The 98th Academy Award nominations have been released and with Sinners leading the list, it is clear that this year’s ceremony will have many surprises in store. With a record-breaking 16 nominations, Ryan Coogler’s film is one of several note-worthy nominations for this year. With the ceremony fast approaching, let’s break down what this year’s nominations mean for the 2026 Oscars.
With the ground-breaking (and in many ways, industry-shifting) promotion of Marty Supreme, Timothee Chalamet is currently the runner-up for ‘Actor in a Leading Role.’ The concept of the ‘Oscar Campaign’ – the promotion that is often done preceding award season—seems to be on a revival and a makeover. From Chalamet’s Las Vegas Sphere stunt to the iconic (yet exclusive) Marty Supreme jackets, it is clear that among all nominations this film stands alone in an impressive promotional run. With Chalamet being the face (and oftentimes painted as the orchestrator of these different promos) it would be naive to say that he is not the most obvious candidate for the award. Yet, with Sinners’s impressive numbers in nominations, Michael B. Jordan acts as a close contender against Chalamet’s Marty, especially considering that Jordan had a double performance, portraying the leading twins Smoke and Stack, a fact that could earn him the award.
Within the ‘Actress in a Leading Role’ Jessie Buckley’s portrayal of Agnes in Hamnet is sure to earn the actress her first Oscar, especially after her success in this year’s Golden Globes, as she stands quite uncontested within her category. There is a clear snub here with Chase Infiniti not receiving a nomination for her role as One Battle After Another’s–the only consolation to this is her nomination at the BAFTAs for said role. For ‘Actress in a Supporting Role’ the answer seems to be less clear, with multiple actresses giving driving performances this year. The double Sentimental Value nod towards Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas’s respective performances make the chances for one of them to take the award home a little higher, yet Teyana Taylor’s performance in One Battle After Another might be the winner here. Going along with using the Golden Globes as a pointer for what might transcribe at the Oscars, Taylor’s win shows this trajectory towards her winning her first Academy Award (from her first ever nomination!).
A few categories which are also note-worthy will be the newly introduced ‘Casting’ award, as the Academy moves towards making the awards a more inclusive look into all of the processes that go on behind the camera as well as ‘Production Design‘, a personal favourite.
Yet, the real competition is, for obvious reasons, around who will be the winner for ‘Best Picture‘. One Battle After Another is in the lead, with show-stopping performances as well as Paul Thomas Anderson’s elusive Oscar win. The director, with 11 nominations under his belt, has never won the award. Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet also stands as a possible winner, especially as the Academy oftentimes likes to award ‘Best Picture’ to dramas. Due to recent controversy involving Marty Supreme’s director Josh Safdie–his brother, Benny Safdie, accusing him of not intervening when an ex-convict exposed himself to a 17 year-old actress in the set of their shared film Good Times–the possibilities of the film’s success can be seen declining, rightfully so. Nevertheless, the Academy is no stranger to controversy, seen in Adrien Brody’s 2025 win for ‘Best Leading Actor’ for his role in The Brutalist despite the use of AI to manipulate his accent.
Whichever way the awards go, this year’s Oscars are stacked with an unmissable line-up, one of the best in recent years.
Photo by tommao wang on Unsplash