The 98th Oscars ceremony has finally come and gone, so it’s time for the real end-of-year event: The Sherwood Like to Watch Awards! The moment we’ve all been waiting for has finally arrived, wherein a lone man parcels through the 75 films he saw in 2025 and replaces the actual nominees and winners with what he alone deems as worthy. It’s all here, minus the Shorts and Documentary Feature, but with Best Ensemble added in just to spice things up. Without further ado, here’s the reconfigured slate:

***To break from the standard most-to-least important template that’s employed elsewhere, the categories here are presented in the order they were dolled out at 2025’s Academy Awards***

Best Supporting Actor:

And the Sherwood Likes to Watch Nominees are…

Ralph Fiennes—28 Years Later

French Stewart—Bob Trevino Likes It

Chiwetel Ejiofor—The Life of Chuck

Kevin O’Leary—Marty Supreme

Chris Sullivan—Presence

Swapping out all five Oscar nominees speaks to the depth of 2025’s viable Supporting Actor candidates. Fiennes expertly navitages the grace and gristle of Year’s deeply moving finale, finding his polar opposite in Stewart’s duplicitious, self-serving bad dad. His dastardly ways are matched by O’Leary, a first time actor whose fraught public reputation is expertly weaponized in Supreme. Then there’s the pair of empathy machines embodied by Ejiofor and Sullivan, affording their genre offerings a level of gravitas, the latter steely and the former devastated, that compounds our emotional investment several times over.

And the Winner is… 

Ralph Fiennes—28 Years Later

January’s sequel might have put its name right in the title, but there’s nothing like your first trip to the Bone Temple, a mesmeric tonal miracle that would have never stood a chance without Fiennes.

Best Animated Feature Film:

And the Sherwood Likes to Watch Nominees are…

The Bad Guys 2

Dog Man

Elio

Kpop Demon Hunters

Zootopia 2

Even if I’d only seen six animated features from last year, there’s no way Zootopia 2 would crack the list; alas, I stalled out at five, and one of 2025’s worst movies gets a nomination. The others are great though, not that any parent who’s seen Demon Hunters 642 times needs to be convinced as to the power of great songs and ravishing colors. Elio is minor Pixar, but a lark from one of our great studios is still worth championing, as achingly tender as Guys 2 is energetic and optically dazzling. Dog Man manages to house those two tenets under the same roof, and is the funniest of the batch to boot.

And the Winner is… 

Dog Man

Hilarious and heartwarming with a durable emotional core and some gloriously kaleidoscopic animation, Dog Man is a perfect example of all ages mass entertainment.

Best Costume Design:

And the Sherwood Likes to Watch Nominees are…

Jennifer Johnson—Bugonia

Kate Hawley—Frankenstein

Miyako Bellizzi—Marty Supreme

Rita Azevedo—The Secret Agent

Malgorzata Karpiuk—The Testament of Ann Lee

Probably unfair to give a nod to Johnson for one scene while leaving the wall-to-wall efforts featured in Sinners, Wicked: For Good, and Hamnet on the cutting room floor, but Bugonia’s last sequence is just that memorable. Besides, we’ve got the more-is-more period piece angle covered with the wholly lived-in work of Bellizzi, Azevedo, and Karpiuk. Hawley’s garb is a bit less knowable, but the bold and bright eccentricity of her wardrobes are Frankenstein’s greatest accomplishment.

And the Winner is… 

Kate Hawley—Frankenstein

You hate to fork it over to anyone who’s so naked about wanting it, but Hawley deserves this on the strength of Mia Goth’s gowns alone. The other fantastic sartorial choices are just gravy.

Best Original Screenplay:

And the Sherwood Likes to Watch Nominees are…

Carson Lund—Eephus

Mary Bronstein—If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

Josh Safdie & Ronald Bronstein—Marty Supreme

Ryan Coogler—Sinners

Zach Cregger—Weapons

Hang out flicks don’t really work if the company isn’t worth keeping, and Lund’s menagerie of aged baseball players has a flavor for everyone. Cregger, Safdie, and Bronstein have a similarly varied palette, all attached to free-wheeling plots that have you sitting up in your seat. Then there’s Coogler and Mrs. Bronstein, whose dense layers of thematic intrigue ensorcell without cutting into their narrative tension.

