Our First Look at the Newest Oscar Category Might Be Giving Us Insight Into the Other Nominations

For years, the Academy Awards showed little interest in evolving. Since the voting body expanded in the last decade, finally integrating more female and international members, our perception of Oscar-worthy films has radically altered, as evidenced by unorthodox winners like Moonlight and Anora, small indies about pressing contemporary topics that major studios frequently ignore. Along with the recent announcement that the ceremony will begin airing on YouTube in 2029, the Oscars have made changes to adapt to the times and cinematic sensibilities of their die-hard viewers, and the inaugural Best Casting category at this year’s upcoming telecast highlights a revitalization of celebrating the medium.

The release of the annual Oscars’ shortlist, which narrows the lineup of contenders for a handful of categories, gave us a glimpse as to how the new casting award will shape up. The shortlist nominees, featuring heavyweights like One Battle After Anotherand Sinnersand surprise breakthroughs like The Secret Agent and Sirāt, prove that the category might be the ultimate precursor to Best Picture.

The Academy Awards Unveiled Their First Look at a New Category

With the awards season seemingly getting longer every year, Oscar watchers are hardly surprised by any outcome during the highly anticipated telecast thanks to the extensive coverage of precursor ceremonies like the SAG and PGA awards. The announcement of the shortlist across 12 categories more or less confirms awards analysts’ presumed outcomes, with Sinners and Wicked: For Goodtopping at eight nominations. Other strong showings in the preliminary round of voting include expected contenders One Battle After Another, Frankenstein, and Marty Supreme.

What caught the most eyes was the shortlist for Best Casting, not only because of its novelty, but because it foreshadowed what the Best Picture lineup could look like. The newly formed Casting Directors Branch’s 10 shortlist nominees include Frankenstein, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value, Sinners, Sirāt, Weapons, and Wicked: For Good.

What’s even more insightful is the crop of films, once marked as Oscar frontrunners, that were almost snubbed across the board. Jay Kelly, A House of Dynamite, and Wake Up Dead Man each received a sole nod for Best Score, while Bugonia was only recognized in the score and cinematography fields. These movies, which feature star-studded casts of A-listers and beloved character actors, seemed to be automatic for the shortlist, but their snubbing suggests a lack of enthusiasm from Academy members.Jay Kelly, a showbiz drama starring George Clooney, is the kind of movie that would’ve cleaned up decades ago but now seems pastiche.

What the Best Casting Shortlist Indicates About the Best Picture Lineup

With the shortlist not including the major categories, Best Casting is our closest approximation to Best Picture, primarily because the 10 nominated movies appear to have the most momentum riding in their favor. After all, many filmmakers will tell you that casting actors is the most important element to crafting a great movie, so it’s only right that the best casts represent the highest quality of filmmaking.OBAA, Sinners, Hamnet, and Sentimental Value immediately spring to mind when discussing major contenders and seem like locks for Best Picture nods. Since casting directors are tapped into the industry and its talent, what they placed on their shortlist indicates that the buzz for The Secret Agent, Sirāt, and the populist hit Weapons is genuine and not just wishful thinking. The second chapter of the Wicked saga left critics and even audiences underwhelmed, but the Academy’s reverence for the source material and its old Hollywood-esque craft and sentiment hasn’t wavered.

The shortlist gives Oscar prognosticators an insight as to how overlooked movies become surprise Best Picture nominees. Few had their eyes on Sirāt as an awards player due to most of the international fanfare going to It Was Just an Accident and No Other Choice, but now, the Spanish film by Óliver Laxe has been exposed to a whole new audience. People yearn for crowd-pleasing genre pictures like Weapons, which put Zach Cregger on the map as a serious filmmaker, to garner substantial Oscar buzz, which is in the realm of possibility thanks to this surprising placement on the shortlist.

Based on the early results, the Academy is not wasting this exciting new category. Each of the 10 movies nominated on the shortlist is an extraordinary feat of casting pre-established names, breakout stars, and even non-professional actors, in the case of One Battle After Another, Sinners, and Marty Supreme. The most celebrated films of 2025 share a feeling of cinematic euphoria created by their respective unique worlds, from Paul Thomas Anderson‘s infusion of Thomas Pynchon‘s politics in the present day to Ryan Coogler‘s fantastical treatment of Prohibition-era Southern Gothic. The casting of Jacob Elordi as Frankenstein’s monster and Amy Madigan as a witch-like antagonist in Weapons were both brilliant but unconventional choices that were the respective film’s key ingredients. The Best Casting shortlist may have shown the Academy’s hand, but at least their taste looks to be inspiring.

Sinners is now available to stream on HBO Max in the U.S.