The Best Audiobooks for the Best Picture Nominees
By Erin Murphy
Roll out the red carpet! The Academy Awards® are upon us, marking the conclusion of the film awards season.
But shed no tears, cinephiles, because we’re here with your extra credit: we’ve hand-picked picture perfect audiobook pairings for all of 2025’s Best Picture nominees. Whether or not your fave brings home the big win, replenish your to-listen-list and relive the season with the themes of this year’s biggest movies.
A Complete Unknown
Just as A Complete Unknown covers Bob Dylan’s rise to fame up until the pivotal moment that he progresses from being a solo folk musician to playing with a fully electric band, Deliver Me From Nowhere details the surprising time between Bruce Springsteen’s hit albums The River and Born in the U.S.A. Warren Zanes’ audiobook outlines the making of Nebraska, a quieter, rougher album consisting of a series of dark songs Springsteen recorded by himself in his bedroom–nearly the direct opposite of Dylan’s musical journey. Zanes argues that Nebraska is Springsteen’s most important record—the lasting clue to understanding not just his career as an artist and the vision behind it, but also the man himself.
Conclave
Suspense where you wouldn’t expect suspense: it’s what makes The Secret History of the Rape Kit an un-pausable audiobook, and Conclave one of the most riveting dramas of the season. While Conclave takes place in the highly interior world of the Vatican, The Secret History of the Rape Kit takes place in the world of forensics, and follows the creation of the rape kit…and the disappearance of the woman who developed and championed it. As author Pagan Kennedy hunts for answers, she reflects on her own experiences and delves into the problematic history of forensics in America, similar to how in his quest to fairly cast his vote for the next Pope, Cardinal Lawrence uncovers a trail of secrets that threaten to shake the foundation of the Catholic Church.
Nickel Boys
Once you finish reading The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that inspired the film, press play on Washington Black. Like Nickel Boys, Washington Black is a story of survival told over the course of years: we meet George Washington Black—or Wash— when he’s an eleven-year-old field slave who gets chosen as the personal servant of his exceptionally cruel master’s brother. To his surprise, Christopher Wilde turns out to be a naturalist, explorer, inventor, and abolitionist. But when a bounty is placed on Wash’s head after a misunderstood death, Wilde and Wash must flee together. Over the course of their travels, what brings Wash and Wilde together will tear them apart, propelling Wash ever farther across the globe in search of his true self.
I’m Still Here
I’m Still Here is the biographical drama about Eunice and Rubens Paiva, based on their son’s memoir of the same name. It follows Eunice after the forced disappearance of her husband, a former congressman who vehemently opposed the militant dictatorship in Brazil. In When We Fell Apart, young Korean-American Min is informed by the Seoul police that his girlfriend Yu-jin–a happy, ambitious almost-graduate–has died by suicide. Similar to how Eunice fiercely tries to uncover Rubens’ whereabouts in I’m Still Here, Min throws himself into finding out why Yu-jin could have secretly wanted to die…or if she did at all. With a controlling and powerful government official father, and a fraught friendship with her roommate, Yu-jin’s life–like Rubens’– was much more complex than she chose to reveal.
The Substance
In a desperate moment Elisabeth Sparkle, newly dismissed from her long-running aerobics tv show after turning 50, takes The Substance, a drug that promises a younger, perfect version of oneself. That version just so happens to be a woman in her twenties who emerges out of Elisabeth’s own body. The results? Unexpected to say the least. In Natural Beauty, after an accident that leaves her parents debilitated, our narrator must give up her passion for the piano in favor of a job at the high-end beauty and wellness store, Holistik. Holistik affords her entry into a world of privilege. Our narrator is plied with products that slim her thighs, smooth her skin, and lighten her hair. But beneath these creams and tinctures lies something sinister…a Substance, perhaps?
Dune: Part Two
While you could listen (or re-listen) to Dune after you’ve watched (or re-watched) both movies, might we suggest another epic space drama? From the creator of Babylon 5 and Sense8, Earthlight follows a NATO operation under U.S. command based in the ultimate military high ground: space. Complete with the interstellar pilots that have become synonymous with Dune, Earthlight‘s crew, brought to life by a full cast and cutting-edge soundscapes, is plunged into a high-stakes life-and-death mission with everything at risk.
Wicked
Much like the way Elphaba Thropp is shunned for her green skin and powers that she can’t quite get under control in Wicked, Alyce has been abhorred and feared for the mysterious dark magic that runs through her veins in Malice, a bewitching retelling of Sleeping Beauty. And, just as Glinda steps in to bolster Elphaba after realizing she’s been quick to judge, Princess Aurora encourages Alyce to be proud of her gifts. Like Elphaba, Alyce also wants to use her powers for good: she longs to lift the curse that condemns Aurora (and all other princesses) to death, and to forge a new world alongside Aurora. In other words, she wants to defy gravity.
Anora
*Record scratch* Yep, that’s me, you’re probably wondering how I ended up in this situation. Anora is a Cinderella story gone awry in which Ani, a young sex worker from Brooklyn marries the son of a Russian oligarch (definitely against his parents wishes). The whirlwind quasi-romance of Anora is mirrored in Acts of Service, which follows Eve’s experience in a throuple that she enters into despite her better instincts. As each act of Eve’s complicated affair unfolds, Eve is forced to confront the questions that most consume her: What does sex reveal of ourselves, and one another? And how do we reconcile what we want with what we think we should want?
The Brutalist
In The Brutalist, an epic period drama, László Tóth is a fictional Bauhaus trained architect who, after surviving the Holocaust, emigrates to the United States for a new start for his life and career. While The Prosecutor is the true story of a man returning to his home country rather than leaving, both are intense works that include survival of one of humanity’s worst atrocities, and the power in processing one’s trauma. In The Prosecutor, Fritz Bauer, a gay, Jewish judge who survived the Holocaust made it his mission to force his countrymen to confront their complicity in the genocide, despite his own government and a network of former Nazis bent on silencing him. The result is a searing portrait of a nation emerging from fascism and one man’s courage in forcing the world to face the truth.
Emilia Perez
Years after her transition, Emilia Pérez is thriving: she is no longer involved with the Mexican cartel, is living authentically as herself, and decides to help return victims of the cartel to their families. But her secret, namely that she was the kingpin of the very cartel she is working against, is always a background threat. In Blood Ties by Jo Nesbo, the successful Opgard brothers are also threatened by their pasts when a new highway and reopened murder cases emerge at the same time. And like in Emilia Pérez, old habits die hard, especially if you’re used to dirty work.
