The real-life places behind 2025’s Oscar-nominated movies

Many of us know the names of the Hollywood icons and next generation stars set to be crowned at this year’s Oscars.

Yet how many of you can name the homes and places where the iconic scenes from The Substance, Wicked, Anora or Conclave were filmed?

Take a peek inside some of the properties featured in the films nominated in the Best Picture category at the 97th Academy Awards.

Conclave

The majority of Edward Berger’s political thriller Conclave was filmed at Cinecittà Studios in Rome on specially-designed sets. 

But many scenes were also shot on location at the Royal Palace of Caserta, a magnificent 18th-century palace originally built for the kings of Naples.

The Royal Palace of Caserta is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are 1,742 windows and over 1,000 fireplaces in the main building alone. 

In Conclave, the palace was used for interior shots of the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel. 

Exterior shots of the Vatican’s gardens were filmed in the Villa Medici, an art museum in Rome. 

At the time, the villa was undergoing restoration work, so hedges and tall plants were used to hide construction scaffolding. 

The Substance

Coralie Fargeat’s satirical body horror film The Substance was shot primarily in France. 

One early scene where Elisabeth Sparkles meets her boss, Harvey, for lunch was filmed on location at La Maison du Caviar in Paris.

It’s a plush 1950s restaurant off the Champs-Élysées that specialises in fine caviars and seafood.

A 125-gram serving of Beluga caviar at La Maison du Caviar costs €1330 (more than $2000). 

Exterior shots of the hospital in The Substance were filmed at the Anthéa Theatre in the south of France. 

The undulating concrete building caused a buzz when it was first built 12 years ago in the small seaside city of Antibes. 

Anora

Sean Baker’s film Anora centres on the relationship between Brooklyn sex worker Anora Mikheeva and Ivan Zakharov, the son of a Russian oligarch. 

To find Ivan’s family home, producer Sammy Quan explains Baker “basically Googled ‘most expensive mansion in Brooklyn’.” 

The house he found was 2458 National Drive, Brooklyn – a five-bedroom waterfront mansion in the Mill Basin neighbourhood that sold in 2013 for $US30 million. 

The property – which The Real Deal once described as a “mobster-style mansion” that “would make Vegas blush” – was built by Russian-American billionaire Vasily Anisimov. 

Other real-life places featured in Anora include Tatiana Grill in Coney Island, William’s Candy Shop, and the New York County Supreme Court. 

Wicked

Jon M. Chu’s blockbuster musical film Wicked was filmed primarily in London studios. 

But many of the Munchinkinland scenes were filmed on location in the English countryside. 

The film’s opening sequence took place in the small village of Ivinghoe in Buckinghamshire, where the production team built dozens of thatched cottages. 

And Belmont Nurseries, a famous tulip farm in Norfolk, was planted with 9 million individual tulips to form the backdrop of Munchkinland. 

“I was very nervous that we got the right colours in the right place – but it came right in the end,” owner Mark Eves told the BBC.

The Brutalist

Brady Corbet’s architecture-steeped drama film The Brutalist took inspiration from dozens of real-life buildings around the world. 

Production designer Judy Becker has cited Marcel Breuer’s Whitney Museum and Tadao Ando’s Church of the Light among her influences. 

Scenes from The Brutalist were filmed at Mahart Gabonatárház, a thirteen-storey warehouse in Budapest. 

The Van Buren Institute, the community centre Toth is tasked with designing, was filmed using architectural models. Real Hungarian buildings, including the József Gruber Water Reservoir, were used for detail shots.