And the Winner is… 

Mary Bronstein—If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

A true labyrinth of the written word, Bronstein’s greatest accomplishment may be empathy in the face of darkness, but the enticing thickets of mystery that linger just under the surface are just as ready to stand the test of time.

Best Adapted Screenplay:

And the Sherwood Likes to Watch Nominees are…

Will Tracy—Bugonia

Peter Hastings—Dog Man

Paul Thomas Anderson—One Battle After Another

Mona Fastvold & Brady Corbet—The Testament of Ann Lee

Clint Bentley & Greg Kwedar—Train Dreams

Apologies for the Dog Man shout-out; in a better year, its low stakes bear hug wouldn’t be enough to make the cut. Good thing it’s buttressed by Tracy’s ever-shifting game of cat-and-mouse, Anderson’s Rube Goldberg machine of thriller mechanics, Bentley and Kwedar’s delicate observation of time’s passing, and Fastvold and Corbet’s studious and clear-eyed exploration of a forgotten chapter in history.

And the Winner is…

Paul Thomas Anderson—One Battle After Another

Scripting 161 minutes of action without wasting a moment is no easy feat, but PTA does it with cheeky word play and grandstanding scene work to match. You almost can’t keep up with all the hoops he’s jumping through, but the chase is exhilarating.

Best Make-Up and Hairstyling:

And the Sherwood Likes to Watch Nominees are…

Flora Moody & John Nolan Studio—28 Years Later

Larry Van Duynhoven, Tara Rey, Kaz Gower & Bec Buratto—Bring Her Back

Ken Diaz, Mike Fontaine & Shunika Terry—Sinners

Kazu Hiro, Glen Griffin & Bjoern Rehbein—The Smashing Machine

Leo Satkovich, Mark Ross & Melizah Wheat—Weapons

A little heavy on the gore this year, but not all bloodbaths are built the same. For the Weapons team, the carnage mostly takes a back seat to the chilling sights of Aunt Gladys and Principle Marcus, just as Machine’s open gashes are less meaningful than rendering Dwayne Johnson unrecognizable. Similarly, Dr. Kelson’s iodine smear is more memorable than all of Years’ excellent zombie flesh, and no gore quite matches that look on Jack O’Connell’s face in Sinners. Bring Her Back, on the other hand, is here purely for the gross-out factor.

And the Winner is…

Larry Van Duynhoven, Tara Rey, Kaz Gower & Bec Buratto—Bring Her Back

The most viscerally upsetting movie of 2025 twice over, Bring Her Back wouldn’t be nearly as merciless if it wasn’t just as tactile.

Best Film Editing:

And the Sherwood Likes to Watch Nominees are…

Jon Harris—28 Years Later

Stephen Mirrione—F1

Lucian Johnston—If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

Josh Safdie & Ronald Bronstein—Marty Supreme

Andy Jurgensen—One Battle After Another

F1 owes its Best Picture nomination to the propulsive thrust that Mirrione creates, though he’s got company when it comes to revving up the MPH. Jurgensen, Johnston, Safdie and Bronstein are always onto the next thing, but each has a sixth sense for when their respective movie needs to slow down and steep in a moment. Harris only finds that peace in Years’ latter half, positively frying your nerve endings only to downshift just as the audience reaches peak vulnerability.

And the Winner is… 

Jon Harris—28 Years Later

It’s a testament to Harris’ galaxy-brained construction that Years is constantly teetering on the edge of a colossal mess, the kind of galvanizing discomfort that only a pioneering artist can manifest. The queasy elegance of the culminating chapter only functions because he’s whipped us up into such a tizzy.

Best Supporting Actress:

And the Sherwood Likes to Watch Nominees are…

Danielle Macdonald—If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

Teyana Taylor—One Battle After Another

Diane Kruger—The Shrouds

Julia Garner—Weapons

Amy Madigan—Weapons

Madigan’s domineering nastiness is worthy of all the acclaim it’s received, but Garner might have the trickier role as a recognizably broken person who still shines if the light catches her just right. Macdonald’s tortured new mom wouldn’t know the sun’s rays if they were right on her back, licking her wounds and clipping her words with relentless honesty. Kruger and Taylor are tougher eggs to crack, the latter supercharging her movie’s opening act through sheer force of will while the former brings to life to a femme fatale straight from your nightmares.

