Columbia Filmmakers Honored as 2025 Academy Award Nominees

By
Andrew Scott
January 24, 2025

Following a week’s delay owing to the ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles, the 2025 Academy Award nominations were announced Thursday morning, and there are several Columbia filmmakers featured in the lineup. This year’s Columbia nominees include a two-time Academy Award winner, a pair of previous nominees, and numerous first time honorees.

Landing an impressive eight nominations was Searchlight Pictures’ A Complete Unknown. The 1960s-set Bob Dylan biopic was co-written, directed, and produced by Hollywood standard James Mangold ’99, who was awarded nominations for Best Screenplay, Best Directing, and Best Picture. This is Mangold’s third time competing for an Academy Award, following a Screenplay nomination for 2017’s Wolverine actioner Logan, and a Best Picture nod for 2019’s racing drama Ford v Ferrari. A Complete Unknown also saw nominations for Best Costume Design, Best Sound, Best Supporting Actress for Monica Barbaro and Best Supporting Actor for Edward Norton as folk legends Joan Baez and Pete Seeger, and Best Actor for star Timothée Chalamet, who also passed through Columbia once upon a time.

Tow young men look upwards into the camera.

Another ’60s-set drama competing for the vaunted Best Picture trophy is Amazon MGM’s Nickel Boys, produced by perennial contender Dede Gardner (CC ’90). The coming of age film follows two Black teens in an abusive Florida reform school during the Jim Crow era. The film, based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Colson Whitehead, is also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. This marks Gardner’s towering eighth nomination in the Best Picture category since 2012, and she’s also the first woman to win the award twice, for 2013’s 12 Years a Slave and 2016’s Moonlight

Two men look upwards.

Alongside A Complete Unknown, Searchlight Pictures also celebrated two nominations for A Real Pain, executive produced by Jennifer Westin ’06. The film, about a pair of cousins visiting Poland in the wake of their grandmother’s passing, was recognized with nominations for Best Supporting Actor for Kieran Culkin and Best Screenplay for Jesse Eisenberg, who also starred, directed, and produced the comic drama.

Two men in suits sit in a car, one on a car phone.

Briarcliff Entertainment’s Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice, executive produced by Christina Wood ’20, earned a pair of nominations for Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. Stan plays a young Trump getting his start in real estate with the help of Strong as controversial lawyer Roy Cohn. The drama earned headlines last year when President Trump tried to stop it being shown.

Man looks forlorn.

Documentary filmmaking also shined in Columbia’s nominations haul. Competing for Best Documentary is National Geographic’s Sugarcane, directed by Julian Brave NoiseCat (CC ’15) and Emily Kassie. The personal story sees NoiseCat investigating the Indian residential school where his father was born, and the fallout from its dark history.

Man with shaved head and beard looks melancholy.

And finally, celebrating her second nomination for Best Documentary Short film was Smriti Mundhra ’09 for MTV Documentary Films’ I am Ready, Warden, which she directed and produced. The short follows a murder convict facing the death penalty, as he says goodbye to his family and reaches out to the son of his victim. Mundhra was previously nominated in 2020 for St. Louis Superman.

The 97th Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, March 2 in Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre. See the full list of nominees here.