The Oscar nominations for 2026 were unveiled in Los Angeles on Thursday, 22 January, triggering one of the most dramatic nomination mornings in recent Academy history. As the full list for the 98th Academy Awards was revealed, one film immediately dominated the conversation. Sinners, Ryan Coogler’s gothic, blues-infused supernatural drama, became the most-nominated film ever, earning 16 Oscar nominations and surpassing the long-standing record of 14 held by All About Eve, Titanic and La La Land.
The nominations set the field for the ceremony on 15 March, which will take place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angelesand be hosted by Conan O’Brien. Beyond the headline figures, The WP Times writes, the list offers a clear snapshot of the Academy’s evolving priorities: a growing willingness to reward bold genre filmmaking, internationally rooted stories and large-scale original productions — even when those films sit outside traditional Oscar comfort zones and resist easy categorisation.
Who was nominated: the key categories explained
With the full list of Oscar nominations now confirmed, attention has turned to where Academy support has concentrated — and what that reveals about this year’s race. Below is a category-by-category breakdown of the key nominations, outlining who was shortlisted, in which category, and for which film, and highlighting the patterns that emerged from nomination morning.
Best Picture nominees
- Sinners
- One Battle After Another
- Marty Supreme
- Sentimental Value
- Frankenstein
- Hamnet
- Bugonia
- F1
- The Secret Agent
- Train Dreams
BBC’s live reporting highlighted F1 as one of the biggest surprises in the category, having been expected to dominate technical races rather than Best Picture itself.
Best Director
- Ryan Coogler — Sinners
- Paul Thomas Anderson — One Battle After Another
- Chloé Zhao — Hamnet
- Josh Safdie — Marty Supreme
- Joachim Trier — Sentimental Value
BBC described this as one of the “most wobbly” categories of the season, with several expected names — including Guillermo del Toro for Frankenstein — ultimately missing out.
Best Actor (Leading Role)
- Michael B. Jordan — Sinners
- Leonardo DiCaprio — One Battle After Another
- Timothée Chalamet — Marty Supreme
- Ethan Hawke — Blue Moon
- Wagner Moura — The Secret Agent
Moura’s nomination marked a historic moment as the first Brazilian actor nominated in the category.
Best Actress (Leading Role)
- Jessie Buckley — Hamnet
- Emma Stone — Bugonia
- Renate Reinsve — Sentimental Value
- Kate Hudson — Song Sung Blue
- Rose Byrne — If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
BBC noted this as a “packed category”, with Chase Infiniti narrowly missing out despite strong momentum.
Best Supporting Actor
- Delroy Lindo — Sinners
- Sean Penn — One Battle After Another
- Benicio del Toro — One Battle After Another
- Jacob Elordi — Frankenstein
- Stellan Skarsgård — Sentimental Value
Lindo’s inclusion was widely framed as long-overdue recognition.
Best Supporting Actress
- Wunmi Mosaku — Sinners
- Teyana Taylor — One Battle After Another
- Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas — Sentimental Value
- Elle Fanning — Sentimental Value
- Danielle Brooks — A Minecraft Movie
Mosaku is among the small number of British performers recognised in the acting categories this year.
New category: Best Casting
Introduced for the first time at the Oscars:
- Sinners
- One Battle After Another
- Hamnet
- Marty Supreme
- The Secret Agent
The Academy president described casting as “the heartbeat of filmmaking” during the announcement, underlining its growing importance.
Why Sinners dominated nomination day
Set in 1930s Mississippi, Sinners centres on twin brothers — both played by Michael B. Jordan — who attempt to build a blues club in a landscape shaped by racial terror, economic exclusion and supernatural threat. The film’s distinctive power lies in how it fuses Southern folklore, blues history and gothic horror with a recognisably classical studio scale, creating a work that feels both culturally specific and broadly accessible.
Critics and awards analysts have pointed to that hybridity as the film’s key advantage. Rather than fitting neatly into a single genre or prestige category, Sinners moves between revenge thriller, musical odyssey and social allegory, allowing it to connect with multiple branches of the Academy. That breadth of appeal was reflected in its nomination haul, which spanned acting, directing, writing and an unusually wide range of craft categories.
BBC culture editor Katie Razzall described the film as an “unexpectedly powerful” blend of spectacle and meaning, noting that it overturned early industry assumptions that its scale and subject matter would limit its commercial reach. Instead, Sinners emerged as one of the year’s most successful original releases, taking an estimated $368m worldwide.
That box-office performance proved decisive. In an awards landscape increasingly sceptical of large-scale originality, Sinners was able to position itself simultaneously as a prestige awards contender and a mainstream hit — a combination that has become increasingly rare in modern Hollywood. The result was not just a strong showing, but a level of cross-branch support that propelled the film to a historic 16 nominations and placed it at the centre of the Oscar nominations 2026 narrative.
The main challenger and a tightly packed field
Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another emerged as the closest challenger to Sinners, securing 13 nominationsand maintaining a strong foothold in the Best Picture and Best Director races. BBC reporting noted that Anderson, a long-standing Academy favourite, remains widely respected across voting branches and could still convert nomination strength into major wins if the final ballot fragments.
Behind the two frontrunners, the field quickly compressed. Marty Supreme, Sentimental Value and Frankenstein each collected nine nominations, forming a competitive second tier with significant presence across acting and craft categories. Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet followed closely with eight nominations, reinforcing the sense of an unusually tight and crowded race beyond the leading contenders.
Snubs and surprises
One of the most widely discussed omissions from the Oscar nominations 2026 was Wicked: For Good, which failed to secure a single nomination. The shutout was notable not only because of the film’s high profile, but also because expectations had been strong that it would feature in at least one music category. BBC reporting noted that a Best Original Song nomination for Ariana Grande had been widely anticipated, but ultimately did not materialise.
Another closely watched omission was Paul Mescal, who missed out on a supporting actor nomination for Hamnet, despite his co-star Jessie Buckley emerging as one of the leading contenders in the best actress race. The contrast underlined how competitive the acting categories proved to be this year, with little margin for performances that failed to consolidate early momentum.
Beyond individual names, the nominations also delivered a number of quieter surprises, including films that overperformed in Best Picture while missing out in acting or directing categories — a pattern that suggests increasingly fragmented voting preferences across Academy branches.
Industry impact and what comes next
From a studio perspective, nomination day represented a clear victory for Warner Bros, which led all studios with 30 nominations across its slate. The result was driven primarily by Sinners and One Battle After Another, and was widely interpreted as a significant boost for the studio at a time when the traditional film business remains under pressure from streaming platforms, rising production costs and shifting audience habits.
Final voting will take place in late February, before winners are revealed at the Academy Awards ceremony on 15 March. Whether Sinners converts its record-breaking nomination tally into a dominant awards-night performance remains uncertain. History suggests that films with very high nomination counts do not always sweep the board, particularly when the field behind them is as tightly packed as it is this year.
What is already clear, however, is that Sinners has reshaped the narrative of the Oscar nominations 2026 — and offered one of the clearest signals yet of the Academy’s evolving identity, priorities and willingness to reward ambitious, genre-crossing cinema.
Where and when to watch the Oscars
The 98th Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, 15 March, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The ceremony will be hosted by Conan O’Brien and broadcast live in the United States on ABC, with streaming available via Hulu. For UK viewers, the ceremony will air live in the early hours of Monday morning, with highlights and extended coverage expected across major broadcasters and digital platforms following the event.
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