80% of this year’s Oscar® Best Picture nominees include tobacco imagery

Eight of the 10 films nominated for Best Picture at the 2025 Oscars^® contain tobacco imagery, including “Anora,” “A Complete Unknown,” and “Emilia Pérez” which each features young stars, according to a Truth Initiative analysis. Timothée Chalamet, a favorite to win this year’s “Best Actor” Oscar^®, smokes in “A Complete Unknown.” Mikey Madison, a favorite to win this year’s “Best Actress” Oscar^®, smokes in “Anora.” Selena Gomez – the most followed woman on Instagram – sleeps next to an ashtray and used cigarette in “Emilia Pérez,” this year’s most Oscar^® nominated film.

On-screen smoking, which is often glamorized and portrayed as edgy and cool, persists despite well-established research that it influences young people to start using tobacco. Peer-reviewed research from Truth Initiative shows that exposure to tobacco imagery can triple a young person’s odds of starting to use e-cigarettes – today’s top tobacco product among young people.

At a time when youth e-cigarette use remains a serious public health threat, with the 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey showing that 1.63 million middle and high school students use e-cigarettes, even youth-rated movies feature tobacco. Of this year’s eight Oscar^® Best Picture nominees that contain tobacco, two are rated PG-13 and one – “Conclave,” memes of which have become popular on social media – is rated PG.

Number of movies with tobacco increased for the first time since 2002

This smoky Oscars^® season comes as the number of movies with tobacco increased for the first time since 2002, when researchers began tracking tobacco in top films. According to an analysis by NORC at the University of Chicago, 41% of top films released in 2023 contained tobacco, compared to 35% of top films released in 2022. Tobacco incidents in movies increased by 70% in 2023, compared to 2022. In addition, 2023 films averaged 14 tobacco depictions per film, while 2022 films roughly averaged 10 tobacco depictions per film.

This year’s eight Oscar^® Best Picture-nominated films that contain tobacco include “Anora,” “The Brutalist,” “A Complete Unknown,” “Conclave,” “Emilia Pérez,” “I’m Still Here,” “Nickel Boys,” and “The Substance.” Awards such as the Oscars^® garner movies prestige, media attention, and increased viewership. Oscar^®-winning films sometimes get a second or expanded run in movie theaters. This amplifies the negative impact of on-screen tobacco use on young viewers.

Hollywood must protect young people from on-screen tobacco use and imagery

Nicotine harms developing adolescent brains and may make more young people more susceptible to addiction later in life, and nicotine addiction can also increase stress and intensify feelings of depression and anxiety, a growing concern given the worsening national youth mental health crisis.

Hollywood must protect young people from on-screen tobacco use and imagery that directly contribute to the youth e-cigarette crisis. To address youth exposure to tobacco imagery, Truth Initiative calls for a comprehensive set of policies to curb tobacco depictions on screens, including:

• Increasing awareness and outreach: Educating the industry and its various stakeholders about the risks of portraying tobacco on screen is vital.
   
• Including anti-smoking messages and resources to quit when tobacco imagery is present: Anti-tobacco and anti-vaping ads are successful at reducing tobacco use and should appear before and after content that contains tobacco imagery. Proven-effective resources to quit smoking, vaping, and using other tobacco products should also be shared.