The catastrophic Southern California wildfires, combined with winter storms and the presidential inauguration, have put an understandable damper on the latest leg of awards season, with most of this year’s Oscar contenders stepping back from the usual campaigning in recent weeks.

The film academy had plenty of surprise nominations Thursday for the 97th Oscars. The 2025 show is one of the more wide-open fields in recent history.

Angelina Jolie and Daniel Craig are among the A-list actors who have been snubbed at this year’s Oscars nominations. Jolie, 49, was unable to secure a leading actress nod for her role playing opera singer Maria Callas in Maria,