Dads Get Messy at This Year’s Oscars, with Bilge Ebiri

From Jay Kelly to Sentimental Value to One Battle After Another, Oscar season 2025 is overflowing with dads—absent ones, ambitious ones, ones who chose career over family and are now reckoning with the cost. We dig into how this year's best films moved beyond the “scary dad" trope to give us fathers who are flawed, human, and genuinely complicated, and what that shift says about how the world is thinking about fatherhood right now.CreditsHost: Kevin MaguireManaging Producer: Elizabeth Van BrocklinSound Editor: Sam WilliamsTheme Music: SohnMore of Bilge’s work:Bilge’s writing on VultureBilge’s dad’s film notebooks Review of Train Dreams Review of Jay Kelly Review of Hamnet Review of One Battle After Another Bilge’s Dad WatchlistThe ChampThe ShiningBigger Than LifeTrain DreamsJay KellyOne Battle After AnotherWalking with DinosaursOther show references:Subscribe to TNF newsletter Kevin’s essay on Train DreamsTimestamps00:00 Hello00:31 Becoming Nemo’s Dad03:30 Let’s talk movies!05:00 Film diaries c. 1940s06:10 Apocalypse Now07:20 Present dad award10:43 Core memory of The Shining15:00 Masculinity crisis16:48 [SPOILERS] Train Dreams19:15 Providing vs. protecting19:58 [SPOILERS] Hamnet20:20 [SPOILERS] Sentimental Value21:04 [SPOILERS] Jay Kelly23:50 [SPOILERS] More Train Dreams 27:24 [SPOILERS] Leo is best film dad 29:10 The Shining easter egg31:21 Letting go in the teen years33:00 Watching movies with your kids36:43 The outcast dinosaur Get full access to The New Fatherhood at www.thenewfatherhood.org/subscribe