After two delays due to the devastating wild fires in Los Angeles, the 2025 Academy Award (aka Oscar) nominations were finally announced on January 23. As in past years, Hollywood continues to mine literature as source material. This year, an impressive 7 of the ten nominees for Best Picture are based on books, including 5 novels, a memoir, and a work of historical nonfiction.
If you're interested in reading your way through the Oscars, below is your literary companion guide to this year’s nominations. Prepare yourself for Oscar watch-party debates about which was better, the book or the movie (spoiler alert: it’s always the book). Or read and/or watch one of these books or films with your book club before the Oscars ceremony on March 2nd.
Related content: Fun Ideas to Shake Up Your Book Club - watching a movie together is one of our favorite activities!
Oscar-Nominated Movies Based on Books
Conclave
Based on Conclave by Robert Harris
Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Actor (Ralph Fiennes), Best Supporting Actress (Isabella Rossellini), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, OBest riginal Score, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design
Harris' thriller follows the machinations in the Sistine Chapel as the next pope is chosen.
Wicked
Based on Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Actress (Cynthia Erivo), Best Supporting Actress (Ariana Grande), Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Original Score, Best Production Design, Best Sound, Best Visual Effects
Maguire's novel reimagines the back story of the Wicked Witch of the West from L. Frank Baum's classic story The Wizard of Oz (also adapted into a celebrated movie). Part two of this book-to-Broadway-to-film movie is due next year.
Dune: Part Two
Based on Dune by Frank Herbert
Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, Best Production Design, Best Sound
Director Denis Villeneuve did what many thought impossible in bringing Herbert's seminal sci-fi epic to the screen in an ambitious yet approachable fashion. To conquer the sprawling source material, Villeneuve split the novel into two parts. A third film based on the next novel in Herberts' series, Dune Messiah, is in the works.
The Nickel Boys
Based on The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay
This movie is based on Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning, New York Times bestselling novel, which recounts the story of two boys unjustly sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.
A Complete Unknown
Based on Dylan Goes Electric! by Elijah Wald
Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Actor (Timothée Chalamet), Best Supporting Actor (Edward Norton), Best Supporting Actress (Monica Barbaro), Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Costume Design, Best Sound
The Bob Dylan biopic is based on this new look at the day that the musician took the stage at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival backed by an electric band and shocking festival-goers.
The Wild Robot
Based on The Wild Robot by Peter Brown
Nominated for: Best Animated Feature Film, Best Original Score, Best Sound
The acclaimed DreamWorks animated movie is based on this heartwarming, best-selling middle grade novel that follows a robot learning to survive in the wilderness.
Nosferatu
Based on Dracula by Bram Stoker
Nominated for: Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Production Design
There have been countless retellings of Stoker's classic horror tale of vampires and vampire hunters. This new version of Nosferatu has been acclaimed for its visual imagery.
Black Box Diaries
Based on Black Box by Shiori Ito
Nominated for: Best Documentary Feature Film
This searing account of sexual assault by a prominent Japanese journalist foregrounded the #MeToo movement in Japan.
Emilia Perez
Based on Écoute by Boris Razon
Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Actress (Karla Sofía Gascón), Best Supporting Actress (Zoë Saldaña), Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best International Feature Film, Best Film Editing, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Original Score, Best Original Song ("El Mal" and "Mi Camino"), Best Sound
Writer and director Jacques Audiard found inspiration for his titular character from a chapter in Razon's novel.
I'm Still Here
Based on Ainda Estou Aqui by Marcelo Rubens Paiva
Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Actress (Fernanda Torres), Best Interational Feature Film
The Walter Salles-directed film is based on Marcelo Rubens Paiva's memoir detailing his family's story: his mother's coping and reinvention following the forced disappearance of his father, a former congressman and political dissident, in 1970s Brazil.