2026 Oscar nominations: Sinners breaks Academy Awards record with 16 nods
98th Academy Awards to take place March 15 at L.A.'s Dolby Theatre
Nominations for the 98th Academy Awards were announced Thursday morning, where Sinners made Oscars history.
Pulling in a total 16 nominations, it broke the record set by All About Eve, Titanic and La La Land. Based on its craft, Ryan Coogler's writing and direction, and Michael B. Jordan's performance, it scored nominations from directing, to acting (marking Jordan's first Oscar nomination) to best picture.
And it was a strong showing for both One Battle After Another and, perhaps surprisingly, Norwegian film Sentimental Value. The latter pulled in nine total nods, a relative rarity for a non-English language film, while it and Brazil's The Secret Agent mark the eighth straight year foreign language films are in competition for best picture. Both One Battle and Sentimental Value are also up for the Oscars' first new category in 25 years: achievement in casting.
The first nominations went to Elle Fanning (Sentimental Value), Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas (Sentimental Value), Amy Madigan (Weapons), Wunmi Mosaku (Sinners) and Teyana Taylor (One Battle After Another) for best performance by an actress in a supporting role.
The ceremony ended with the biggest award on offer: best picture. Nominated films were Bugonia, F1, Frankenstein, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value, Sinners and Train Dreams.
There were relatively few surprises in the lineup for those watching earlier awards shows, though a few did spring up. Wicked: For Good was completely shut out — after both stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo earned nominations last year — while Sinners' Delroy Lindo is up for supporting actor in place of the film's expected nominee, Miles Caton. Caton won the Critics Choice award for best young performer and is nominated at the upcoming 2026 Actor Awards.
Both Jesse Plemons (Bugonia) and Paul Mescal (Hamnet) were expected to earn best actor nods, but neither managed it. And as many of the year's blockbusters found themselves missing a slot, it was Apple's F1 that's positioned for potential gold. It racked up four nominations, including for best picture, while James Cameron's Avatar: Fire and Ash only saw two — both in technical categories.
One Battle After Another narrowly missed another Oscars' record: it pulled in four acting nominations, just one shy of the five needed to join a record that hasn't been matched since 1976's Network. Left off the list was its star Chase Infiniti — who earned Golden Globes and Critics Choice nominations — for actress in a leading role; as a bit of an upset, Kate Hudson was nominated in that category for her turn in Song Sung Blue.
Trailing not far behind the leaders were the much-discussed Hamnet and Marty Supreme, with eight and nine nods, respectively. Hamnet's Jessie Buckley is the odds-on favourite for winning best actress — an honour she's already nabbed at the Critics Choice and Golden Globes awards.
Marty Supreme's lead, Timothée Chalamet, is up for best actor, a category he won at the Globes — though he's still in a neck-and-neck race with Leonardo DiCaprio for One Battle. Last year, Chalamet was a front-runner for his turn as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, though lost to Adrien Brody for The Brutalist.
One Battle After Another's 13 nominations, the second most this year, followed a dominant run at the Golden Globes. It was the favourite coming into the awards and, along with Sinners, helped mount a stunning showing for Warner Bros.
Netflix is set to purchase the studio — though Paramount Skydance is currently engaged in a hostile takeover bid to acquire it for themselves. The eventual winner could cause a major realignment of the film industry — a reality that was made all the more apparent today, based on the studio's slate of buzzy films.
Meanwhile, Canadians stand a relatively good chance of taking home a statue; the directors of Elio and KPop Demon Hunters, Domee Shi and Maggie Kang, respectively, were nominated for best animated feature.
Given its absolutely dominant pop culture run, KPop in particular feels like a potential shoo-in — though France's Arco, also nominated in the category, has become something of a critical darling. Last year, relative unknown Flow managed to topple big budget bonanza The Wild Robot to win.
KPop Demon Hunters is also nominated for best song, off the strength of its track Golden.
Also up for awards is the stop-motion fable The Girl Who Cried Pearls by Montreal's Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski. It earned a nod for best animated short film, while Quebec-based filmmaker Alison McAlpine's Perfectly a Strangeness is up for documentary short film.
And the Canadian teams behind Frankenstein have been nominated for makeup and hairstyling, sound and production design.
The Guillermo del Toro Netflix film was also nominated for best picture.
The 98th Academy Awards are scheduled to take place March 15 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, hosted by Conan O'Brien.
Full list of nominations:
Best picture
Bugonia
F1
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
The Secret Agent
Sentimental Value
Sinners
Train Dreams
Performance by an actor in a leading role
Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme
Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another
Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon
Michael B. Jordan, Sinners
Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent
Performance by an actress in a leading role
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
Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Elle Fanning, Sentimental Value
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value
Amy Madigan, Weapons
Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners
Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another
Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Benicio del Toro, One Battle After Another
Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein
Delroy Lindo, Sinners
Sean Penn, One Battle After Another
Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value
Achievement in directing
Chloé Zhao, Hamnet
Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme
Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value
Ryan Coogler, Sinners
Animated feature film
Arco
Elio
KPop Demon Hunters
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
Zootopia 2
Adapted screenplay
Bugonia
Frankenstein
Hamnet
One Battle After Another
Train Dreams
Original screenplay
Blue Moon
It Was Just An Accident
Marty Supreme
Sentimental Value
Sinners
International feature film
The Secret Agent
It Was Just an Accident
Sentimental Value
Sirât
The Voice of Hind Rajab
Documentary feature film
The Alabama Solution
Come See Me in the Good Light
Cutting Through Rocks
Mr. Nobody Against Putin
The Perfect Neighbor
Achievement in makeup and hairstyling
Frankenstein
Kokuho
Sinners
The Smashing Machine
The Ugly Stepsister
Achievement in music: original score
Bugonia
Frankenstein
Hamnet
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Achievement in casting
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
The Secret Agent
Sinners
Achievement in costume design
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
Sinners
Achievement in music 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
Live action short film
Butcher’s Stain
A Friend of Dorothy
Jane Austen’s Period Drama
The Singers
Two People Exchanging Saliva
Animated short film
Butterfly
Forevergreen
The Girl Who Cried Pearls
Retirement Plan
The Three Sisters
Documentary short film
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
Production design
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Achievement in film editing
F1
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sentimental Value
Sinners
Achievement in sound
F1
Frankenstein
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Sirât
Achievement in visual effects
Avatar: Fire and Ash
F1
Jurassic World Rebirth
The Lost Bus
Sinners
Achievement in cinematography
Frankenstein
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Train Dreams
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from The Associated Press and The Canadian Press