Challengers being shut out at the 97th Academy Awards is the most egregious snub from the 2025 Oscars, especially considering the film was a clear favorite to actually win in some categories. Starring Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, and Mike Faist, Challengers is an intense character drama focusing on the love triangle that emerges between two best friends and a phenom in the world of tennis. Released to rave reviews, Challengers was a bonafide smash when it was released, earning over $96 million at the global box office.
While 2024’s cinematic field was full of other strong films, Challengers‘ success made it a likely Oscar contender. Or at least that’s what many expected before the nominations for the 97th Academy Awards were announced, which revealed that Challengers had been completely shut out by the Oscars. It’s a genuine shame, too, as the strongest elements of Challengers deserved recognition from the academy — and was actually a supposed (and rightful) frontrunner in one specific category.
Challengers Deserved Multiple Oscars Nominations
Challengers Would Have Made A Fitting Academy Award Contender
Challengers was a solid film that didn’t deserve to be shut out at the 97th Academy Awards. The critically acclaimed Challengers had the critical appreciation to be an awards contender, with a very impressive 88% positive score on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer. The performances in the film, especially Zendaya’s deceptively layered manipulator Tashi, were uniformly impressive, the kind of roles that typically garner nominations. The film was a strong drama, with a solid script and crisp direction that was a box office success when it debuted during the summer of 2024.
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Even if the stiff competition for Best Picture or the various acting categories made a nomination unlikely, the two best elements of the film were found in the below-the-line categories. The editing by Marco Costa is crisp and effective, turning tennis matches into clear metaphors for sexual tension and simmering rivalries. It’s an effective showcase from the editor, especially given the non-linear narrative that would have been unwieldy in lesser hands. Even more frustrating is the lack of nomination for Best Original Score, a category that it seemed predestined to win before being shut out of the nominations.
Challengers Should Be Winning Best Original Score At The Oscars 2025
Challengers Initially Seemed Like A Frontrunner For The Original Score Oscar
Composed by Nine Inch Nails bandmates Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, the score to Challengers was one of the musical highlights of cinema in 2024. The pair, who had previously won the Best Original Score Oscar for their work on The Social Network and Soul, seemed like they were guaranteed to earn nominations for their work in Challengers. Their victory in the same category at the Golden Globes only seemed to reinforce this apparent eventuality.
The score to Challengers was one of the most celebrated aspects of the film, a techno-inspired collection of music that elevated the conflicts on and off the court. Challengers was vastly improved by the music which perfectly highlighted the shattered friendships and unexpected rivalries of the film. Challengers had one of the best original scores of 2024, and yet the film was apparently forgotten when it came time to determine nominations. Challengers was even on the shortlist for nominations in the category, but was left out in the cold despite being a stand-out in the field.
Why Wasn’t Challengers Nominated?
Challengers Might Have Lost Out On Oscar Nominations For Multiple Reasons
Challengers didn’t receive a single Academy Award nomination, which is a genuine surprise given the critical accolades and box office success it enjoyed earlier in the year. The film may have been released too early in the year, leaving it to be overshadowed by other high-profile movies released closer to the typical award season. As a result, more overt musicals like Wicked and Emilia Pérez (both of which were nominated in the category) might have stolen attention. Reznor and Ross being previous winners might have also convinced Academy voters to embrace other creators over them.
It’s a shame that the best element of Challengers didn’t get a chance to win an Oscar it definitely deserved.
The snub may have been part of an overall rebuttal to Challengers director Luca Guadagnino, who also failed to garner any nominations for his other acclaimed 2024 film, Queer. It’s possible that Challengers, an overtly sexualized film, might have been snubbed for the same reasons that Nicole Kidman’s Babygirl was also shut out of nominations. While sex is a big element of films like Anora and Emilia Pérez, neither film is so deeply rooted in it. Whatever the reason is, it’s a shame that the best element of Challengers didn’t get a chance to win an Oscar it definitely deserved.
Challengers
- Release Date
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April 26, 2024
- Runtime
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131 Minutes
- Director
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Luca Guadagnino
- Writers
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Justin Kuritzkes