How many awards did Wicked bag at Oscars 2025? All winning categories explored

Wicked: Part I, is a film in the musical fantasy genre that was released on November 22, 2024. The Jon M. Chu-directed film is written by Dana Fox and Winnie Holzman. It takes the premise from the initial act of a namesake 2005 musical stage play, which itself was taken from a titular 1995 book.

The official synopsis reads:

Elphaba, a young woman ridiculed for her green skin, and Galinda, a popular girl, become friends at Shiz University in the Land of Oz. After an encounter with the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, their friendship reaches a crossroads.

Upon its release, Wicked received a positive critical response and scored 88% on Rotten Tomatoes. It also minted over $00 million, becoming one of the highest-grossing films of the year. The film has also bagged several awards at the 2025 Academy Awards. Let's find out more about it.

Wicked Oscar 2025 wins explored

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Wicked received ten nominations at the 97th Academy Awards. This includes Cynthia Erivo for Best Actress, Ariana Grande for Best Actress in Supporting Role, Best Picture (Marc Platt), Paul Tazewell for Best Costume Design, and Best Visual Effects (Pablo Helman, Jonathan Fawkner, David Shirk, and Paul Corbould).

The film ended up winning in two categories, Best Costume (Paul Tazewell) and Best Production Design (Nathan Crowley and Lee Sandales). Looking at the visual style of the film, its win in the technical categories did not come as a surprise.

More about Wicked

Wicked is produced by Marc Platt and David Stone under their banners Marc Platt Productions and Universal Pictures. It takes place in the land of Oz, where we see Elphaba, who will become the witch in the future, as she forms a bond with Glinda. The film stars English actress Cynthia Erivo, who plays the role of Elphaba Thropp, who has green skin. Ariana Grande plays the role of Galinda Upland aka Glinda, who later transforms into Glinda the Good.

Other cast members of the film are:

Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero Tigelaar
Ethan Slater as Boq Woodsman
Bowen Yang as Pfannee
Peter Dinklage as Dr. Dillamond's voice
Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible
Jeff Goldblum as the Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Marissa Bode as Nessarose Thropp
Bronwyn James as Shenshen
Andy Nyman as Governor Thropp
Courtney-Mae Briggs as Mrs. Thropp

Chu gave an interview to Variety and was asked about the earlier version when the film was supposed to be a stand-alone, which has now been divided into two installments. The second part will be released on November 21, 2025.

He said:

When I walked in, everyone was already in high-octane mode of debating: Do we need to do this in two movies? Other scripts that were trying to fit it into one movie were stripping many songs and changing the story in ways that didn’t quite make logical, emotional sense. You can get away with that on stage, but movie audiences are tougher. As we picked apart every script, I would ask certain questions that opened a lot of discussion. It became inevitable that we had to commit to two movies.

Fans are waiting for the sequel, which will be out by late 2025.