Your Oscar Nominations

"Confetti!"
( Andy Graulund / Creative Commons )

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. To end on the lighter side today, after all we've been through this morning, Oscar nominations are going to be announced tomorrow morning. To end the show today, let's hear your predictions or wish lists for what films or performances to recognize. That's the question. What films or performances would you like to see included on the list, or use us as a little non-betting predictions market? What films or actors or directors or anyone else do you think will take home the top prizes? 212-433-WNYC. Let's have a little fun with this. You deserve it. 212-433-9692.

For example, have the Golden Globes or other awards skipped your favorites? Are you all in for Marty Supreme, Sinners, One Battle After Another, Sentimental Value. What are you expecting to hear tomorrow, and what would be a pleasant surprise, and what made that film, performance, direction, costume, or other movie element that you would like to see get nominated for an Oscar special for you? We'll take your nominations or predictions at 212-433-WNYC. 212-433-9692. You can call, or you can text. Here's a wrinkle on this question that's particular to us, and I have a feeling this one's going to get the phones going even more because I know what a lot of you in this audience are interested in.

The nominations for best documentary. As many of you know, on this, you're saying, "What? Nominations for best documentary, that's so obscure." Well, that's some of you. Others of you know that on this show with our nonfiction and public affairs bent, we try and interview the makers of the best feature documentary nominees, the makers of those documentary the nominees. Every year before the ceremony, we have our Oscar doc series where we try to invite on all five, it's usually five directors. Is there a documentary or a documentary maker you hope we'll be talking about or talking with soon?

Call or text us to nominate any great documentary that you saw in 2025 that you would like to see get an Oscar nomination tomorrow at 212-433-WNYC. 212-433-9692. In some categories, like feature documentary, they also have documentary short as a separate category. You can call in on those, too, if you had a favorite documentary short. On those, the academy puts out a short list, and I'm told that it's to try to make sure that the voters see enough of the films to cast a ballot. I guess there's an honor system there, right? If you're voting for Academy Awards, you have to watch the movies. That takes a lot of time.

Maybe people have more stomach as voters to watch the feature films than they do documentaries. Who knows? At least that's one theory for why they put out a short list to try and make sure the voters see enough of the films to cast a ballot in the documentary categories. Maybe there's just more willingness on the part of more voters to watch some of the feature films. I've lost track of how many get nominated for Best Picture. It's more than it used to be. I know it's gone up during the years. For best picture or best acting, lead supporting, whatever, directing, there could still be surprises in what gets in and what gets left out, like Wicked: For Good. The second film wasn't as popular as the first Wicked film.

It didn't get a Golden Globe nomination. Neither did Train Dreams, a critical hit. Do they have fans who are hoping for the Oscar nod? Might you be one of them? The small film Sorry, Baby, did get a Golden Globe's nomination for best actress and a shout-out from Julia Roberts as she presented a different award during the ceremony. She referenced that film, too. Are you rooting for it? Call or text us at 212-433-WNYC. Predictions welcome as well. That can be fun. 212-433-9692. It's your Oscar wish lists and your predictions. Get them in before the actual nominations are announced tomorrow morning.

212-433-WNYC. 212-433-9692. We'll take your nominations or your predictions for any Oscar category, documentaries, or the feature films right after this.

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Brian Lehrer on WNYC. By the way, I was right that the number of Best Picture nominees has gone up over the years. It is up to 10. That's a lot of movies for those judges to watch. A lot of documentary picks coming in. We're going to start with Luke in Brooklyn, who I think made a documentary that may get nominated. Luke, we're going to give you the platform, plug away.

Luke: Great. Thank you so much, Brian. I can't believe I'm actually on the phone with you. I love your show. My film is on the Oscar shortlist for best documentary short. It's called Cashing Out. It's distributed by The New Yorker magazine, so you can watch it for free on YouTube or on the magazine site. It's about this largely forgotten AIDS crisis era phenomenon, where people who are facing their mortality would sell their life insurance to investors in exchange for quick cash. It's on the doc short short list, and we're fingers crossed for tomorrow. There's a lot of other great films distributed by The New Yorker that are shortlisted as well that are worth checking out.

