Cannes Film Festival Pips Venice To The Post At The Oscar Nominations Stage
- Six films that premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival received a total of 19 nominations in 12 categories for the 98th Academy Awards.
The Cannes Film Festival was proven a major Oscar launchpad once again on Thursday as the nominations for the 98th Academy Awards were unveiled at the break of dawn in L.A.
Six films which premiered in its 2025 edition made it into the final voting round of the awards, garnering a total of 19 nominations in 12 categories.
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Four of the five films nominated for Best International Feature Film – It Was Just An Accident, Sentimental Value , Sirāt and The Secret Agent – premiered in Cannes.
All four films have also scored nominations in other categories, led by Sentimental Value with nine nominations including Best Director and Best Film. Read Deadline's breakdown on international breakouts here .
Additionally, French animations Arco and Little Amélie or the Character of Rain , which are in the running for Best Animated Feature, also began their journeys in Cannes.
This compares with 31 nominations across eight films and 17 categories last year, ahead of the 97th Academy Awards, which saw Cannes awards' kudos rise after 2024 Palme d'Or winner Anora won five Oscars including Best Film, Best Director and Best Actress.
Venice came in second with 15 nominations overall across four films including Kaouther Ben Hania's 2025 Silver Lion – Grand Jury Prize winner The Voice of Hind Rajab , which is nominated in the Best International Feature Film category as Tunisia's entry.
Leading the charge out of the Lido is Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein , with nine nominations; Yorgos Lanthimos' Bugonia with four nominations, and Silver Lion Best Director winner The Smashing Machine by Benny Safdie, with one nomination.
Other festivals in the mix included Sundance which premiered Train Dreams , which is nominated in four categories including Best Film; If I Had Legs I'd Kick You , for which Rose Byrne is in the running for Best Actress, and Best Documentary nominee Mr. Nobody Against Putin.
The Berlinale, which does not traditionally have a big awards season profile, premiered Blue Moon, for which Robert Kaplow is nominated in the Best Original Screenplay category, and also gave If I Had Legs I'd Kick You its international premiere shortly after Sundance.
Toronto premiered just one nominee, The Lost Bus , but still remains an important North American launchpad for features seeking to kickstart awards buzz after a premiere earlier in the year, with Sentimental Value , It Was Just An Accident and The Secret Agent among the nominees stopping by the festival last September.
It also hosted Hamnet following its world premiere in Telluride with a gala screening which resulted in the People's Choice Award, before the feature hit public-facing festivals such as the BFI London, Rome and Tokyo.
In the backdrop, festival directors will likely be taking stock of the fact that this year's nomination frontrunners Sinners and One Battle After Another eschewed a festival splash altogether, while Marty Supreme played as a surprise world premiere at the New York Film Festival in December.
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