Oscars 2026: Sinners by Ryan Coogler became the definite favorite as it received the largest number of nominations in major and technical categories: 16 nominations. One Battle After Another directed by Leonardo DiCaprio came next and obtained 14 nominations strengthening its nomination as a serious contender for awards.
Although Hollywood heavy weights took the lead in the list, India was disappointed because Homebound by Neeraj Ghaywan supported by Dharma productions did not get any further even though it was officially representing India in Best International featured film.
Sinners and One Battle After Another Take the Lead The Ryan Coogler film Sinners proved to be in the limelight in almost all the key categories: Best Picture, and director, acting categories, screenplay, and a number of technical awards. Michael B. Jordan has been nominated as the best actor, and Delroy Lindo and Wunmi Mosaku were the nominees in the supporting category.
One Battle After Another by Paul Thomas Anderson also got the critical backup of the Academy, as it was nominated as the Best Picture, the Director, Best Actor Leonardo DiCaprio, and several supporting and technical nominations. The wide acceptance of this film is what positioned this movie as one of the strongest Oscar nominations of the year.
The movie Frankenstein by Guillermo del Toro got a lot of acclaim and in technical areas like cinematography, production design, make-up and hairstyling, sound, and visual effects, among others. Jacob Elordi was nominated as a Best Supporting Actor. Timothee Chalamet pursued the awards momentum with his movie, Marty Supreme, and earned nine nominations, among them being Actor and Director (nominated) Best Actor and Director to Josh Safdie.
In the meantime, Hamnet received great nominations in Best Picture and Best Director nomination to Chloe Zhao, Best Actress nomination to Jesse Buckley and nominations across several technical disciplines. Emma Stone (Bugonia), Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value), and Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon) were also prominent nominees in the acting races, making the situation competitive and diverse.
India has lost Oscars in International Feature Category
The expectations of India were based on Homebound by Neeraj Ghaywan whose star cast was Ishaan Khatter, Vishal Jethwa, and Janhvi Kapoor. Although chosen as the Indian official submission, the movie failed to be shortlisted in the Best International Flipping Movie. The category rather boasts The Secret Agent (Brazil), It Was Just an Accident (France), Sentimental Value (Norway), Sirat (Spain), and The Voice of Hind Rajab (Tunisia), which is quite an impressive international line-up.
Sinners becomes first film in history to earn 16 Oscar nominations
Sinners is a critically and commercially celebrated supernatural thriller by Ryan Coogler directed, which is the first film to be nominated in 16 locations in the Academy Awards.
The movie which takes the name of Michael B Jordan as two brothers, twins, who establish a blues club in 1930s Mississippi and fight against racism and vampires has already earned 368m at the global box office. It is nominated in such awards as best picture, director, lead actors, supporting actor (the role of the British actor Delroy Lindo), supporting actress (the role of the British-Nigerian actor Wunmi Mosaku) and first casting award by the Academy.
The nod in costume design by the movie also means that Ruth E Carter (nominated 5 times by the Oscar in total) is the most-nominated black woman in the entire history of the Oscars, 97 years and counting. In the meantime the nomination of Meanwhile Sinners in the cinematography category at Autumn Durald Arkapaw is the fourth female nomination to ever be nominated in the category.
In an interview with Deadline, Coogler had stated that expected to announce, he was surprised to see several of his relatives on his door in Los Angeles around 5am. Next to me my dad was doing the count, he said. And when he mentioned [it was 16], I was all like, dad, you are wrong. There’s no way it’s that many.'”
His father has been very pleased ever since the news stories have come on to the effect, as Said Coogler believes, that he was not mistaken: “So you believe the newspapers, you do not believe my arithmetic?”
Writer director, Paul Thomas Anderson, who has previously received 11 nominations but lost best picture in all attempts, is a virtual certainty of winning best picture and best director and his supporting actress, Teyana Taylor, is also a winner in her category. Other stars in the film who were in the nomination list are Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro though Chase Infiniti had more surprises when it came to not nominating Chase Infiniti in the leading actress category, but Kate Hudson of Song Sung Blu was nominated in this category.
In the meantime Hamnet by Chloe Zhao did not lag behind, receiving eight nominations, and it made the nomination of the easy favorite for the best actress category nominee – Jessie Buckley – as well as the presence of the supporting actor nomination on Paul Mescal.
On the news of the announcement, Buckley told Hollywood Reporter that she was disappointed that her co-star was not nominated together with her. I believe he is so incredible in this movie, said she. It might have been the case because, by thus doing it with him, I can say that I have found a lifelong partner… Nothing could be in what I made or what we made in this story that would not have been there had there been not Paul and what he infused into this story.
