Zoe Saldaña Looks Like An Oscar-Winning Frontrunner After The 2025 Golden Globes

Among the many riveting films dominating 2025’s awards season, one category in particular is seeing an incredibly tight race. Zoe Saldaña gave an unprecedented performance in Emilia Pérez as lawyer Rita Mora Castro, who helps former cartel boss Emilia Pérez (Karla Sofía Gascón) transition and fake her death. However, Ariana Grande’s performance as Glinda in Wicked has also received an astounding amount of acclaim, leading to Grande (credited by her full name Ariana Grande-Butera) and Saldaña being positioned as the two frontrunners in the same category at most major movie awards shows.

Emilia Pérez and Wicked have naturally drawn many comparisons, as two major likely Best Picture nominees, both musicals, and both focusing on female casts. Yet the two movies’ tones, as well as Saldaña and Grande’s characters and performances, are drastically different. Saldaña plays an ambitious attorney grappling with complex moral dilemmas with nuance and ferocity; Grande delivers a hilarious but still compassionate turn as a future good witch; both with an incredible amount of empowerment behind them. Yet, as the 97th Academy Awards draws closer, the Best Supporting Actress winner is perhaps becoming clearer.

Zoe Saldaña’s Golden Globes Win Strengthens Her Best Supporting Actress 2025 Oscars Portfolio

Zoe Saldaña Won The Golden Globes For Best Supporting Actress Over Ariana Grande

Pretty much everyone in the industry agrees that either Zoe Saldaña or Ariana Grande will be taking home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2025. However, the result is starting to seem evident, especially in light of Saldaña’s win for Emilia Pérez at the 82nd Golden Globes, beating Grande in the category of Best Performance by a Female Actor in A Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture. This is following Emilia Pérez‘s monumental win at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as Saldaña being nominated for her performance by many other awarding bodies.

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Saldaña was named a co-winner for Best Ensemble Cast at Cannes alongside the rest of the main Emilia Pérez cast. She also won Best Supporting Actress at the Dallas-Forth Worth Film Critics Association Awards, the Florida Film Critics Circle Awards, and the Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards, in addition to winning or being nominated for a slew of other critics’ awards. The Critics’ Choice Awards is also just around the corner, with Grande again being a nominee in the same category as Saldaña. However, it seems as though the biggest awards this season are favoring Saldaña over Grande.

The Golden Globes Have A Strong History Of Matching The Oscars’ Best Supporting Actress Winner

The Golden Globes & Oscars Have Chosen Very Few Different Best Supporting Actresses In Recent Years

The Golden Globes and the Oscars do not necessarily always pick the same winner. However, the basic stats reveal that they have historically often chosen the same winners in their Best Supporting Actress categories. The two awarding bodies have chosen 37 out of 81 of the same supporting actresses overall; this is 15 out of 24 in this century, and 7 out of 10 in the last decade. Thus, while in the eight decades of both shows, they have varied enough to choose different winners half the time, they have been more frequently choosing the same winner in recent years.

Best Supporting Actress Winners Of The Past 10 Years

Year Of Movie’s Release

Golden Globes

Academy Awards

2023

Da’Vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers

” “

2022

Angela Bassett for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Jamie Lee Curtis for Everything Everywhere All at Once

2021

Ariana DeBose for West Side Story

” “

2020

Jodie Foster for The Mauritanian

Yuh-jung Youn for Minari

2019

Laura Dern for Marriage Story

” “

2018

Regina King for If Beale Street Could Talk

” “

2017

Allison Janney for I, Tonya

” “

2016

Viola Davis for Fences

” “

2015

Kate Winslet for Steve Jobs

Alicia Vikander for The Danish Girl

2014

Patricia Arquette for Boyhood

” “

Many years had obvious winners for whom most would have easily voted, such was the case with Viola Davis for Fences and Laura Dern for Marriage Story. However, the category was locked in another tight race barely two years ago with Angel Bassett in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, as well as the dual powerhouse performances of Jamie Lee Curtis and Stephanie Hsu in Everything Everywhere All at Once. In years like these, each vote may come down to personal preference. Yet critics will respect other critics’ opinions, allowing Golden Globe winners to gain an even stronger footing at the Oscars.

Zoe Saldaña’s Golden Globes Win Gives Her More Momentum Ahead Of The 2025 Oscars

Zoe Saldaña’s Awards Season Tour Shows No Signs Of Slowing Down

Heading into the Oscars, Academy members may be affected, even subconsciously, by the outcome of the Golden Globes, which has long been seen as a preview of the following awards ceremony. While various outlets may have predicted Saldaña before, her win at the Golden Globes will only make her awards-season presence stronger and increase the likelihood of an Oscar win. Had Grande won at the Golden Globes, things might have begun to shift in her favor, encouraging the Academy to vote for Grande’s more comedic performance in the movie with more popular appeal.

Cynthia-Erivo's-Elphaba-vs.-Ariana-Grande's-Glinda--Who-The-Real-MVP-Of-Wicked-Is

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As things stand, Saldaña is having a very strong awards season, with one win after another, and she seems primed to sweep the remainder of the major competitions. However, nothing is set in stone, and Grande could still surprise everyone at the Oscars. Grande has also won several critics’ awards for her portrayal of Glinda, including at the San Diego Film Critics Society Awards, the Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards, and the Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards. However, as far as Ariana Grande and Wicked are concerned, Zoe Saldaña in Emilia Pérez is the one to beat, making for an especially thrilling aspect of this awards season.