Cinema’s purpose is to tell stories visually across many kinds of genres. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences holds the annual Oscars to determine the best films of the previous year, and the 2026 Academy Awards have a line-up like no other.
There are 24 categories included in the Academy Awards, and they all reveal intricate details that come along with the filmmaking world. Without these details, audiences around the world would not be able to enjoy the movies they have come to know and love.
From militants to vampires to ping pong players depicted on the silver screen in 2025, there are many nominees worthy of the awards. Here are 16 of the most anticipated Academy Award nominations, along with who is most likely to take home the golden statue.
Actor in a Leading Role
Starting off with the men of the hour, the actors nominated in this category gave exceptional performances in the leading roles of their respective films.
The nominees are Timothée Chalamet in Marty Supreme, Leonardo DiCaprio in One Battle after Another, Ethan Hawke in Blue Moon, Michael B. Jordan in Sinners, and Wagner Moura in The Secret Agent.
The 2026 Best Actor nominees include both previous Oscar nominees as well as those receiving their first Academy Award Nomination.
As DiCaprio marks this as his seventh nomination, Hawke now has his fifth nomination under his belt, although it is his first nomination for Best Actor. As for Chalamet, he bags his third nomination for the category, and he is as eager as ever to win it, proven by his vigorous marketing campaign for Marty Supreme.
Jordan and Moura now sit with their first-ever nominations for an Academy Award, having impressed audiences and Academy voters with the acting skills they portrayed as the leading men of their films. Notably, Moura’s nomination marks the first time a Brazilian has been nominated for Best Actor.
All actors of the category conveyed an understanding of their characters’ depth and proved their ability to give an impactful performance, but only one man can win. For the category’s prediction, the tiny, golden man shall go to Michael B. Jordan.
With his portrayal of not one but two characters, the Smoke Stack twins, he delivers character performances that seem similar on the surface but are subtly different in personality and actions. Under this condition of playing twins, he is able to double down on his acting versatility. He proves himself to be fit for the praise as the two leading characters of Sinners.
Actor in a Supporting Role
A movie cannot have leading men without the other men to support them, and with that comes the category of the Actor in a Supporting Role. These actors give just as impactful performances as their leading companions, even though they work with less screentime, less dialogue, and less room for character development.
2026’s nominees are Benicio Del Toro in One Battle after Another, Jacob Elordi in Frankenstein, Delroy Lindo in Sinners, Sean Penn in One Battle after Another, and Stellan Skarsgård in Sentimental Value.
This is Del Toro’s third nomination in the Supporting Actor Category, and it is Penn’s sixth overall Academy Award nomination, with it being his first for Supporting Actor.
Elordi, Lindo, and Skarsgård all now have their first-ever Academy Award nominations. Lindo and Skarsgård have both pursued acting since the ‘70s, and the recognition given by the Academy has been a long time coming.
With two supporting actors from the same movie and two actors from horror films, which are historically overlooked by the Academy, there are many factors that indicate how all of the nominees are worthy of their nominations.
For the category’s prediction, the award will go to Jacob Elordi.
Elordi is most notably known for his strikingly different roles in The Kissing Booth and Euphoria, but Frankenstein has opened up a whole other world for audiences to see his talent on a larger scale.
From studying a Japanese dance form to acting out the likeness of a newborn coming into the world, he captures a fresh look at what audiences think of as Frankenstein’s monster.
Seeing beyond uneasiness and jump scares, audiences can perceive the monster as a reflection of the human experience, and that opens new reactions to something more than just a monster movie.
Actress in a Leading Role
As men are recognized in their own categories, women are recognized for their incredible performances as leading ladies in the category of Actress in a Leading Role.
The separation is not meant to diminish the different performances of men and women, but to provide a substantial amount of recognition to all parties.
From working class women to an (alleged) alien sent to pose as a CEO, the nominees for Best Actress are Jessie Buckley in Hamnet, Rose Byrne in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Kate Hudson in Song Sung Blue, Renate Reinsve in, and Emma Stone in Bugonia.
Buckley’s emotional performance as a grieving mother earns her a second Academy Award, Hudson receives her second Academy Award nomination since 25 years ago for Almost Famous, and Stone is recognized for her talent in her fifth nomination. Stone’s last three nominations have been for her roles in Yorgos Lanthimos films.
For the first time, Byrne and Reinsve are nominated for an Academy Award.
The difference in movie genres for this category, as well as performance in their roles, calls for difficulty in determining a winner. However, only one performance can prevail in this race of talented actresses. For the prediction, Jessie Buckley will win.
Shakespeare’s plays are studied in English classes around the world, so it is only fitting that stories surrounding the origins of his works are praised for their complexity. With that complexity comes great, original renditions of real-life people put onto the screen as characters.
Buckley’s portrayal as Agnes Shakespeare is one of raw, utter understanding of a navigation of grief. She is able to channel and reflect sorrow in all forms.