Zhao is also an executive producer, editor, and co-writer of the Maggie O’Farrell adaptation, and is Anderson’s most formidable competitor in the adapted screenplay competition, her former film school classmate Coogler is odds-on in her original screenplay (Coogler, n.pag.).
Zhao was later awarded the best director (the first of colour to do so) in 2021 at the 93rd academy awards, as the director of Nomadland; she remains the sole female nominated in the category this year, following Anderson, Coogler and Joachim Trier as directors of Sentimental Value and Marty Supreme respectively, which had a better-than-good showing with nine nominations.
Timothee Chalamet, who plays the best actor nominee, is favourite to win the best actor award after playing a table tennis hustler in the 1950s New York. Chalamet was just beaten in the 2019 Oscar award, in the category of best actor, with his Bob Dylan performance losing to that of The Brutalist, Adrien Brody. In the case, should he be a winner, Chalamet, who celebrated his 30th birthday last month, will become the second youngest winner in the best actor category, behind Brody becoming a winner in 2003 in The Pianist.
Oscars 2026: Nominees list in full
Best picture
- Bugonia
- Frankenstein
- F1
- Hamnet
- Marty Supreme
- One Battle After Another
- The Secret Agent
- Sentimental Value
- Sinners
- Train Dreams
Best actor
- Timothée Chalamet – Marty Supreme
- Leonardo DiCaprio – One Battle After Another
- Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon
- Michael B Jordan – Sinners
- Wagner Moura – The Secret Agent
Best actress
- Jessie Buckley – Hamnet
- Rose Byrne – If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
- Kate Hudson – Song Sung Blue
- Renate Reinsve – Sentimental Value
- Emma Stone – Bugonia
Best supporting actress
- Elle Fanning – Sentimental Value
- Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas – Sentimental Value
- Amy Madigan – Weapons
- Wunmi Mosaku – Sinners
- Teyana Taylor – One Battle After Another
Best supporting actor
- Benicio del Toro – One Battle After Another
- Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein
- Delroy Lindo – Sinners
- Sean Penn – One Battle After Another
- Stellan Skarsgård – Sentimental Value
Best director
- Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another
- Ryan Coogler – Sinners
- Josh Safdie – Marty Supreme
- Joachim Trier – Sentimental Value
- Chloé Zhao – Hamnet
Best adapted screenplay
- Bugonia
- Frankenstein
- Hamnet
- One Battle After Another
- Train Dreams
Best original screenplay
- Blue Moon
- It Was Just an Accident
- Marty Supreme
- Sentimental Value
- Sinners
Best original song
- Dear Me – Diane Warren: Relentless
- Golden – KPop Demon Hunters
- I Lied to You – Sinners
- Sweet Dreams of Joy – Viva Verdi!
- Train Dreams – Train Dreams
Best original score
- Bugonia
- Frankenstein
- Hamnet
- One Battle After Another
- Sinners
Best international feature
- It Was Just an Accident
- Sentimental Value
- Sirât
- The Secret Agent
- The Voice of Hind Rajab
Best animated feature
- Arco
- Elio
- KPop Demon Hunters
- Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
- Zootopia 2
Best documentary feature
- Come See Me in the Good Light
- Cutting Through the Rocks
- Mr. Nobody Against Putin
- The Alabama Solution
- The Perfect Neighbor
Best costume design
- Avatar: Fire and Ash
- Frankenstein
- Hamnet
- Marty Supreme
- Sinners
Best make-up and hairstyling
- Frankenstein
- Kokuho
- Sinners
- The Smashing Machine
- The Ugly Stepsister
Best production design
- Frankenstein
- Hamnet
- Marty Supreme
- One Battle After Another
- Sinners
Best sound
- Frankenstein
- F1
- One Battle After Another
- Sinners
- Sirât
Best film editing
- F1
- Marty Supreme
- One Battle After Another
- Sentimental Value
- Sinners
Best cinematography
- Frankenstein
- Marty Supreme
- One Battle After Another
- Sinners
- Train Dreams
Best visual effects
- Avatar: Fire and Ash
- F1
- Jurassic World Rebirth
- Sinners
- The Lost Bus
Best live action short
- A Friend of Dorothy
- Butcher’s Stain
- Jane Austen’s Period Drama
- The Singers
- Two People Exchanging Saliva
Best animated short
- Butterfly
- Forevergreen
- Retirement Plan
- The Girl Who Cried Pearls
- The Three Sisters
Best documentary short
- All the Empty Rooms
- Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud
- Children No More: Were and Are Gone
- The Devil Is Busy
- Perfectly a Strangeness
Best casting
- Hamnet
- Marty Supreme
- One Battle After Another
- Sinners
- The Secret Agent
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