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Song of the Day #6,438: ‘Nouvelle Vague’ – Richard Anthony

Continuing my personal 2025 Oscar nominations, today I will be writing about the race for Best Director.

Barring a major upset, Paul Thomas Anderson is on his way to winning this award for One Battle After Another, and I couldn’t be happier. His competition is strong — Ryan Coogler (Sinners), Josh Safdie (Marty Supreme), Joachim Trier (Sentimental Value), and Chloe Zhao (Hamnet) — but Anderson has been racking up precursors, including the all-important DGA a couple of weeks back.

Anderson and Coogler would make my personal nominee list for this category, along with three of these directors:

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Song of the Day #6,437: ‘Play Me’ – Hugh Jackman & Kate Hudson

Continuing my personal 2025 Oscar nominations, today I will be writing about the race for Best Actor.

This year’s Best Actor race is one of the best in years, featuring five phenomenal actors doing some of their best work. I’ll be happy no matter which of these guys takes home the trophy: Timothee Chalamet (Marty Supreme), Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another), Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon), Michael B. Jordan (Sinners), and Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent).

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Song of the Day #6,436: ‘All is Summer’ – Amanda Seyfried and Cast

Continuing my personal 2025 Oscar nominations, today I will be writing about the race for Best Actress.

This year’s nominees are Jessie Buckley (Hamnet), Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You), Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue), Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value), and Emma Stone (Bugonia). Of those, I would keep Byrne, Hudson and Stone. Here are some other actresses who could round out the category.

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Song of the Day #6,435: ‘Promised Land’ – Young Fathers

Continuing my personal 2025 Oscar nominations, today I will be writing about the race for Best Supporting Actor.

The actual nominees are Benicio Del Toro (One Battle After Another), Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein), Delroy Lindo (Sinners), Sean Penn (One Battle After Another), and Stellan Skarsgard (Sentimental Value). Of those, the two One Battle gentlemen would definitely make my list, along with some of the following performers.

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Song of the Day #6,434: ‘I Am the Fire’ – Simon Franglen

Continuing my look at the movies of 2025, this week I’ll offer up my own nominations in the four Oscar acting categories as well as Best Director.

As a new twist, I’m going to set aside the actual Oscar nominees and offer up five new names in each category. In some cases, my true top five would include one or more of the people recognized by the Academy, and I’ll point those out as I go. But I wanted to shine a light on some less than usual suspects.

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