All the unexpected twists and surprises of the 2026 Oscar nominations “Sinners” achieves a historic record number of nominations that makes Timothée Chalamet tremble

Oscar 2026 nominations, where to begin? First of all, that wrongs are done to no one, or almost. The titles competing in the Best Picture category are in fact ten. Many - too many - even if the cinematic offering is always rich and the works mentioned deserve to be there - or at least, here too, almost all of them. Sinners leads the dance with sixteen nominations, the film with the highest number of nominations in more than ninety years of Academy Awards, surpassing even internationally beloved titles such as All About Eve and La La Land.

Sinners could it really win that much?

Sinners (The Sinners) is a work about the power of music and the bloodlust of vampires, set against a historical backdrop that frames a slice of America’s past, which tells - and is told - through the voice of Black culture. All in the name of the most explosive entertainment and the most captivating mise-en-scène. A quality that was not fully recognized at the Golden Globe ceremony and that could make Sinners one of those titles that rack up many nominations only to end up empty-handed.

An empty hand that’s still quite rich, though: although the spots for Best Picture and Best Director may already have been taken by Paul Thomas Anderson with One Battle After Another, Sinners could certainly win many technical awards, in addition to Best Original Screenplay (PTA’s is not original) and, above all, Best Original Score. Let’s therefore hope that Ludwig Göransson can redeem himself on Oscar night, considering that when it came time to reward him at the Golden Globes last January 11, the ceremony saw fit to hand him the award during the commercial break. They say it was for time constraints, but on a night that lasts around three hours or more, it was simply rude. A prize we could easily see the composer holding for the second time after the statuette he received in 2019 for Black Panther, especially since his true challenger, Sirat with a score by Kangding Ray, was unfortunately not taken into consideration.

Paul Thomas Anderson has another chance to win

But let’s return to Paul Thomas Anderson. His adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland, the second work taken from the writer after the 2014 adaptation of Inherent Vice, could be the title that brings the director and screenwriter to where many believe it has taken far too long for him to arrive - namely, the Academy stage, still unconquered by the American author. Fourteen nominations in total (including the most recent ones) across director, picture, and screenplay, and PTA has never taken home a win; but with One Battle After Another (thirteen nominations), this could be the right time. It has to be the right time.

Chalamet also sets a new record

The same goes for Timothée Chalamet and his role in Marty Supreme (nine nominations): the timing is right and, even if it may seem predictable, the statuette would be the crowning achievement of the paths taken by the two films and their creators/performers. It has to go this way, and it would be fair. Narrative arcs that seem like cinema and instead unfold in real life, even if Chalamet can already boast the record of being the youngest actor to have received three nominations under the age of thirty. And then, if there were to be a plot twist, it would indeed be shocking - but it would still be perfectly in line with Hollywood and its most famous specialty: surprising.

An unexpected name for Best Picture

We said that there are many titles nominated for Best Picture. All deserved nominations but, more than the others, there is one work that makes you smile among them, hidden in plain sight as if hoping that, since there are so many (too many) films vying for the Best Picture award, no one would really notice it. It is F1 by Joseph Kosinski that inspires tenderness - rather than anger - there, placed alongside the rest of the titles. A production effort that, for the Oscar race, also translated into a promotional push by AppleTV, which ensured that F1 was always and actively present on the scene to secure a place among the big contenders.

Not a bad film, but not an Oscar film either. And not because it’s an action or entertainment movie and therefore not worthy of auteur status. We don’t have such a dogmatic or retrograde view of awards; it’s just that F1 feels rather forced in a list where it is clear it will not be seriously considered at all. Unlike, probably, its technical nominations for sound (where we’re rooting for Sirat), visual effects, and editing (here, instead, we’d like Marty Supreme), all very plausible choices for voters and awards that the film could actually take home.

The great absentees at the 2026 Oscars

There were also a few surprises among the acting nominations. No, we’re not talking about the absence of Ariana Grande with Wicked: For Good, which was entirely predictable and - no offense to the fans - hoped for. The time of Jon M. Chu’s musical is over, and it has been for a while, as demonstrated by the return to the land of Oz of the actress and her co-star Cynthia Erivo (in addition to zero nominations), who just a year ago were both nominated for the statuette and seemed headed toward a not-so-impossible win.

