Oscars 2026 Winners & Nominations — Complete 98th Academy Awards List

Overview: What to Know About the Oscars 2026

The 98th Academy Awards arrive at a genuinely extraordinary moment for cinema. Two films — both produced by Warner Bros. — are locked in a Best Picture showdown that feels almost scripted for drama. On one side sits Sinners, Ryan Coogler's vampire epic set in 1930s Mississippi, which shattered every nominations record the Academy has on the books. On the other is One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson's searing examination of radical American politics, which has swept through the guild awards that historically predict the Oscar winner.

The ceremony takes place at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 15, 2026, starting at 7 p.m. ET. Conan O'Brien returns as host for a second consecutive year, having earned widespread praise for guiding the 97th Oscars in 2025 with warmth and precise comic timing. Executive producers Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan and director Hamish Hamilton all return for another run.

Nominations were announced on January 22, 2026, by actress Danielle Brooks and actor Lewis Pullman at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. The headline was impossible to miss: Sinners had secured 16 nominations — the most any film has ever received in a single year, surpassing the previous record of 14 shared by All About Eve (1950), Titanic (1997), and La La Land (2016). The film's studio, Warner Bros., earned 30 nominations — tying its own record set in 2005.

This year also introduces a significant structural change: Best Casting (Achievement in Casting) debuts as a competitive Oscar category for the very first time, bringing the total number of categories to 24. Casting directors — long central to every successful film yet historically invisible at the ceremony — finally have their own place at the table.

Records Already Broken Before the Ceremony

The Best Picture Race: Sinners vs. One Battle After Another

It would be difficult to script a more compelling Oscar showdown. Two films made by two of America's most celebrated filmmakers, both from Warner Bros., sitting on opposite sides of the awards season scales — one a record-breaking nominations giant, the other a methodical guild-sweep machine.

The PGA and DGA wins for One Battle After Another matter considerably: the PGA winner has matched the Best Picture Oscar in roughly 75% of recent ceremonies. The DGA has aligned with Best Picture over 65% of the time in the past decade. On paper, guild precedent favours Anderson's film heading into the final vote.

Yet Sinners has a different kind of momentum — the momentum of cultural weight. The film swept every branch it competed in during nominations, suggesting wide, cross-guild support that the Academy's preferential ballot can reward even without being everyone's first choice. When Coogler's name was called at the nominees' luncheon, the room erupted.

Sinners not only broke the all-time nominations record but also set a new mark for the most Black individuals nominated for a single film — 10 — a moment that earned widespread acknowledgment as a milestone for representation. — Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, January 2026

The other eight Best Picture nominees are: Frankenstein (Guillermo del Toro, 9 noms), Hamnet (Chloé Zhao), Bugonia (Yorgos Lanthimos), Marty Supreme (Josh Safdie), Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier, 9 noms), Train Dreams, F1, and The Secret Agent.

Acting Nominees: Who Is in Contention

Best Actor

Timothée Chalamet enters as frontrunner for Marty Supreme — A24's biggest-ever ticket seller — having run an especially visible campaign. His supporters note that a back-to-back nomination (after A Complete Unknown in 2025) reflects genuine range rather than a one-off. However, Michael B. Jordan's shock win at the SAG Actor Awards for his dual role as the Smokestack twins in Sinners suddenly made this a genuine two-horse race. Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another), Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent, Golden Globe winner), and Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon) each have real support but face a narrower path.

Best Actress

Jessie Buckley for Hamnet is the frontrunner — she won the SAG lead actress award — but the category has not been a runaway. Emma Stone (Bugonia) would become a two-time Oscar winner, and Academy voters have historically rewarded repeat nominees from beloved films. Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I'd Kick You), Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value), and Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue) complete the category.

Best Supporting Actor

Sean Penn (One Battle After Another) has won both BAFTA and SAG, and if precedent holds, his path to a potential third Oscar is clear. Delroy Lindo (Sinners) and Benicio Del Toro (also One Battle After Another) bring two of the year's most celebrated supporting performances. Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein) and Stellan Skarsgård (Sentimental Value) complete the five-way field.

Best Supporting Actress

Amy Madigan surged to pole position after her SAG win for Weapons — a result that electrified the room given the 40-year gap since her last nomination. Wunmi Mosaku (Sinners) is considered her closest challenger. Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas (both Sentimental Value) and Teyana Taylor (One Battle After Another) complete the field.

Full Nominations List — All 24 Categories

The complete, verified list of nominees at the 98th Academy Awards. This page will be updated with winners following the March 15 ceremony. The frontrunner in each acting/directing category is listed first.

The Brand-New Best Casting Category

Casting directors have long occupied an unusual position in Hollywood — central to the success of every major film, yet historically invisible at the Academy Awards. That changes in 2026. Nina Gold, who cast Hamnet, is a multiple BAFTA winner whose work spans Harry Potter to Game of Thrones. Francine Maisler's work on Sinners — finding performers capable of embodying a specific era, culture, and mythology — is considered by many to be her finest casting achievement. The introduction of this category is widely seen as long overdue, and whoever wins will make Oscar history as the first casting director to receive a competitive Academy Award.

Biggest Snubs & Surprises

The Wicked: For Good Shutout

The biggest talking point of nominations morning was the complete shutout of Wicked: For Good — zero nominations for the sequel to a film that earned 10 nods and 2 wins in 2025. Not in Production Design, not Costume Design, not for any of its songs, not for Cynthia Erivo or Ariana Grande. A stunning reversal for one of the year's biggest commercial releases.

Guillermo del Toro — No Directing Nomination

Frankenstein earned nine nominations — impressive by any measure — but del Toro himself did not receive a Best Director nomination. The directing branch passed, despite the film's strong showing in acting, craft, and design categories.

Park Chan-wook Shut Out

The widely praised Korean film No Other Choice from Park Chan-wook received no nominations, disappointing critics and international cinema supporters who had considered it among the year's finest works.

Positive Surprises

Train Dreams — a lyrical, small-scale drama about a railroad worker in early 20th century America — earned a Best Picture nomination alongside four other nods, delighting its advocates. F1, the Brad Pitt racing film, also earned a Best Picture nomination, which raised some eyebrows given its commercial rather than prestige nature. The Academy, it seems, has always had a fondness for cars going very fast.

How to Watch the Oscars 2026 Live

A notable addition to this year's ceremony: Barbra Streisand is in talks to perform during the In Memoriam segment to honour Robert Redford, who died in September 2025. Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan are set to honour director Rob Reiner, who passed away in December 2025. Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Melissa McCarthy, and Rose Byrne will appear together to mark the 15th anniversary of their beloved 2011 comedy Bridesmaids.

Frequently Asked Questions — Oscars 2026