Brian Lehrer: Great. Luke, good luck. Thank you very much. All right, I let Luke plug his. Here's one in Washington who wants to mention a documentary by a friend of hers. Hi there. You're on WNYC.

Speaker 3: Hi, Brian. I'm so thrilled to be talking to you. I'm a huge fan. The movie I wanted to just kind of shout out is called Holding Liat. It is on the shortlist for the best feature documentary. We're crossing our fingers for tomorrow. Basically, it chronicles one family's story when a member of their family is abducted during October 7th and taken into Gaza and then eventually returned in the second round, I believe, of hostage negotiations. It really is kind of just a beautiful, nuanced film. It opened in New York at the Film Forum, I think, last week or the week before. Really plugging it and hope that people can try to get a chance to watch it.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. Holding Liat. Jamie in Hastings is calling with a new category that he says they're adding to the Oscars this year. Do I have that right? Hi, Jamie, you're on WNYC.

Jamie: Yes. Hi. Thanks for having me. Yes, casting is a new category this year. We're really excited about it.

Brian Lehrer: Because?

Jamie: Oh, well, I mean, ensemble cast, this is something that, as a talent within the industry, should have been honored for decades and decades, and the Emmys have had it the whole time. I think probably Sinners, probably One Battle After Another are going to be the two battling it out. I'm just on this, very excited for it because my wife's the casting director. She was actually Emmy-nominated this year for Dying for Sex, but nothing in the Oscars yet.

Brian Lehrer: Jamie, thank you very much. John in Guilford, Connecticut, has a documentary to shout out. John, you're on WNYC. Hello.

John: Hey, Brian. Yes. Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus's Cover-Up about Seymour Hersh, which is not only--

Brian Lehrer: A journalist, the legendary journalist from the Watergate era, he's still going. Seymour Hersh.

Jamie: Yes. It's a very entertaining movie, and Hersh is just a lovable curmudgeon, but it's also an incredibly political film, which you would expect from Laura Poitras, who did, of course, Citizenfour, a few years ago, about Edward Snowden. If I can mention one other film, it is Architecton by Victor Kossakovsky, which seems to have some traction and is a completely abstract movie about concrete. I know it's not a date movie, but--

Brian Lehrer: Yes, let's find out everything we can about concrete. I guess it's not set in stone. That's a terrible joke. John, thank you very much. Margo in Manhattan is calling about a film that a number of people are calling or texting about. Margo, you get to represent.

Margo: Hi, Brian. I just want to also say that you're one of the reasons I'm a sustaining member. [laughs]

Brian Lehrer: Thank you.

Margo: You know, at 82, I have certainly seen my share of documentaries, which I really enjoy very much. When I saw The Voice of Hind Rajab, I was so struck and so moved that I was really at a loss for words. What impressed me the most was the fact that they used this little girl who's in a car, everyone's been shot in Gaza. She's the lone survivor, and she's calling the Red Crescent, which is like the Red Cross, to get help, to get an ambulance, is that they used her voice and then recreated the staff that tried to respond.

One of the things that bothered me the most was the lack of many distributors peeling off, as M. Jason wrote in her review, from playing it. It is playing at the Film Forum in New York City, and I understand somewhere in Los Angeles, but I really encourage everyone that can to go and see this.

Brian Lehrer: Margo, thank you very much. Interesting, and I guess a representation of the world today, that two of the calls we got were about a documentary telling a story of one of the October 7th Israeli hostages, and the story of somebody from Gaza. There we leave it with your Oscar picks and predictions. The nominations are tomorrow. That's it for The Brian Lehrer Show for today, produced by Mary Croke, Lisa Allison, Amina Srna, Carl Boisron,d and Esperanza Rosenbaum. Zach Gottehrer-Cohen produces our daily politics podcast. We had Shana Seng Stock and Milton Ruiz at the audio controls. Stay tuned for Alison.

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