The real absentees are others, such as Paul Mescal in Hamnet, with the film nevertheless possibly making up for it with a Best Actress win for Jessie Buckley (unless Rose Byrne with If I Had Leg I'd Kick You gets in the way). It also already marks a record for Chloé Zhao, the second woman to be nominated twice in the Best Director category. A milestone, without a doubt, but we note that this year as well there is only one woman nominated behind the camera (and the situation is more or less similar for screenwriting), while in the previous ninety-seven years of awards history only nine women have been nominated in total, and only three of them have gone on to win (including Zhao herself for Nomadland in 2021).

The unexpected nomination of Kate Hudson

Taking Mescal’s place in the Best Supporting Actor category was Delroy Lindo, contributing to the high number of nominations for Sinners, while Kate Hudson with Song Sung Blue edged out several actresses one would have expected to see among the nominees. It’s true that she had previously been nominated at the Golden Globes in the Musical or Comedy category, but it felt more like filler. With Hudson starring in a musical biopic about a duo touring with Neil Diamond covers, the placement seemed particularly on point. At the Oscars, however, no one saw it coming, also considering the film’s disappointing box office performance and its limited critical and public impact.

For the actress, this marks her second nomination since Almost Famous, in which she played the lovable and beloved Penny Lane, and she knocked out Chase Infiniti for One Battle After Another, Jennifer Lawrence for Die My Love, and Amanda Seyfried for The Testament of Ann Lee. Their chances of winning were very slim given the frontrunners Buckley and Byrne, but one still expected to see them at least among the nominees.

Likely Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor contenders

Things could be more lively among the male actors. While Jacob Elordi won at the Critics’ Choice with his creation in Frankenstein and Stellan Skarsgård won the Golden Globe for Sentimental Value, turning the Best Supporting Actor race into a two-horse contest (with all due affection for Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro in One Battle After Another), the Best Actor category could become unpredictable.

The only certainty is Leonardo DiCaprio going home empty-handed, free to relax and spend the rest of the evening chatting about K-pop with his friend Teyana Taylor (who, on the other hand, could well win Best Supporting Actress). And if for Timothée Chalamet, whom we’ve already taken a stand on, some might think the coveted Oscar will be easy to reach, one must be wary of the love for Sinners and thus for Michael B. Jordan; of the surprise generated by a work like The Secret Agent and its star Wagner Moura; and of an Ethan Hawke who, quietly, continues to win favor for his role as lyricist Lorenz Hart in Blue Moon by Richard Linklater. The latter director and screenwriter who, despite two excellent films in 2025 (the other being Nouvelle Vague), both presented at major international festivals (Berlin and Cannes), did not receive a single nomination from the Academy.

Final thoughts

For the rest, everything falls within expectations. No Other Choice by Park Chan-wook does not appear among the five nominees for International Feature Film, the only difference compared to the six titles nominated at the 2026 Golden Globes. Amy Madigan carries the horror banner with her nomination for Weapons, though it’s unlikely she’ll take home the statuette. The Smashing Machine earns only a nomination for Best Makeup, snubbing both Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt, and raising the question of whether The Rock will head straight back to commercial cinema. And for the first time, the Best Casting category makes its debut.

The biggest disappointments are two: no mention of a debut like Sorry, Baby by Eva Victor, especially in the screenplay category and despite Julia Roberts’ endorsement on Golden Globe night; nor a nomination for Playing God, a stunning Italian animated short directed by Matteo Burani, a nine-minute stop-motion work on the drama of being human and, at the same time, of not being human enough.

One could also mention Wake Up Dead Man: Knives Out, considering that Rian Johnson had always received a nomination for Original Screenplay with the two previous titles in the trilogy. But if Netflix itself didn’t believe in it enough to mount a serious Oscar campaign and instead favored Train Dreams (four nominations), why should the Academy have done otherwise?

All that’s left now is to wait for March 16, for the ceremony hosted for the second consecutive year by Conan O’Brien. Given the premises, we might be in for some surprises. Alternatively, the frontrunners of the awards season will be crowned, and that would be just fine too. After all, as Amanda Seyfried herself said to The New Yorker, winning the Oscar isn’t what matters - the nomination is. Let’s hope she wasn’t too disappointed not to receive one this time; luckily, she has the 2021 nomination for Mank.