And the Winner is… 

Teyana Taylor—One Battle After Another

Taylor is so titanic in her brief screentime that her afterglow hangs over the following two hours, never quite escaping Perfidia Beverly Hills’ white-knuckle grasp. She’s a steamroller, then she’s gone like a thief in the night.

Best Production Design:

And the Sherwood Likes to Watch Nominees are…

Kasra Farahani & Jille Azis—The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Jack Fisk & Adam Willis—Marty Supreme

Adam Stockhausen & Anna Pinnock—The Phoenician Scheme

Hannah Beachler & Monique Champagne—Sinners

Sam Bader & Lauren Doss—The Testament of Ann Lee

Apologies to Frankenstein, which featured the most remarkable production design of last year, but all that overzealousness consistently undercuts the story at hand. Supreme’s set decor is nearly as impressive but entirely more immersive, sending us back to the 1950s and hopping across oceans without ever breaking the cinematic illusion. Wes Anderson’s standard perfectionism should never be taken for granted, and neither should a Marvel flick that actually looks great for once. Sinners’ recreation of the erstwhile south is similarly enveloping, but Beachler and Champagne’s ability to wordlessly communicate the nooks and crannies of Coogler’s world is their real accomplishment.

And the Winner is… 

Jack Fisk & Adam Willis—Marty Supreme

The degree of difficulty here is impossible to overstate, with Fisk and Willis charging fast through 150 minutes of intercontinental excess without ever missing a beat or straining credulity.

Best Original Song:

And the Sherwood Likes to Watch Nominees are…

Golden—Kpop Demon Hunters

How It’s Done—Kpop Demon Hunters

Soda Pop—Kpop Demon Hunters

Takedown—Kpop Demon Hunters

I Lied to You—Sinners

This is usually a dumpster fire of a category, one that would have plenty of room for the likes of Japanese Breakfast, A$AP Rocky, Nick Cave, Miley Cyrus, and Spinal Tap in any other year. The Kpop freight train is just bad timing for everyone, and while Lied’s centrifugal role in Sinners is too meaningful to dismiss, the fifth slot could have just as easily gone to another HUNTR/X bop.

And the Winner is… 

Golden—Kpop Demon Hunters

Honestly, take your pick. Any of the Kpop songs are worthy, so we’ll give Golden one last shout out. Lord knows it hasn’t enjoyed enough world conquering success already.

Best Sound:

And the Sherwood Likes to Watch Nominees are…

Bring Her Back

F1

Sinners

The Testament of Ann Lee 

Warfare

Simply cranking up the music isn’t enough to land a spot here, which does away with every melody-forward potential candidate except for Sinners and Ann Lee. Their audio immersion is too enveloping to be left out, as overpowering as F1’s engines, Warfare’s bullets, and Bring Her Back’s things that go bump in the night, if never as sternum rattling.

And the Winner is… 

The Testament of Ann Lee

The sonics here are a world unto themselves, to the point that listening to the score at home is nearly unthinkable. You don’t listen so much as swim in its expanse.

Best Visual Effects:

And the Sherwood Likes to Watch Nominees are…

Avatar: Fire and Ash

The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Mickey 17

The Running Man

Together

Together’s body horror gets under your skin in a way that’s usually reserved for features with practical effects, the rare FX victory that isn’t hewn to larger world building. You’ll find all that in Running Man’s leering skyscape, Mickey 17’s cuddly buffalo/potato bugs, Fantastic Four’s interplanetary travel, and Avatar’s Avatar.

And the Winner is… 

Avatar: Fire and Ash

Much like the Frankenstein costumes shout-out, this is a begrudging acceptance of the undeniable. Three movies in, James Cameron’s Pandora adventures have run out of gas, but in terms of CGI, Fire and Ash is still glaringly ahead of the pack.

Best Casting:

And the Sherwood Likes to Watch Nominees are…

Carson Lund—Eephus

Geraldine Barón & Salome Oggenfuss—If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

Jennifer Venditti—Marty Supreme

Nadia Acimi—Sirāt

Allison Jones—Weapons

You’d think that tabbing Conan O’Brien and A$AP Rocky to play second fiddle to a mother on the verge of a nervous breakdown would be inspired enough to walk away with this one, but casting directors were really thinking outside of the box last year. Supreme and Sirāt ingeniously pit seasoned thespians against untrained performers to enlivening effect, while Eephus forgoes the use of name brand performers altogether. Jones would seem to have the easiest job here, but Weapons scrapped an enviable troupe of actors during the writer’s strike and somehow wound up with an even better band of contributors.

