Oscar Nominations 2026: Order at the Top, Chaos on the Margins

The nominations for the 98th Academy Awards were announced Thursday morning, and at first glance, they suggest an unusually tidy year. Few genuine surprises or snubs dominated the nominations list, and the frontrunners for Oscar gold remain in pole position.

The Shape of the Race: Warner Bros. in Command

The morning belonged to Warner Bros., full stop. Sinners led the pack with a staggering 16 nominations, setting a new Academy record. The film landed everywhere it plausibly could, including Best Picture, Best Director for Ryan Coogler, and Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan. Whether or not it ultimately wins big on Oscar night, Sinners has already achieved something rare: unanimous, across-the-branches enthusiasm.

Close behind was One Battle After Another, which picked up 13 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director for Paul Thomas Anderson, and Best Actor for Leonardo DiCaprio. Taken together, the two films signal something important: this is a year where command mattered. Big swings, clearly articulated visions, and directors with authority were rewarded. It's a welcome reprieve for WB, which faced its own embattled 2025.

Alongside Sinners and One Battle After Another and outside the WB umbrella, the Academy embraced quieter prestige plays like Hamnet, Train Dreams, and Sentimental Value, while also making room for F1, a technically accomplished crowd-pleaser that many assumed would top out below the line.

Acting Categories: Stars, Ensembles, and One Long-Overdue Moment

The acting races this year reflect both tradition and recalibration. On the leading actor side, the Academy leaned into familiarity and stature, with nominations for DiCaprio, Jordan, Timothée Chalamet, Ethan Hawke, and Wagner Moura. Chalamet’s nomination for Marty Supreme places him in rare historical territory, but it also underscores how much that film’s awards narrative centered on him alone. The most cohesive ensemble recognition went to Sentimental Value, which landed acting nominations for Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Elle Fanning, and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas. 

And then there’s Delroy Lindo, who, after decades of essential work, finally earned his first Oscar nomination for his supporting performance in Sinners. 

Where the Cracks Showed: Campaigns and Misfires

For all the order at the top of the ballot, the omissions tell a more volatile story.

The most discussed acting snub of the morning was Amanda Seyfried for The Testament of Ann Lee. Within industry circles, her intense, demanding performance had genuine supporters, but for weeks prognosticators have been raking Searchlight over the coals for the way they botched the rollout of this film. It seems the studio was banking on securing nominations before placing the movie in theaters throughout most of the country (it opens in limited release today), but many critics have stated they couldn't even get screener access to it.

Elsewhere, franchise fatigue made itself felt. Avatar: Fire and Ash and Wicked: For Good both saw dramatic falloffs from their predecessors’ Oscar success. Tepid reviews and diminishing returns made it easier for voters to prioritize newer voices and fresher work, which particularly doomed the chances of Ariana Grande to land a supporting actress nomination.

International cinema also had a mixed morning. Films like It Was Just an Accident earned recognition, but not to the extent many expected, as it missed out on a Best Picture nod, though Sentimental Value and The Secret Agent are both represented there. It leaves It Was Just and Accident in a precarious position, as it was once a sure-thing frontrunner for International Feature, and now seems to trail in that race as well. 

Craft Categories: Clear Taste, Clear Biases

Below the line, the Academy showed its preferences with unusual clarity. Traditional craft showcases with visible labor and scale like Frankenstein, Sinners, and One Battle After Another dominated categories like cinematography, production design, sound, and score. Meanwhile, more experimental or electronic approaches to music and sound design struggled to gain traction, notably the omission of Marty Supreme in Score, reinforcing the sense that the crafts branches remain sometimes conservative in their instincts.

What This Year Really Says

The 2026 Oscar nominations don’t suggest an Academy in crisis or in reinvention. This was a year where the Academy chose order over messiness, even when that meant leaving a few worthy performances behind. Whether that restraint makes for a satisfying Oscar night remains to be seen. But for now, the shape of the race is unmistakable, and the stakes are very real.