Oscars 2025: how to watch, nominations, predictions, and timetable

The 97th Academy Awards are almost upon us – here’s our guide to tuning in at home on Sunday and who we reckon will win the top prizes

There’s a febrile atmosphere to the Oscars this year, caused largely by events outside Hollywood’s control. The advent of Trump and the consequent assault on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives (for which the film industry has been a rather visible target), the widespread devastation of the Los Angeles wildfires, and the ongoing mystery around the deaths of Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa, mean that minds are inevitably wandering elsewhere. Like last year, too, strife over Israel/Gaza is hovering in the background. Inside the industry, things aren’t so rosy either: the row over Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón’s grotesque social media posts has dominated the awards campaign, while many Hollywooders may be silently quivering at the prospect of AI taking their jobs.

As for the Oscars themselves, in-the-know types are saying the race for best picture is the most open for years. First it seemed like The Brutalist would win, then Anora came roaring through, and now there’s a possibility that Conclave might snatch it. This is assuming, of course, that Emilia Pérez has successfully shot itself in the foot; having emerged at the head of the nominations list with 13, what are the odds it will beat the record of 11, held by The Turning Point (in 1978) and The Color Purple (in 1986), and not win a single one?

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Continue ReadingOscars 2025: how to watch, nominations, predictions, and timetable

Our hard-won rights are being erased one letter at a time | Eva Wiseman

The US continues to roll back trans, gay and abortion rights, and the UK is not immune to any of it

I type this through nervous laughter but, haha, should we all be learning how to perform abortions? Just in case? Should we all perhaps, have a little stash of mifepristone in our makeup bags, a secret number in our phone? Something is happening in the US that requires our attention. Hard-earned rights are being erased and the speed at which history is being rewritten there does not bode well for our freedoms here. We are already seeing dark reflections in the glass. This month the Observer reported how British anti-abortion campaigners are echoing US vice-president JD Vance. He claimed our new buffer zone laws, preventing protests outside abortion clinics, were an attack on the “liberties of religious Britons”, shifting focus away from the reason they were implemented to a debate about freedom of speech.

Buffer zones (intended to protect staff and women using the clinics) are being targeted in a careful campaign by conservative Christian groups such as the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a group that wants to ban abortion, opposes same-sex marriage and, in the US, has helped at least 23 states pass legislation barring trans athletes from girls’ and women’s events as well as drafting legislation restricting gender-affirming treatment for minors. With only 1.4% of adolescents in the US identifying as transgender, LGBTQ+ rights groups accused the ADF of “whipping up a panic” over decisions better left to doctors, teachers and parents.

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Continue ReadingOur hard-won rights are being erased one letter at a time | Eva Wiseman

Our hard-won rights are being erased one letter at a time | Eva Wiseman

The US continues to roll back trans, gay and abortion rights, and the UK is not immune to any of it

I type this through nervous laughter but, haha, should we all be learning how to perform abortions? Just in case? Should we all perhaps, have a little stash of mifepristone in our makeup bags, a secret number in our phone? Something is happening in the US that requires our attention. Hard-earned rights are being erased and the speed at which history is being rewritten there does not bode well for our freedoms here. We are already seeing dark reflections in the glass. This month the Observer reported how British anti-abortion campaigners are echoing US vice-president JD Vance. He claimed our new buffer zone laws, preventing protests outside abortion clinics, were an attack on the “liberties of religious Britons”, shifting focus away from the reason they were implemented to a debate about freedom of speech.

Buffer zones (intended to protect staff and women using the clinics) are being targeted in a careful campaign by conservative Christian groups such as the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a group that wants to ban abortion, opposes same-sex marriage and, in the US, has helped at least 23 states pass legislation barring trans athletes from girls’ and women’s events as well as drafting legislation restricting gender-affirming treatment for minors. With only 1.4% of adolescents in the US identifying as transgender, LGBTQ+ rights groups accused the ADF of “whipping up a panic” over decisions better left to doctors, teachers and parents.

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Continue ReadingOur hard-won rights are being erased one letter at a time | Eva Wiseman

In this dangerous age, Britain needs to exert soft power as well as the hard stuff | Andrew Rawnsley

Defence spending has to go up, but siphoning money from international aid is a self-defeating folly

Shortly before he flew to Washington, Sir Keir Starmer turned up in the Commons, put on his sombre voice and declared: “Everything has changed.” One of the more startling transformations has been to Sir Keir himself. The Labour leader came to office thinking, as did most of those who voted for him, that he was going to be a domestically orientated prime minister with primary ambitions to improve living standards, build lots of homes and rejuvenate public services. That’s what “change”, his one-word election slogan, was supposed to be about. When he originally selected his overriding “five missions”, the defence of the realm didn’t make the cut.

His central definition today is as a geopolitically focused prime minister who is promising to spend more on guns, missiles and warplanes and less on international aid. More British bullets will be purchased at the expense of succour to the impoverished and desperate of the world. This shift gives a flintier profile to his leadership, but not in a way that either supporters or opponents anticipated during last summer’s election. Most Labour people don’t quarrel with the argument that Britain has to put up its guard, but a lot of them, including queasy members of the Starmer cabinet, are wriggling uncomfortably about taking the hatchet to the international development budget. In the days since the decision was announced, they have taken to wondering what manner of Labour government is this?

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Continue ReadingIn this dangerous age, Britain needs to exert soft power as well as the hard stuff | Andrew Rawnsley

In this dangerous age, Britain needs to exert soft power as well as the hard stuff | Andrew Rawnsley

Defence spending has to go up, but siphoning money from international aid is a self-defeating folly

Shortly before he flew to Washington, Sir Keir Starmer turned up in the Commons, put on his sombre voice and declared: “Everything has changed.” One of the more startling transformations has been to Sir Keir himself. The Labour leader came to office thinking, as did most of those who voted for him, that he was going to be a domestically orientated prime minister with primary ambitions to improve living standards, build lots of homes and rejuvenate public services. That’s what “change”, his one-word election slogan, was supposed to be about. When he originally selected his overriding “five missions”, the defence of the realm didn’t make the cut.

His central definition today is as a geopolitically focused prime minister who is promising to spend more on guns, missiles and warplanes and less on international aid. More British bullets will be purchased at the expense of succour to the impoverished and desperate of the world. This shift gives a flintier profile to his leadership, but not in a way that either supporters or opponents anticipated during last summer’s election. Most Labour people don’t quarrel with the argument that Britain has to put up its guard, but a lot of them, including queasy members of the Starmer cabinet, are wriggling uncomfortably about taking the hatchet to the international development budget. In the days since the decision was announced, they have taken to wondering what manner of Labour government is this?

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Continue ReadingIn this dangerous age, Britain needs to exert soft power as well as the hard stuff | Andrew Rawnsley

International aid is as vital as defence spending – cutting either undermines British security | Emily Darlington

When funding to support vulnerable countries is withdrawn, the risk of war and global destabilisation increases

National defence and international development are two sides of the same coin. Our long-term security requires us to invest in both. European nations need to fill any vacuum left by America’s new administration as we ensure there can be no victory for Vladimir Putin in Ukraine and Donald Trump’s decision to shut down USAid.

Before being elected as an MP, I lived in Kenya and saw the vital work done by local charities that help families of children growing up in informal settlements on the outskirts of Nairobi. I met teenagers working on social media projects to tackle disinformation and prevent post-election violence. And I talked to women about the ever-present threat of rape and sexual violence.

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Continue ReadingInternational aid is as vital as defence spending – cutting either undermines British security | Emily Darlington