The 2025 Oscars are nearly here.
The 97th Academy Awards will be held live in Los Angeles on Sunday, March 2, at 4 p.m. PST/7 p.m. EST. Comedian Conan O’Brien will host for the first time.
Read on for everything you need to know about Hollywood’s biggest night.
How to watch in Canada
Once again, Bell has the exclusive Canadian rights to air the Oscars. This means the show will air on the media giant’s CTV network.
Specifically, you can tune into the show on the CTV and CTV2 channels on TV, CTV.ca and the CTV app on Android, iOS and connected TV devices. On CTV’s digital platforms, you’ll need to sign in with your TV provider.
Etalk, Bell’s entertainment news program, will also have pre-show red carpet coverage on its Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube channels.
It’s worth noting that the show will be live-streamed on Hulu for the first time in the U.S., but unfortunately, it won’t be on Canada’s equivalent service, Disney+. (Presumably, Bell’s deal with ABC’s parent company, Disney, is one of exclusivity in Canada.)
The nominees
2025 is an interesting year for the Oscars in that the lead nominee, Emilia Pérez, is a Netflix film. With 13 nominations, including one for Best Picture, the Spanish-language musical crime drama is the most-nominated non-English-language film in Oscars history. Netflix has long been vying to win Best Picture, especially after rival streamer Apple took home the top award for 2021’s CODA.
That said, Emilia Pérez has been met with a slew of controversy, from Mexicans and trans people blasting the film for perpetuating stereotypes and star (and Best Actress nominee) Karla Sofía Gascón coming under fire for offensive tweets from a few years ago about Muslims, George Floyd and diversity.
One of the other top nominees, The Brutalist (10 nominations), has also drawn criticism for using AI to punch up the Hungarian dialogue of actors Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones, as well as to create some of the film’s architectural designs.
Here are the ten films up for Best Picture:
- Anora (Alex Coco, Samantha Quan and Sean Baker)
- The Brutalist (Nick Gordon, Brian Young, Andrew Morrison, D.J. Gugenheim and Brady Corbet)
- A Complete Unknown (Fred Berger, James Mangold and Alex Heineman)
- Conclave (Tessa Ross, Juliette Howell and Michael A. Jackman)
- Dune: Part Two (Mary Parent, Cale Boyter, Tanya Lapointe and Denis Villeneuve)
- Emilia Pérez (Pascal Caucheteux and Jacques Audiard)
- I’m Still Here (Maria Carlota Bruno and Rodrigo Teixeira)
- Nickel Boys (Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Joslyn Barnes)
- The Substance (Coralie Fargeat and Tim Bevan & Eric Fellner)
- Wicked (Marc Platt)
It’s worth noting that one of the nominees, Dune: Part Two, hails from Quebec’s own Denis Villeneuve, who served as producer, co-writer and director. His fellow Canadians Patrice Vermette and Shane Vieu were also nominated for Best Production Design for the acclaimed sci-fi sequel. On top of that, other 2025 Canadian Oscar nominees include Vancouver’s Samanthan Quan (one of the Anora producers), Best Documentary Feature for B.C. residential school documentary Sugarcane from directors Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie and Best Costume Design for Toronto’s Linda Muir for Nosferatu.
The full list of 2025 Oscar nominees can be found here.
The presenters
Some of the big names taking to the stage to hand out awards include:
- Halle Berry
- Sterling K. Brown
- Willem Dafoe
- Ana de Armas
- Robert Downey, Jr.
- Elle Fanning
- Whoopi Goldberg
- Selena Gomez
- Scarlett Johansson
- Cillian Murphy
- Amy Poehler
- Da’Vine Joseph Randolph
- Ben Stiller
- Emma Stone
- Oprah Winfrey
Performers
As many had hoped for, the Oscars have confirmed that Wicked stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande will perform live at this year’s show. Specifics haven’t been confirmed about which song(s) they’ll perform, but one would have to at least expect the standout “Defying Gravity.”
Beyond the Wicked stars, this year’s Oscars will also feature performances by Blackpink’s Lisa (who’s currently acting in HBO’s The White Lotus), Doja Cat, Queen Latifah and Raye.
Which movies and artists are you hoping to see take home awards? Let us know in the comments.
Update: 24/02/2025 at 5:10pm ET — Added the fact that Anora producer Samantha Quan hails from Vancouver.
Image credit: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
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