Hey everyone, Jack Drees here! Welcome to the 8th Annual Jack Awards Nominations! It is that time to recognize some of the highlights in 2025 cinema! For those who are new around here, the Jack Awards is an annual awards show dedicated to honoring the best movies of the year, as well as their standout qualities whether they are on camera, or behind the scenes. The show, while intended to be presented through text, also features video content including comedy bits such as the annual Film Improvements. You will get to see some of those videos when the actual show drops, specifically on Sunday, February 8th.

This post serves as a bit of a preview for the show itself, as it lists all the films and people who will be nominated for their individual works. Each category will have five nominees, except for Best Picture, which will have 10. The winners will be determined by yours truly, except for, again, Best Picture, which will be decided by a public vote through a Google Form. Of course, for a movie to qualify for the Jack Awards, I have to have seen it. So, I will not be counting nominations from films including “Train Dreams,” “It Was an Accident,” “The Testament of Ann Lee,” “Blue Moon,” or “Die My Love.” I missed those, unfortunately. Also, another thing to note is that each of the films nominated are theatrical releases. No straight to streaming movies. No straight to TV movies. No straight to DVD movies.

With all of this out of the way, here are the nominees for the 8th Annual Jack Awards!

Best Animated Feature 

• The Bad Guys 2 (Pierre Perifel, JP Sans, Damon Ross)
• The Colors Within (Naoko Yamada, Euyoung Choi, Yoshihiro Furusawa, Genki Kawamura, Wakana Okamura, Kōhei Sakita)
• Elio (Adrian Molina, Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Mary Alice Drumm)
• Scarlet (Mamoru Hosoda, Nozomu Takahashi, Yuichiro Saito, Toshimi Tanio)
• Zootopia 2 (Jared Bush, Byron Howard, Yvett Merino)

Best Visual Effects 

• Avatar: Fire and Ash 
• The Fantastic Four: First Steps 
• Frankenstein
• Tron: Ares
• Sinners

Best Supporting Actor 

• Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein)
• Conan O’Brien (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You) 
• Sean Penn (One Battle After Another)
• Stellan Skarsgård (Sentimental Value)
• Miles Caton (Sinners)

Best Supporting Actress 

• Elle Fanning (Sentimental Value)
• Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas (Sentimental Value)
• Emily Blunt (The Smashing Machine)
• Amy Madigan (Weapons)
• Ariana Grande (Wicked: For Good)

Best Sound Editing 

• Avatar: Fire and Ash 
• F1: The Movie 
• Marty Supreme 
• No Other Choice 
• Sinners 

Best Sound Mixing 

• Avatar: Fire and Ash 
• F1: The Movie 
• Marty Supreme 
• Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning 
• Sinners 

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

• Bugonia (Albert Elizondo, Liz Phillips, Torsten Witte)
• Frankenstein (Cilona Furey, Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel)
• Sinners (Ken Diaz, Michael Fontaine, Sian Richards, Shunika Terry)
• The Smashing Machine (Felix Fox, Kazu Hiro, Mia Neal)
• Wicked: For Good (Frances Hannon, Laura Blount, Mark Coulier)

Best Original Score 

• F1: The Movie (Hans Zimmer)
• The Fantastic Four: First Steps (Michael Giacchino) 
• Friendship (Keegan DeWitt)
• The Luckiest Man in America (John Carroll Kirby)
• Sinners (Ludwig Göransson)

Best Costume Design 

• Fackham Hall (Rosalind Ebbutt)
• Frankenstein (Kate Hawley)
• Hamnet (Malgosia Turzanska)
• Sinners (Ruth E. Carter)
• Wicked: For Good (Paul Tazewell)

Best Production Design

• Frankenstein (Tamara Deverell, Shane Vieau)
• Hamnet (Fiona Crombie, Alice Felton)
• Marty Supreme (Jack Fisk, Adam Willis)
• Sinners (Hannah Beachler, Monique Champagne)
• Wicked: For Good (Nathan Crowley, Lee Sandales)

Best Adapted Screenplay 

• The Life of Chuck (Mike Flanagan)
• The Long Walk (JT Mollner)
• No Other Choice (Park Chan-wook, Lee Kyoung-mi, Don McKellar, Jahye Lee)
• One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson)
• Song Sung Blue (Craig Brewer)

