Oscar 2026 Nominations Announced. Are You Ready? – front mezz junkies, Theater News

Frontmezzjunkies reports: The 98th Academy Awards Nominations are Here

By Ross

I’ll admit this upfront, because honesty feels like the only responsible place to begin: as a theatre critic, I haven’t yet seen nearly enough of this year’s Oscar-nominated films. January has a way of being merciless, and stages—rather than screens—have had most of my attention. Still, the announcement of the 98th Academy Award nominations has that familiar galvanizing effect, pulling even the most theatre-anchored critic back into the gravitational field of cinema. Between now and Oscar night, I’ll be catching up, cramming, reconsidering, and inevitably revising a few early assumptions. These nominations aren’t just a scoreboard; they’re an invitation to engage more deeply, and in some cases, to be challenged.

That said, there is one film I don’t need to revisit to know where my heart lies. Hamnet is not only my favourite film of the year—it’s one of my favourite films of all time. It’s quiet devastation, theatrical soul, and profound understanding of grief and creation feel inseparable from why many of us first fell in love with storytelling at all. I would love nothing more than to see it win every award it’s nominated for, especially Jessie Buckley’s luminous, soul-deep performance (you can read my review here), which remains my firm pick for Best Actress. Will the Academy share my enthusiasm quite that completely? Probably not. But hope, like theatre, thrives on belief even when realism suggests restraint.

Elsewhere, my instincts lean more pragmatic. If I were placing bets rather than wishes, One Battle After Another feels like the film most likely to take Best Picture, while Timothée Chalamet’s turn in Marty Supreme has the shape of a performance the Academy historically embraces—showy, committed, and myth-making in its own right. Best Director, however, remains a question mark for me this year, a category where admiration and uncertainty coexist until the final envelope is opened. That sense of unpredictability is echoed in the broader Oscar conversation this season, particularly as discussed in my recent post, Who’s in the Running? Frontrunners and Faves for the 98th Academy Awards, which smartly maps consensus while leaving room for surprise.

And then there’s the musical conversation—inescapable for Broadway-minded cinephiles. January 22 arrived with high expectations for Wicked: For Good, only to deliver a stark reality check: zero nominations. The snub stings, especially in light of the first film’s strong Oscar showing and the technical artistry involved. Yet the Academy’s coolness toward Wicked only sharpens the contrast with Sinners, Ryan Coogler’s genre-defying horror musical, which has rewritten the record books with an unprecedented 16 nominations. In a year where musicals have been declared both dead and reborn, Sinners stands as a bracing reminder that when the form is bold, culturally urgent, and musically fearless, it can still seize the center of the conversation—and refuse to let go.

Here are the nominations for the 98th Academy Awards. Who do you think will win? Check back for my predictions.

Best Picture 

Bugonia
F1
Frankenstein
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 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 Supporting Actress 

Elle Fanning – Sentimental Value
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas – Sentimental Value
Amy Madigan – Weapons
Wunmi Mosaku – Sinners

Best Director 

Chloé Zhao – Hamnet
Josh Safdie – Marty Supreme
Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another
Joachim Trier – Sentimental Value
Ryan Coogler – Sinners

Best Original Screenplay 

Blue Moon
It Was Just an Accident
Marty Supreme
Sentimental Value
Sinners

Best Adapted Screenplay 

Bugonia
Frankenstein
Hamnet
One Battle After Another
Train Dreams

Best Animated Feature Film 

Arco
Elio
KPop Demon Hunters
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
Zootopia 2

Best International Feature Film 

The Secret Agent – Brazil
It Was Just an Accident – France
Sentimental Value – Norway
Sirât – Spain
The Voice of Hind Rajab – Tunisia

Best Casting 

Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
The Secret Agent
Sinners

Best Cinematography 

Frankenstein
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Train Dreams

Best Production Design 

Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners

Best Editing 

F1
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sentimental Value
Sinners

Best Original Score 

Bugonia
Frankenstein
Hamnet
One Battle After Another
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 Sound 

F1
Frankenstein
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Sirât

Best Visual Effects 

Avatar: Fire and Ash
F1
Jurassic World Rebirth
The Lost Bus
Sinners

Best Makeup and Hairstyling 

Frankenstein
Kokuho
Sinners
The Smashing Machine
The Ugly Stepsister

Best Costume Design 

Avatar: Fire and Ash
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
Sinners

Best Animated Short Film 

Butterfly
Forevergreen
The Girl Who Cried Pearls
Retirement Plan
The Three Sisters

Best Live-Action Short Film 

Butcher’s Stain
A Friend of Dorothy
Jane Austen’s Period Drama
The Singers
Two People Exchanging Saliva

Best Documentary Feature Film 

The Alabama Solution
Come See Me in the Good Light
Cutting Through Rocks
Mr. Nobody Against Putin
The Perfect Neighbor

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