And the Winner is… 

Carson Lund—Eephus

Getting any new face to truly pop on screen is a feat in and of itself. Lund does is about 23 times in rapid succession, and his ensemble clicks together as though they’ve known each other for decades.

Best Ensemble:

And the Sherwood Likes to Watch Nominees are…

Black Bag

Eddington

It Was Just An Accident

The Secret Agent

Sinners

This should have been made an official Oscar category before Best Casting, but we’ll make things right here, and spread the wealth while we’re at it. Any of the nominees from the previous docket could have just as easily slipped in here, but the lived-in verisimilitude of Agent and Accident is more a product of great acting than cagey positioning. Black Bag and Eddington required even less of their casting directors, winding up twin flocks of star power and then letting them loose. Sinners resides somewhere in the middle; you know the faces, but you’ve never seen them in the limelight quite like this. 

And the Winner is…

Sinners

Not a false note to be found in this bunch; the soulfulness of Delroy Lindo and Wunmi Mosaku, the soullessness of Jack O’Connell, the sensuality of Hailee Steinfeld, the discovery of Miles Caton, and Michael B. Jordan’s ascension to the throne of stardom render this race a foregone conclusion.

Best Cinematography:

And the Sherwood Likes to Watch Nominees are…

Anthony Dod Mantle—28 Years Later

Seamus McGarvey—Die My Love

Christopher Messina—If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

Autumn Durald Arkapaw—Sinners

Adolpho Veloso—Train Dreams

Mantle may not be the first person to shoot a theatrical release on an iphone, but no one prior has made the process feel this simultaneously lo-fi and operatic. Sinners and Train Dreams skew toward that latter quality, with Arkapaw and Veloso dousing their respective projects in resplendent, textured beauty. McGarvey meets them there with his hazy, sumptuous post cards from floral hell, and while Messina isn’t doing anything that optically compares, his ability to seat you directly in the headspace of Legs’ protagonist is unmatched.

And the Winner is… 

Adolpho Veloso—Train Dreams

Kind of boring to go for pure, supple radiance, but Train Dreams is ravishing enough to make you gasp. Digital photography of the natural world isn’t supposed to be this handsome, but Veloso is a magician.

Best International Feature Film:

And the Sherwood Likes to Watch Nominees are…

It Was Just An Accident

No Other Choice

The Secret Agent

Sentimental Value

Sirāt

No Other Choice, Sentimental Value, and The Secret Agent are all impossibly admirable, but don’t reach the depths of feeling encountered in the other two films. Both get down and dirty, with Accident fighting its uphill battle against a cruel government and the society of grifters it’s helped to cultivate, while Sirāt wages a prehistoric war with the gods set to the hypnotic thrum of EDM.

And the Winner is… 

Sirāt

Sure, Oliver Laxe’s desert-bound misery tour might not be for most, but when have pain, agony, and scalding rebirth harbored mass appeal? Other films here may be easier to appreciate, but Sirāt is impossible to forget.

Best Original Score:

And the Sherwood Likes to Watch Nominees are…

Young Fathers—28 Years Later

Bobby Krlic—Anemone

Jerskin Fendrix—Bugonia

Johnny Greenwood—One Battle After Another

Kangding Ray—Sirāt

This one is so loaded that the obvious omissions require explanation. Train Dreams’ score is dreamy and lush, but a touch repetitious. Marty Supreme’s numbers blast out of theater speakers, though much of its power comes from being interwoven with 80s New Wave bangers. Sinners and The Testament of Ann Lee rely more on songs than a symphony, a collection of individual pieces that are less cohesive than the five listed above. Which brings us to the picks; Battle may not be Greenwood’s best, but its anxious itch keeps viewers on the edge of their seat. That’s sort of a common theme here, maintained by Fendrix’s hellish take on The Nutcracker, Young Fathers’ woolly guitar rock, and Krlic’s hair-raising ascent to the stars. Ray would seem to be up to more of the same, but his electronic score manages to sneak up on you. Just when a sense of party-bound peace has set it, he goes for the kill.

And the Winner is… 

Kangding Ray—Sirāt

For the other four nominees, as well as the four others listed thereafter, music is integral to the larger story, but Sirāt’s pulse is part of the setting, recontextualizing the dusty Moroccan Desert one beat at a time. In truth, all nine are right around the same laudable level.

