The 2026 Oscar nominations were revealed today (January 22), with Sinners leading the way with a record 16 nominations, followed by One Battle After Another on 13.
Screen picks out some of the hot topics from this year’s nominations. The Oscars ceremony will take place on March 15.
International films bask in voter love…
The steadily increasing international outlook of the US Academy Awards has been confirmed once again, including nine nods for Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value. Films not in the English language featured in the nominations for best picture, director, original screenplay, editing, casting, makeup and hair, sound, animated feature, documentary feature and all four acting categories.
While Sentimental Value led the charge, Kleber Mendonca Filho’s The Secret Agent picked up nominations for best picture, casting, leading actor (Wagner Moura) and, of course, international feature.
Oliver Laxe’s Sirat scored in sound as well as international feature, while for Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident, nominations came in original screenplay as well as international feature.
Every film nominated for best international feature, except Kaouther Ben Hania’s Tunisian entry The Voice Of Hind Rajab, was nominated in at least one other category.
The makeup and hair chapter wins points for paying attention globally, nominating both Kokuho (which was Japan’s entry to the international feature category) and Norwegian body horror The Ugly Stepsister.
Best picture nominations for two films not in the English language – Sentimental Value and The Secret Agent – match the tally for last year (Emilia Perez and I’m Not Here). In 2024, Anatomy Of A Fall, The Zone Of Interest and the majority Korean-language Past Lives all achieved best picture nominations.
Two French-language films are Oscar-nominated for animated feature this year: Arco and Little Amelie Or The Character Of Rain (set in Japan, and also including some Japanese dialogue). Fellow nominee KPop Demon Hunters is primarily in English with a few Korean phrases and lyrics mixed in. Last year, all the nominees for animated feature were in English apart from the wordless Flow.
Two non-English language documentary features have been nominated: Cutting Through Rocks, about a female councillor in an Iranian village; and Mr Nobody Against Putin, about military indoctrination at a Russian secondary school. This is par for the course in documentary – last year’s nominees in the same category included Black Box Diaries, Porcelain War and eventual winner No Other Land.
…in contrast to the US guilds
For the Directors Guild Awards, the members nominated five English-language films for theatrical feature: One Battle After Another, Sinners, Marty Supreme, Hamnet and Frankenstein. The Producers Guild Awards nominated nine English-language films and Sentimental Value (omitting best picture Oscar nominee The Secret Agent).
The actors voting in SAG-AFTRA’s Actor Awards came up with a list of 20 performers across the four acting categories, all speaking in English in their films. The nominations omitted Moura and Sentimental Value trio Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgard and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleas, who are all Oscar-nominated. (Elle Fanning is also Oscar-nominated for Sentimental Value, but her dialogue is in English.)
Warner Bros on top
Warner Bros tops the distributor rankings this year with 30 nominations, powered by the strong performance of Sinners (16 nods) and One Battle After Another (13), as well as one for Amy Madigan in supporting actress for Weapons. The total rises to 31 if Warner Bros Discovery subsidiary HBO Documentary Films’ release The Alabama Solution is included, nominated for best documentary feature.
Notably, Warner Bros is the only studio in the top three. Independent distributor Neon is in second place with an impressive haul of 18 nominations, spanning Sentimental Value (9), The Secret Agent (4), It was Just An Accident (2), Sirat (2) and Arco (1).
Netflix heads the streamer contingent with 16 feature nods (plus two in the short film categories), thanks to Frankenstein (9), Train Dreams (4), KPop Demon Hunters (2) and documentary The Perfect Neighbor (1).
Universal is in fourth with 14 in total: specialist subsidiary Focus Features collected 13 nominations, with Hamnet and Bugonia its two big titles, while Universal itself garnered one nod for VFX on Jurassic World Rebirth.
Meanwhile, A24 has 11, buoyed by Marty Supreme’s nine nominations, and Apple has six, with F1 accruing four of those spots.