Best Original Screenplay 

• A House of Dynamite (Noah Oppenheim)
• Friendship (Andrew DeYoung)
• If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (Mary Bronstein)
• Is This Thing On? (Will Arnett, Bradley Cooper, Mark Chappell)
• Jay Kelly (Noah Baumbach, Emily Mortimer)

Best Film Editing 

• Hans Zimmer & Friends: Diamond in the Desert (Simon Bryant, Jack Chute, Ron Maine, Tim Woolcott, Reg Wrench)
• Marty Supreme (Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie)
• One Battle After Another (Andy Jurgensen)
• Thunderbolts* (Angela M. Catanzaro, Harry Yoon)
• Sinners (Michael P. Shawver)

Best Cinematography 

• F1: The Movie (Claudio Miranda)
• Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (Fraser Taggart)
• No Other Choice (Cho Young-wuk)
• One Battle After Another (Michael Bauman)
• Sinners (Autumn Durald Arkapaw)

Best Original Song 

• Dream As One – Miley Cyrus, Mark Ronson, Andrew Wyatt, Simon Franglen (Avatar: Fire and Ash) 
• Amen, I’m Going Somewhere – Kensuke Ushio, Naoki Yamada (The Colors Within)
• A Celebration Song – Maya and Ayumu Matsuda (Scarlet) 
• I Lied to You – Raphael Saadiq and Ludwig Göransson (Sinners)
• Last Time (I Seen the Sun) – Alice Smith, Miles Caton, Ludwig Göransson (Sinners)

Best Director

• Mary Bronstein (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You)
• Chloe Zhao (Hamnet)
• Josh Safdie (Marty Supreme)
• Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another) 
• Ryan Coogler (Sinners) 

Best Actor 

• Paul Mescal (Hamnet)
• Will Arnett (Is This Thing On?)
• Timothee Chalamet (Marty Supreme)
• Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another)
• Dwayne Johnson (The Smashing Machine)

Best Actress

• Emma Stone (Bugonia) 
• June Squibb (Eleanor the Great) 
• Jessie Buckley (Hamnet)
• Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You)
• Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue)

Best Picture

• The Fantastic Four: First Steps (Kevin Feige)
• Friendship (Raphael Margules, J. D. Lifshitz, Johnny Holland, Nick Weidenfeld)
• Hans Zimmer & Friends: Diamond in the Desert (Jerry Bruckheimer, Paul Dugdale, John Featherstone, Simon Fisher, Steven Kofsky, Michael Marto, Omar Saab)
• If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (Sara Murphy, Ryan Zacarias, Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie, Eli Bush, Conor Hannon, Richie Doyle)
• Is This Thing On? (Bradley Cooper, Weston Middleton, Will Arnett, Kris Thykier)
• The Life of Chuck (Trevor Macy, Mike Flanagan)
• The Long Walk (Roy Lee, Steven Schneider, Francis Lawrence, Cameron MacConomy)
• One Battle After Another (Adam Somner, Sara Murphy, Paul Thomas Anderson)
• Secret Mall Apartment (Jeremy Workman, Jesse Eisenberg)
• Sinners (Zinzi Coogler, Sev Ohanian, Ryan Coogler)

And those are your nominees, based on the best of 2025 in cinema! Congratulations to all of the aforementioned crews and their respective movies! As a reminder, you have the power to choose this year’s Best Picture, and you can do so by clicking this link and casting your vote! You can vote for the nominees by the deadline, 12 a.m. on February 8th. The official ceremony will premiere later that day. Good luck to everyone, and may the best movie win. You can check out the Jack Awards as soon as it drops on Flicknerd.com. Keep in mind this is a text-based ceremony, but we will also have video content to go along with it. All of those videos will be available on my YouTube channel. While you are here, please subscribe to the channel and hit the notification bell that way you are up to date on my latest videos! If you have followed Scene Before already, do so know with an email or WordPress account so you can stay tuned for the Jack Awards as soon as it drops. Also, check out the official Facebook page! If you want to prepare yourself for the Jack Awards, check out the trailer above! Build the hype as I build the show! Scene Before is your click to the flicks!