Cerermony - Oscars 2026: Inside the 98th Academy Awards and a Year That Redefined the Race

By Mulder, 22 january 2026

For the second consecutive year, hosting duties will be handled by Conan O’Brien, whose return was met with widespread approval after last year’s ceremony was praised for its balance of sharp humor, genuine affection for cinema, and an unexpectedly elegant visual identity, a combination that Academy leadership clearly saw as the right tone to carry forward, especially as Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan also return as executive producers for the third year in a row, joined again by longtime Conan O’Brien collaborators Jeff Ross and Mike Sweeney, with Mike Sweeney also serving as a writer, creating a rare sense of continuity behind the scenes that Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Janet Yang openly celebrated in their official statement, emphasizing that the previous show succeeded not only as entertainment but as a sincere tribute to the global film community 

Beyond the familiar faces, the Oscars 2026 mark a pivotal turning point in Academy history with the introduction of the Academy Award for Best Casting, the first new competitive category since Best Animated Feature was added in 2001, a long-awaited recognition for casting directors whose influence on performances and storytelling has often been praised quietly but rarely rewarded publicly, with nominees selected by the Casting Directors Branch, established in 2013 and now representing nearly 160 professionals, making this addition both symbolic and structural, especially as the Academy simultaneously enforces a major rule change requiring all voting members to have watched every nominated film in a category before casting final-round ballots, a reform aimed squarely at restoring credibility and fairness to the voting process 

On the nominations front, one title towers above the rest: Sinners, which leads the field with a record-breaking 16 nominations, surpassing the long-standing benchmark of 14 previously shared by All About Eve, Titanic, and La La Land, a milestone achievement that reflects not only the film’s technical ambition but also the industry’s enthusiasm for its performances, craft, and cultural resonance, while the Best Picture lineup as a whole paints a striking portrait of modern cinema, blending auteur-driven projects like Hamnet and Sentimental Value with large-scale studio productions such as F1 and Frankenstein, and international powerhouses like The Secret Agent, continuing an eight-year streak in which at least one non-English-language film competes for the Academy’s top prize 

The acting categories tell their own story of renewal and legacy, with 11 first-time nominees standing alongside established Oscar winners, including Benicio Del Toro, Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, and Emma Stone, while Timothée Chalamet emerges as a defining figure of his generation, becoming the only acting nominee also recognized last year, and Amy Madigan delivering one of the season’s most poignant statistical footnotes with her nomination for Weapons arriving 40 years after her first, placing her among the longest gaps between acting nominations in Academy history, a reminder of the Oscars’ unique ability to reflect not just annual trends but entire careers 

International cinema continues to assert its influence with France earning its 40th nomination for International Feature Film, further extending its all-time record, while The Secret Agent and Sentimental Value become the 12th and 13th films to be nominated simultaneously for Best Picture and International Feature Film, a rare dual recognition previously achieved by Parasite, the only title to win both awards, highlighting how porous the boundary between “international” and “mainstream” cinema has become in the modern Academy landscape 

All of this unfolds against the backdrop of an institution with nearly a century of history, from its first ceremony in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel to its current home at the Dolby Theatre, with the Oscar statuette itself—designed by Cedric Gibbons and sculpted by George Stanley—remaining one of the most recognizable symbols in global culture, standing 13½ inches tall, weighing 8½ pounds, and representing over 3,491 competitive statuettes awarded since the beginning, a physical reminder that while formats evolve and categories expand, the core mission of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences remains unchanged: to honor excellence in filmmaking across generations, genres, and borders .

As March 15 approaches, the Oscars 2026 feel less like a simple awards ceremony and more like a snapshot of an industry in transition—one that is reckoning with representation, global storytelling, and accountability, while still finding room for spectacle, humor, and tradition—an uneasy but fascinating balance that may well define this 98th edition as one of the most consequential in recent Academy history.

