Every year, the Academy Awards manage to surprise at least a little. But the oscars 2026 nominations delivered something far beyond the usual handful of shocks — they rewrote records, buried sequels that were expected to dominate, and handed Hollywood’s biggest stage to films that defied every category audiences thought they understood. With the 98th Academy Awards ceremony set for March 15, 2026, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, this year’s race is shaping up to be one of the most genuinely open contests in recent memory.
If you haven’t started watching the nominees yet, this weekend is your last chance to catch up before Oscar night — most of the Best Picture contenders are streaming right now.
Sinners Shatters an All-Time Record
The headline story of this entire awards season belongs to Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. The horror film, set in 1930s Mississippi and starring Michael B. Jordan as twin brothers Smoke and Stack, walked away from the nominations announcement with a staggering 16 nods — breaking the all-time record previously shared by Titanic, La La Land, and All About Eve, each of which had 14.
Those 16 nominations span almost every major category: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Jordan (his first-ever nomination), Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Original Score, Best Original Song for “I Lied to You,” Best Sound, Best Visual Effects, Best Supporting Actor for Delroy Lindo, Best Supporting Actress for Wunmi Mosaku, and Best Casting. That last one is a brand-new category introduced by the Academy this year — and Sinners is in it too.
The film earned over $370 million at the worldwide box office, making it a rare awards juggernaut that also dominated multiplexes. If it takes Best Picture, it would mark the first time a horror film has ever won the Academy’s top prize.
Paul Thomas Anderson and Leonardo DiCaprio Are Right Behind
Hot on Sinners’ heels is Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, which racked up 13 nominations of its own. The sprawling political action-comedy stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, Teyana Taylor, Chase Infinity, and Regina Hall. DiCaprio received a Best Actor nomination, Del Toro and Penn are both up for Best Supporting Actor, and Taylor earned a Best Supporting Actress nod.
The film had been considered the frontrunner for much of the season after dominating the Golden Globes, where it took home Best Picture among several other prizes. Anderson’s direction and the film’s massive ensemble make it one of the most ambitious studio productions in years, and its awards total reflects just how thoroughly it impressed Academy voters.
The Full Best Picture Field Is Remarkably Diverse
Ten films compete for Best Picture this year, and the breadth of the field is striking. Here is the complete lineup:
Bugonia, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, is a darkly comedic science fiction satire starring Emma Stone as a corporate executive kidnapped by conspiracy theorists who are convinced she is an alien. Stone is also nominated for Best Actress.
F1, directed by Joseph Kosinski and starring Brad Pitt as a retired Formula One driver pulled back onto the track to mentor a younger racer, scored four nominations including Best Picture, Best Sound, Best Film Editing, and Best Visual Effects.
Frankenstein, Guillermo del Toro’s gothic reimagining of Mary Shelley’s classic, stars Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi as the Creature. The film earned nine nominations, with Elordi up for Best Supporting Actor.
Hamnet, directed by Chloé Zhao, is an emotionally devastating adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel about William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes navigating the grief of losing their young son. Jessie Buckley is nominated for Best Actress and Zhao for Best Director.
Marty Supreme, directed by Josh Safdie, stars Timothée Chalamet as a ferociously competitive ping-pong player pursuing greatness at any cost. Chalamet is nominated for Best Actor — making him the youngest person since Marlon Brando to receive three nominations in that category. Safdie is also nominated for Best Director.
The Secret Agent, directed by Brazil’s Kleber Mendonça Filho, is a neo-noir political thriller set in 1977 Recife. Star Wagner Moura is up for Best Actor, and the film is also in the running for Best International Feature Film.
Sentimental Value, a quiet Norwegian family drama from director Joachim Trier, scored nine nominations — the most ever for a Norwegian film — with Renate Reinsve up for Best Actress and both Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas nominated for Best Supporting Actress.
Train Dreams, directed by Clint Bentley and based on Denis Johnson’s beloved novella, follows a logger and railroad worker across early 20th-century America. Joel Edgerton stars and the film received nominations for Cinematography, Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Song.
The Acting Races Are Wide Open
The Best Actor category is one of the deepest in years. Timothée Chalamet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael B. Jordan, Ethan Hawke for Blue Moon, and Wagner Moura for The Secret Agent make up a field with no clear favorite heading into the final stretch.
On the Best Actress side, Emma Stone, Jessie Buckley, and Renate Reinsve are the names generating the most conversation, with Kate Hudson earning a widely celebrated nomination for Song Sung Blue — her first since Almost Famous back in 2001.
The Supporting categories are equally stacked, with multiple nominees from the same film appearing in the same category. One Battle After Another placed both Del Toro and Penn in Best Supporting Actor, while Sentimental Value has Fanning and Lilleaas competing against each other in Best Supporting Actress.
The Biggest Snubs of the Season
Not every major film had a reason to celebrate. Wicked: For Good, the sequel to 2024’s Wicked — which itself earned 10 nominations and won two — received zero nominations. It was the most stunning shutout of the entire announcement.
Avatar: Fire and Ash also fell well short of expectations, landing just two nominations despite the franchise’s historic Oscar legacy. Guillermo del Toro was notably absent from the Best Director lineup despite Frankenstein earning nine nominations overall.
A New Category and Conan O’Brien Returns
The Academy introduced Best Casting as an official competitive category for the first time this year, with Sinners, One Battle After Another, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, and The Secret Agent all nominated.
Conan O’Brien returns as host for the second consecutive year. The ceremony airs on ABC and streams on Hulu, beginning at 7 p.m. ET on March 15.
With the oscars 2026 nominations producing this much drama before a single statuette has been handed out, Sunday night is set to be one worth watching from start to finish.
Which film do you think deserves to win Best Picture — and which nomination surprised you most? Drop your pick in the comments and come back Sunday night to see if the Academy got it right.