Best Actor:

And the Sherwood Likes to Watch Nominees are…

Timothée Chalamet—Marty Supreme

Dwayne Johnson—The Smashing Machine

Michael B. Jordan—Sinners

Joel Edgerton—Train Dreams

Josh O’Connor—Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery

Edgerton and O’Connor are a pair of empathy magnets, constantly drawing you in with their open expressivity, less dependent on dialogue than unmissable aurora. Speaking of a nebulous, captivating glow, Jordan and Chalamet knock their star parts out of the park, the former with delicious dual-part swagger, the latter with astonishing ferocity and vivacity. Then there’s Johnson, one of the most globally famous humans on the planet, completely disappearing into man baby Mark Kerr. Who even knew he could act?

And the Winner is… 

Timothée Chalamet—Marty Supreme

No need to be likable here; while the myopia of Chalamet’s titular ping pong player has been a turn off to many, his gusto and relentless determination eventually win the day. The pure want is breathtaking.

Best Director:

And the Sherwood Likes to Watch Nominees are…

Danny Boyle—28 Years Later

Mary Bronstein—If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

Josh Safdie—Marty Supreme

Paul Thomas Anderson—One Battle After Another

Ryan Coogler—Sinners

Coogler’s facility with time, place, and deep emotionality is revelatory, matched only by Safdie, whose preferred mode of passion skews more high-flying and reckless than thoughtfully considered. That excitement is similarly conjured by Anderson and Boyle, with movies that grab you by the throat and don’t let go for over two hours. Bronstein lands somewhere in the middle, challenging accepted notions and pleasantries through confrontational cosmetics, and burning your flesh along the way.

And the Winner is… 

Paul Thomas Anderson—One Battle After Another

You saw the car chase, right? Either way, Anderson spins more plates than any of his competitors, and none of them even think about falling, whirling away through 161 minutes that flash across the screen in the blink of an eye.

Best Actress:

And the Sherwood Likes to Watch Nominees are…

Emma Stone—Bugonia

Jennifer Lawrence—Die My Love

Rose Byrne—If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

Eva Victor—Sorry, Baby

Amanda Seyfried—The Testament of Ann Lee

Sorry Jesse Buckley; you’re great and all, but Hamnet is repellent. Besides, we’re favoring dynamism here, with Stone flipping the script on your understanding of Michelle Fuller about 118 times in just as many minutes. Lawrence and Byrne may not be as multifaceted, but their animalistic thrashing bowls you over like a tidal wave. Seyfried is just as powerful, replacing that feral hunger with enough singing and dancing to make Hugh Jackman jealous. Victor is the subtlest of the pack, but manages to build her Woody-Allen-rejoinder persona from the ground up with less than two hours at her disposal.

And the Winner is… 

Amanda Seyfried—The Testament of Ann Lee

Taking a page out of the Academy’s book and selecting the performance that has the most to offer by volume. Largess doesn’t always beget quality, but Seyfried’s sonorous, shrieking, sweat-drenched turn makes the most of its heedless bluster.

Best Picture:

And the Sherwood Likes to Watch Nominees are…

28 Years Later

Eephus

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

Marty Supreme

One Battle After Another

Sinners

Sirāt

The Testament of Ann Lee

Train Dreams

Weapons

Eephus may be microscopic compared to its brethren, but movies you want to get lost in are few and far between, as worthy of celebration as flicks that openly court violent aversion like Sirāt. 28 Years Later reimagines what’s possible in blockbuster filmmaking without skimping on humanism, the same endeavor that Ann Lee embarks on in regards to the movie musical. Weapons is a twisty, turny delight that expands on the narrative ambition of most horror, all while Train Dreams’ exquisite classicism argues persuasively for the old way of doing things. Legs and Supreme turn disreputable character studies into monoliths, crossing boundaries of civility as they champion divergent ways of moving through the world. Then there’s Battle and Sinners, the pair that will go on to define 2025 as a movie year. You’ve probably heard enough about them already.

And the Winner is… 

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

As a feat of writing, acting, construction, and imagination, Legs is unimpeachable, and the volatile reactions it’s received should cause for celebration, not scorn. Bronstein set out to shift our collective paradigm on motherhood, femininity, and gender roles, a more entrenched assemblage of societal totems than any other movie thought wise to attack. Mission accomplished.