The 2025 Oscars nominees' class photo is being criticized for the lack of diversity among the contenders.
The honored performers posed together at the Academy Museum's 952-seat David Geffen Theater, where many of their films were projected, on Tuesday night (February 25) following a dinner at the museum.
In the front row sat Wicked actresses Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, as well as Zoe Saldaña, who recently won SAG and Golden Globe awards for her work in Emilia Pérez.
Highlights
- The 2025 Oscars nominees photo sparked outrage due to its lack of diversity.
- Cynthia Erivo is one of the few Black nominees across the four acting categories, along with Zoe Saldaña and Colman Domingo.
- People also noted the low number of female artists compared to male artists in the photo.
Demi Moore, Timothée Chalamet, Mikey Madison, and Sebastian Stan were also in the star-studded photo.
Image credits: oscars
Observers criticized that the artists gathered at the theater were mostly white, with Black, Latino, or Asian talents being underrepresented.
"The most diversity in this photo is the hair color of the girl in the front row," one Redditor fumed.
"I've seen icebergs with more diversity than... this," another user noted.
Image credits: Richard Harbaugh for The Academy
Someone else remarked that the photo seemed to show more men than women. "Is this everyone nominated for an Oscar this year? I thought there would be more women…"
Across the four acting categories, Colman Domingo, Zoe Saldaña, and Cynthia Erivo are the only Black performers to receive nominations.
Also, out of the ten titles up for Best Picture, The Substance is the only film that was directed by a woman—Coralie Fargeat. The five International Feature Film nominees were all directed by men.
Internet users were outraged by the lack of representation among the artists pictured at the Academy Museum’s David Geffen Theater
Image credits: evenmorecontent
Image credits: evenmorecontent
In the Adapted Screenplay category, just two out of the 15 people named were women: Nickel Boys co-writer Joslyn Barnes and Léa Mysius for Emilia Pérez.
In Visual Effects, not a single woman was named among the 20 nominees.
The Documentary Feature Film category, which features five titles, includes more diverse voices. Black Box Diaries was directed by Japanese journalist Shiori Ito, and No Other Land was directed by Palestinian activist Basel Andra.
"I've seen icebergs with more diversity than... this," one Redditor remarked
Image credits: evenmorecontent
The nominations also marked a historical first, with Karla Sofía Gascón being the first openly transgender star to be nominated for an Oscar.
Karla stars in Emilia Pérez, which leads the Oscar nominations with 13 nods, followed by The Brutalist and Wicked, with 10 each.
The Spanish actress was notably absent from the nominees' class photo and dinner amid criticism for her hateful messages on X (formerly Twitter), which were largely posted between 2020 and 2021.
The resurfaced messages were labeled as racist and Islamophobic, forcing Karla to deactivate her account and publicly apologize.
Karla Sofía Gascón, a Best Actress nominee for Emilia Pérez, was absent amid the backlash for her hateful social media posts
Image credits: karsiagascon
"I'm sorry, is it just my impression or are there more Muslims in Spain? Every time I go to pick up my daughter from school there are more women with their hair covered and their skirts down to their heels," read one of the tweets.
"Next year instead of English we'll have to teach Arabic."
"I really think that very few people ever cared about George Floyd, a drug addict swindler, but his death has served to once again demonstrate that there are people who still consider black people to be monkeys Without rights and consider policemen to be assassins," she also posted. "They're all wrong."
Image credits: oscars
In 2021, Karla criticized the Academy Awards ceremony, writing, "More and more the #Oscars are looking like a ceremony for independent and protest films, I didn't know if I was watching an Afro-Korean festival, a Black Lives Matter demonstration or the 8M."
Despite the backlash, Karla will reportedly attend the event, where she's nominated for Best Actress.
A source told People that the actress is expected to be at the Dolby Theater on March 2 after skipping several award shows, though it remains unclear whether she will walk the red carpet.
People commented on the 2025 Oscar nominees' group photo
