up suspected outsiders. We all believe that we’ll step up to do the right thing when someone in close proximity experiences prejudice, but here is a film that shows just how difficult that can often be. Slijepčević’s decision not to center the film on someone who steps up, but another innocent bystander, goes a long way in getting the point across, and leads to a more thought-provoking ending that lingers long after the credits roll.

35. Instruments of a Beating Heart (Best Documentary Short)

Every kid wants to find their passion. Instruments of a Beating Heart, one of the most wholesome films of all the 2025 Oscar nominees, explores a young Japanese girl as she tries to find that passion, performing in her school’s orchestra as a percussionist. Often as heartwarming as it is heartbreaking, the film tracks her love for music and how it can so often lead to frustrations. Anyone who’s doubted themselves over a new endeavor, but refused to give up trying, will surely relate.

34. Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat (Best Documentary Feature)

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat certainly follows the beats of its subject of jazz: it rises, falls, flows into seemingly random tangents, but fits together nicely in the end. A thorough, scathing breakdown of US interventionism, primarily in Congo, beginning in the 1950s, the film finds ties from the jazz movement at the time to political upheaval around the world. But what do jazz greats like Louis Armstrong and Nina Simone have to do with global politics? Documentarian Johan Grimonprez shows through archival footage and superimposed text how the pop culture figures got involved – sometimes at the behest of the American government, and sometimes of their own accord. While the film could have been tightened down from its 150 minute runtime, and the connections it makes between music, art, and the political events depicted feel tangential at best sometimes, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat is a convincing and well-researched bit of nearly forgotten history.

33. The Apprentice (Best Lead Actor, Best Supporting Actor)

I, like many sensible people, put off watching The Apprentice until the last possible minute, even after Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong nabbed acting Oscar nominations. Ali Abbasi’s often painfully blunt portrait of two dumb, pathetic, evil Americans who have shaped the country for the worst hinges on Stan’s portrayal of Donald Trump and Strong’s performance as Roy Cohn, and they’re what saves the film from an exercise in complete misery. Stan doesn’t fall back on SNL-esque mimicry, but instead taps into how a genetically stupid human being could so easily be duped into believing he’s anything but. As Cohn, Strong goes from pure evil who’s helped contribute to ruining America in innumerable ways with no moral code, besides winning, to a hollow husk of a man after he’s outlived his usefulness. It’s Gabriel Sherman’s screenplay which too often plays into easy metaphors, holding The Apprentice back from anything more than a scathing true-life biopic – regardless of how necessary such a thing is.

32. Maria (Best Cinematography)

Much like Pablo Larrain’s other entries in his unofficial trilogy of biopics depicting real-life tragic women, Maria started off with strong Oscar buzz but managed to eke out only a single nomination. As the world-renowned opera singer Maria Callas, Angelina Jolie commands the screen depicting her final days weighing a comeback. Nominated cinematographer Ed Lachman makes the film one of the best-looking of the year, but the film could have easily received craft nominations elsewhere, including production design, makeup & hairstyling, and costumes. While Maria is perhaps Larrain’s least successful of the trilogy, Jolie’s performance – and her real-life journey back to the spotlight – elevates the material and should have received its due recognition.

31. Alien: Romulus (Best Visual Effects)

Look, I’m no scholar of the Alien franchise, so I couldn’t pinpoint every one of the fan service moments within Alien: Romulus (though I did notice a few). On its own, the film serves as a solid entry in the venerated sci-fi horror series, with Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson turning in effective star-making performances. The scares are gross, leaning in to the body horror elements which Ridley Scott perfected, and director Fede Alvarez puts his own stamp on the well-established formula, even if I have little desire to revisit the film later.