The 2024 election of President Donald Trump sent shockwaves through Hollywood after many high-profile entertainers came out in support of Vice President Kamala Harris‘ campaign. The November 5 election came just as the 2025 Oscars race is heating up, sparking a debate about how this could impact the 97th Academy Awards.
Politics has a tendency to get intertwined with Hollywood’s biggest night, but whether or not it can actually impact specific races depends on the given year and films in contention. This year several movies could strike a cord with voters, with the most obvious being Ali Abbasi‘s “The Apprentice,” the story of how a young Donald Trump (played by Sebastian Stan) started his real-estate business in 1970s and ’80s New York with the helping hand of infamous lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong).
“The Apprentice” was already generating significant awards buzz, but will the outcome of the election shine an even bigger spotlight on the controversial biopic? Trump’s attorneys sent Abbasi a cease-and-desist earlier this year, trying to block its US distribution. That ultimately went nowhere and the movie opened in theaters last October. The President-elect’s legal team eventually backed off their threats to take legal action over what they called a “concoction of lies” and a form of “foreign interference in America’s elections.”
There are several other films that are less directly tied to Trump himself, but focus on communities impacted by rhetoric and political ads. “Emilia Perez” star Karla Sofía Gascón plays a Mexican cartel boss hoping to retire from his business and disappear forever by becoming the woman he’s always dreamed of being. That checks a lot of boxes discussed throughout this year’s political campaign. PBS reported pro-Trump groups spent an estimated $95 million on ads in the past month, more than 41 percent of which were anti-trans.
“The Brutalist” stars Oscar winner Adrian Brody as architect László Toth, a Holocaust survivor who flees post-war Europe in 1947 to rebuild his legacy and witness the birth of modern America. Immigration and the “American Dream” are certainly hot-button issues that could be launched into the forefront of an Oscar race that’s already looking like a nail-biter.
“Sing Sing” stars Colman Domingo as Divine G, a man imprisoned at Sing Sing for a crime he didn’t commit. He finds purpose by acting in a theatre group alongside other incarcerated men in a story of resilience, humanity, and the transformative power of art. Prison reform has long been a political topic debated on both sides of the aisle. Kim Kardashian, who was recently pictured with “Sing Sing” star Clarence Maclin at the Academy Museum Gala, famously met with President Trump in 2018 to discuss criminal justice reform, appealing to the president directly to secure the commutation of Alice Marie Johnson, who served 21 years for a nonviolent drug offense. If Oscar voters want to lean into a more optimistic story, “Sing Sing” could benefit.
There’s also a chance voters may just want to be whisked off into a fantasy land, avoiding politics completely and basking in the thrill of movie magic. If that’s the case, watch out for epic films like “Dune: Part Two,” “Gladiator II,” and “Wicked” to make a haul.
At the Oscars ceremony following President Trump’s last election to office in 2016, “Moonlight” upset “La La Land” for Best Picture, showing the Academy was more focused on uplifting marginalized communities than the Hollywood dream. Could there be a similar trend at the 2025 Oscars? Vote in our poll below.