Actress in a Supporting Role
As touched on before, this next actress line-up is filled with women who leave just as much of an impact on the movie’s audience, despite the fact that they have less character development and screen time.
Their movies feature witchcraft, folklore, revolutionaries, and family difficulty, which means their performances are not just different from one another, but they are also extraordinary in their mediums.
The nominees for Actress in a Supporting Role are Elle Fanning in Sentimental Value, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas in Sentimental Value, Amy Madigan in Weapons, Wunmi Mosaku in Sinners, and Teyana Taylor in One Battle after Another.
Fanning, Lilleaas, Mosaku, and Taylor are nominated for their first-ever Academy Award in this category. This is Madigan’s second nomination for the category; the last time she was nominated was in 1986 for Twice in a Lifetime.
As usual, multiple winners cannot be chosen for the prestigious award. The winner prediction for the category is Teyana Taylor.
Taylor’s screentime does not compare to DiCaprio’s, but her presence in the beginning of the Paul Thomas Anderson film is one for the books.
In such a short time, she delivers a performance of resilience, rage, and confidence; her characterization leaves a shadow over the entirety of the film.
Animated Feature Film
It is hard to judge the artistry of film without taking into consideration a whole other world of cinema: animation. Animated feature films span all kinds of genres just as live-action movies do, and their varying artistic styles highlight their uniqueness.
Often dismissed for their similaritiesin appearance to animated children’s movies, people forget their importance in the continuous establishment of film as a cultural phenomenon. 2026’s nominees contribute to the respect given to animation by the public.
The nominees for Animated Feature Film are Arco, Elio, KPop Demon Hunters, Little Amélie or the Character of Rain, and Zootopia 2.
Not only are the animation styles different, but the color palettes of the films evoke a range of emotions felt by every audience. Each storyline matches its style, and it is difficult to dictate a winner; however, as in tradition, it must be done.
The prediction for Animated Feature Film is KPop Demon Hunters.
While Zootopia‘s sequel has been highly anticipated since the first film’s release, KPop Demon Hunters took the world by storm. With the original song “Golden” trending on musical platforms, as people love the animation style, it only makes sense that the Netflix original will take home the gold.
Directing
Behind a movie’s camera is not just the cameraman; it is the directors of all of these beloved films. They direct actors to their marks, props to their set placements, and the camera to its shot. Direction is the heart of a film and all of its aspects.
Directors are the puppet masters of a script; they are the translation from paper to the big screen, and movies would not be as successful without their perfect fit for their material. A film can only be as good as the director wills it, and they know exactly what to do to shoot it well.
The 2026 nominees for Directing are Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet, Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme, Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle after Another, Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners.
With a beautiful scene of a barn burning to reveal the intricacies of cultural music and dancing to show how colonization is a spreading disease, it only makes sense for the Directing award to go to Ryan Coogler in Sinners.
Coogler has worked with Jordan before in films such as Creed and Black Panther, but the way he approaches direction for Jordan’s lead role in Sinners, along with other cast members, tells a tale of supernatural phenomena that translates into commentary on systemic seizure of minority culture and personal autonomy.
International Feature Film
The Academy Awards are held in the United States, and they mostly center the appraisal of English-spoken films, but that does not erase the cultural impact of foreign films. This award focuses specifically on international films that tell substantial stories and flesh out their characters just as national films do.
It is meant to shine an equal amount of light to ensure audiences consider the effort that goes into these films. It is because general audiences can overlook what international films are able to convey and the stories that they tell.
The nominees for International Feature Film are The Secret Agent from Brazil, It Was Just an Accident from France, Sentimental Value from Norway, Sirāt from Spain, and The Voice of Hind Rajab from Tunisia.
These films’ countries are drastically different from one another, but their films come together to visually convey an art form that is shared around the world.
The predicted winner for the category is Sentimental Value from Norway. With Reinsve from The Worst Person in the World as the lead, the film serves as the inception of a film within a film. Following an actress as well as a director, the story explores the complexities of the art form as well as how they intertwine with the complexities of father-daughter relationships.
Best Picture
The most highly anticipated award of the night, the Best Picture award, is a measurement of the best of the best films this awards year. It is meant to take into account the votes made by the Academy members, in addition to the audience reception to the work of art that wins.
For a film to be crowned ‘Best Picture,’ that means it is the most popular, most fruitful in story, and most entertaining, which will glue any pair of eyes to the screen.
The nominees for Best Picture are Bugonia, F1, Frankenstein, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, One Battle after Another, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value, Sinners, and Train Dreams.
While all of the nominees are deserving of the recognition, it only makes sense for the 2026 Best Picture title to go to the most Academy Award-nominated film of all time: Sinners.
As a horror film, Sinners makes history with its record-holding nomination count, its inclusion of song and dance, and its detailed plot of love and loss. Coogler’s film will be the one to take home the golden statue.