Best Picture
Bugonia – Ed Guiney & Andrew Lowe, Yorgos Lanthimos, Emma Stone, and Lars Knudsen, producers
F1 – Chad Oman, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Joseph Kosinski, and Jerry Bruckheimer, producers
Frankenstein – Guillermo del Toro, J. Miles Dale, and Scott Stuber, producers
Hamnet – Liza Marshall, Pippa Harris, Nicolas Gonda, Steven Spielberg, and Sam Mendes, producers
Marty Supreme – Eli Bush, Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie, Anthony Katagas, and Timothée Chalamet, producers
One Battle After Another – Adam Somner, Sara Murphy, and Paul Thomas Anderson, producers
The Secret Agent – Emilie Lesclaux, producer
Sentimental Value – Maria Ekerhovd and Andrea Berentsen Ottmar, producers
Sinners – Zinzi Coogler, Sev Ohanian, and Ryan Coogler, producers
Train Dreams – Marissa McMahon, Teddy Schwarzman, Will Janowitz, Ashley Schlaifer, and Michael Heimler, producers

Best Director
Chloé Zhao – Hamnet
Josh Safdie – Marty Supreme
Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another
Joachim Trier – Sentimental Value
Ryan Coogler – Sinners

Best Actor
Timothée Chalamet – Marty Supreme as Marty Mauser
Leonardo DiCaprio – One Battle After Another as Bob Ferguson
Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon as Lorenz Hart
Michael B. Jordan – Sinners as Elijah "Smoke" Moore / Elias "Stack" Moore
Wagner Moura – The Secret Agent as Armando Solimões / Marcelo Alves / Fernando Solimões

Best Actress
Jessie Buckley – Hamnet as Agnes Shakespeare
Rose Byrne – If I Had Legs I'd Kick You as Linda
Kate Hudson – Song Sung Blue as Claire Sardina
Renate Reinsve – Sentimental Value as Nora Borg
Emma Stone – Bugonia as Michelle Fuller

Best Supporting Actor
Benicio del Toro – One Battle After Another as Sergio St. Carlos
Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein as the Creature
Delroy Lindo – Sinners as Delta Slim
Sean Penn – One Battle After Another as Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw
Stellan Skarsgård – Sentimental Value as Gustav Borg

Best Supporting Actress
Elle Fanning – Sentimental Value as Rachel Kemp
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas – Sentimental Value as Agnes Borg Pettersen
Amy Madigan – Weapons as Aunt Gladys
Wunmi Mosaku – Sinners as Annie
Teyana Taylor – One Battle After Another as Perfidia Beverly Hills

Best Original Screenplay
Blue Moon – Robert Kaplow
It Was Just an Accident – Jafar Panahi in collaboration with Shadmehr Rastin, Nader Saïvar and Mehdi Mahmoudian
Marty Supreme – Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie
Sentimental Value – Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier
Sinners – Ryan Coogler

Best Adapted Screenplay
Bugonia – Will Tracy; based on the film Save the Green Planet! by Jang Joon-hwan
Frankenstein – Guillermo del Toro; based on the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Hamnet – Chloé Zhao and Maggie O'Farrell; based on the novel Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
One Battle After Another – Paul Thomas Anderson; based on the novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon
Train Dreams – Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar; based on the novella Train Dreams by Denis Johnson

Best Animated Feature
Arco – Ugo Bienvenu, Félix de Givry, Sophie Mas and Natalie Portman
Elio – Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina and Mary Alice Drumm
KPop Demon Hunters – Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans and Michelle L.M. Wong
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain – Maïlys Vallade, Liane-Cho Han, Nidia Santiago and Henri Magalon
Zootopia 2 – Jared Bush, Byron Howard and Yvett Merino

Best International Feature Film
The Secret Agent (Brazil) in Portuguese and German – directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho
It Was Just an Accident (France) in Persian and Azerbaijani – directed by Jafar Panahi
Sentimental Value (Norway) in Norwegian and English – directed by Joachim Trier
Sirāt (Spain) in Spanish, French and Arabic – directed by Oliver Laxe
The Voice of Hind Rajab (Tunisia) in Arabic – directed by Kaouther Ben Hania

Best Documentary Feature Film
The Alabama Solution – Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman
Come See Me in the Good Light – Ryan White, Jessica Hargrave, Tig Notaro and Stef Willen
Cutting Through Rocks – Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni
Mr. Nobody Against Putin – Nominees to be determined
The Perfect Neighbor – Geeta Gandbhir, Alisa Payne, Nikon Kwantu and Sam Bisbee

Best Documentary Short Film
All the Empty Rooms – Joshua Seftel and Conall Jones
Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud – Craig Renaud and Juan Arredondo
Children No More: "Were and Are Gone" – Hilla Medalia and Sheila Nevins
The Devil Is Busy – Christalyn Hampton and Geeta Gandbhir
Perfectly a Strangeness – Alison McAlpine

