The Oscar nominations for 2025 have been announced, revealing the true winner of the award ceremony to be monkeys! As is the case every year, 2025’s Oscar nominations are being thoroughly discussed. Not only are discussions being held regarding predicted winners among the 2025 Oscar nominees but cases are being made for the films not featured. As usual, there were several big surprises and snubs in 2025’s Oscar nominees, from Denis Villeneuve’s absence as a Best Director pick for Dune: Part Two to the lack of a nomination for Challengers’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross in Best Original Score.

Although the focus of the 2025 Oscars is the Best Picture race, these other conversations are fun to be part of as the world of cinema comes together to celebrate 2024’s many excellent films. Interestingly, a common theme has been found throughout one award at the 2025 Oscars which unveils a startling success story for the year in film. Above the many actors, directors, composers, producers, and cinematographers nominated, the true winners of the 2025 Oscars where one category is concerned are monkeys.

Movies With Monkeys In Them Dominated The 2025 Oscars Best Visual Effects Nominations

CGI Monkeys Continue To Dominate Cinema

The category in question is Best Visual Effects, with the nominees being dominated by films including CGI monkeys. This category is already interesting given that it does not contain a superhero movie nomination for the first time in many years, discounting the COVID-19-affected year of 2020. However, the majority of the five nominations for 2025’s Academy Awards ceremony have another thing in common: monkeys.

Three of the five nominees for Best Visual Effects include CGI monkeys of varying capacities. The most obvious nominee in this regard is Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, continuing the acclaim set by its predecessors after Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and War for the Planet of the Apes were all nominated in the same category. Two other movies in this category also have Simian links, from Better Man‘s depiction of its subject, Robbie Williams, as an ape to Wicked‘s winged-monkey guards of the Emerald City.

The Monkey Movies May Not Actually Win The 2025 Best Visual Effects Oscar

The Monkeys Have A Big Fight On Their Hands

Despite these three nominations proving CGI monkeys to be big winners at the 2025 Oscars, all three of them may fall short at the final hurdle. The reason for this is the frontrunner for the category – Dune: Part Two. Denis Villeneuve’s highly acclaimed 2024 film featured vast CGI elements, from the otherworldly environments of Arrakis and Giedi Prime to the creatures of the former, like the giant sandworms.

Dune: Part Two was also the most critically acclaimed of the five nominees, receiving a 92% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. This could swing the category in its favor. Regardless, it is clear that CGI efforts in Hollywood are perfecting the depiction of apes and other simians, though Dune: Part Two‘s strong, almost unnoticeable visual effects may prove too impressive to give the monkeys a true win at 2025’s Oscars.