One and done
Thank goodness for Chloe Zhao and Hamnet. As the only woman nominated for best director, Hamnet is also the only film directed by a woman in the best picture category. This is disappointing, if entirely on brand for US Academy voters. For the past 10 years, voters in these categories have generally felt able to embrace just one film a year directed by a woman. Last year, it was Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance, and in 2022, Sarah Polley’s Women Talking snagged a best picture spot but Polley was not nominated for best director.
2023 stands out for recognising three films: Celine Song’s Past Lives, Justine Triet’s Anatomy Of A Fall and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie in best picture; but only Triet was nominated for director. And the slightly pandemic-battered 2020 and 2021 were strong years for women directors: Zhao won best picture and best director for Nomadland in 2020, the year that Emerald Fennel’s Promising Young Woman was also nominated in those categories; while 2021 saw Jane Campion win best director for The Power Of The Dog and Sian Heder’s Coda win best film.
But the statistics are stark. In the past 10 years, of the 50 nominations for best director, only seven have been for women directors, and Zhao accounts for two of those. Of the 83 films nominated for best picture since 2016, only 12 have been directed by women, three of which are by Gerwig alone, and two by Zhao.
Wicked: Forgone
Perhaps the biggest shock was the total shutout for Universal’s Wicked: For Good. While matching the 10 nominations of its predecessor seemed unlikely given the film’s tepid critical response, Jon M. Chu’s musical was expected to pick up nods in craft categories, with best song and a best supporting actress spot for Ariana Grande also on the cards.
Despite picking up eight nominations, Zhao’s Hamnet missed out on best editing, cinematography and, most notably, supporting actor for Paul Mescal. Elsewhere, Chase Infiniti ended up not making the best actress cut for One Battle After Another – perhaps falling victim to the late-season surge by Kate Hudson for Song Sung Blue.
Other surprises included Joseph Kosinski’s F1 making it into the best picture race, while the category for make-up and hairstyling saw Norwegian debut The Ugly Stepsister and Japanese feature Kokuho make the cut over more highly fancied Hollywood contenders.
Genre makes its mark
With its 16 nominations, vampire drama Sinners has not just broken Academy records but has highlighted that genre filmmaking continues to break through into the mainstream awards conversation. Like last year’s The Substance, which earned five Oscar nominations (and one win for achievement in makeup and hairstyling), Ryan Coogler’s sharp blend of social commentary and gory horror has clearly got its teeth into voters.
Indeed, genre has a solid showing throughout this year’s nominations. Guillermo del Toro’s lavish Netflix Frankenstein adaptation, which includes visceral moments of body horror amid its highbrow emotional drama, is recognised in nine categories, while Yorgos Lanthimos’s environmental sci-fi thriller Bugonia has four nods, including one for Emma Stone’s bravura lead performance.
Another of the year’s great genre performances has been recognised with Madigan’s nomination for her unforgettably disturbing turn as Aunt Gladys in Zach Cregger’s horror hit Weapons.
In the aforementioned make-up and hairstyling category, three of the five nominations went to genre films: Frankenstein, Sinners and not-for-the-squeamish The Ugly Stepsister.
Festival launchpads
The Cannes, Venice and Sundance film festivals again emerged as the big winners in terms of awards-season launchpads.
Cannes led the field with multiple May 2025 premieres for nominees including Sentimental Value, The Secret Agent, It Was Just An Accident, Sirat, Arco, Little Amélie Or the Character Of Rain and Kokuho.
Venice did well again too, launching Frankenstein, Bugonia, The Smashing Machine and The Voice Of Hind Rajab.
All five of the documentary features nominees world premiered at Sundance in January 2025: The Alabama Solution, Come See Me in the Good Light, The Perfect Neighbor, Mr. Nobody Against Putin and Cutting Through Rocks. So too did Train Dreams – nominated in four categories – and If I Had Legs I’d KickYou, with Rose Byrne scoring a nod for leading actress.
Among other festival launches, New York Film Festival hosted the world premiere of Marty Supreme, while Hamnet first played at Telluride and Blue Moon at the Berlinale.
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