Best Animated Short Film
Butterfly – Florence Miailhe and Ron Dyens
Forevergreen – Nathan Engelhardt and Jeremy Spears
The Girl Who Cried Pearls – Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski
Retirement Plan – John Kelly and Andrew Freedman
The Three Sisters – Konstantin Bronzit

Best Live Action Short Film
Butcher's Stain – Meyer Levinson-Blount and Oron Caspi
A Friend of Dorothy – Lee Knight and James Dean
Jane Austen's Period Drama – Julia Aks and Steve Pinder
The Singers – Sam A. Davis and Jack Piatt
Two People Exchanging Saliva – Alexandre Singh and Natalie Musteata

Best Casting
Hamnet – Nina Gold
Marty Supreme – Jennifer Venditti
One Battle After Another – Cassandra Kulukundis
The Secret Agent – Gabriel Domingues
Sinners – Francine Maisler

Best Cinematography
Frankenstein – Dan Laustsen
Marty Supreme – Darius Khondji
One Battle After Another – Michael Bauman
Sinners – Autumn Durald Arkapaw
Train Dreams – Adolpho Veloso
Best Costume Design
Avatar: Fire and Ash – Deborah L. Scott
Frankenstein – Kate Hawley
Hamnet – Malgosia Turzanska
Marty Supreme – Miyako Bellizzi
Sinners – Ruth E. Carter

Best Film Editing
F1 – Stephen Mirrione
Marty Supreme – Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie
One Battle After Another – Andy Jurgensen
Sentimental Value – Olivier Bugge Coutté
Sinners – Michael P. Shawver
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Frankenstein – Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel and Cliona Furey
Kokuho – Kyoko Toyokawa, Naomi Hibino and Tadashi Nishimatsu
Sinners – Ken Diaz, Mike Fontaine and Shunika Terry
The Smashing Machine – Kazu Hiro, Glen Griffin and Bjoern Rehbein
The Ugly Stepsister – Thomas Foldberg and Anne Cathrine Sauerberg

Best Production Design
Frankenstein – Production Design: Tamara Deverell; Set Decoration: Shane Vieau
Hamnet – Production Design: Fiona Crombie; Set Decoration: Alice Felton
Marty Supreme – Production Design: Jack Fisk; Set Decoration: Adam Willis
One Battle After Another – Production Design: Florencia Martin; Set Decoration: Anthony Carlino
Sinners – Production Design: Hannah Beachler; Set Decoration: Monique Champagne

Best Original Score
Bugonia – Jerskin Fendrix
Frankenstein – Alexandre Desplat
Hamnet – Max Richter
One Battle After Another – Jonny Greenwood
Sinners – Ludwig Göransson

Best Original Song
"Dear Me" from Diane Warren: Relentless – Music and lyrics by Diane Warren
"Golden" from KPop Demon Hunters – Music and lyrics by Ejae, Mark Sonnenblick, 24, Ido, Teddy, Ian Eisendrath
"I Lied to You" from Sinners – Music and lyrics by Raphael Saadiq and Ludwig Göransson
"Sweet Dreams of Joy" from Viva Verdi! – Music and lyrics by Nicholas Pike
"Train Dreams" from Train Dreams – Music by Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner; Lyrics by Nick Cave

Best Sound
F1 – Gareth John, Al Nelson, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Gary Rizzo and Juan Peralta
Frankenstein – Greg Chapman, Nathan Robitaille, Nelson Ferreira, Christian Cooke and Brad Zoern
One Battle After Another – José Antonio García, Christopher Scarabosio, and Tony Villaflor
Sinners – Chris Welcker, Benjamin A. Burtt, Felipe Pacheco, Brandon Proctor, and Steve Boeddeker
Sirāt – Amanda Villavieja, Laia Casanovas and Yasmina Praderas

Best Visual Effects
Avatar: Fire and Ash – Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon, and Daniel Barrett
F1 – Ryan Tudhope, Robert Harrington, Nicolas Chevallier, and Keith Dawson
Jurassic World Rebirth – David Vickery, Stephen Aplin, Charmaine Chan, and Neil Corbould
The Lost Bus – Charlie Noble, David Zaretti, Russell Bowen and Brandon K. McLaughlin
Sinners – Michael Ralla, Espen Nordahl, Guido Wolter and Donnie Dean